Mommy, why U hav all dis money and I have no clothes?
If I had the ability to propose child support legislation This is what I would suggest:
I would make child support into a reinbusrment program. Often men complain that mothers, who are most often the custodial parent, do not have to prove the money is spent on the child.
My suggestion would change that. I would have the mother turn in reciepts to child support enforcement and the non-custodial parent would recieve copies and be billed for 50 percent of it. This would not include cost for gifts, trips to Disneyland, birthday parties or things like that. The custodial parent would have a 3 month time frame in which to turn in reciepts.
Under child support as it is now, the custodial parent ends up spending more than the non-custodial parent.This would even it out, also it would end extreme cases where the non-custodial parent is quite wealthy and pays really high child support that the custodial parent can basically live off of to the extent that they are not spending on their child basically.
I don’t think that’s right either. I would include an amount for housing expenses however. That would not be 50% of actual housing expenses. Let me explain. Let’s say a mother has 1 child. A single person could confortably live in a studio or 1 bedroom. NOt so much with 2 people. So for housing, as far as child support is concerned, I would have the father pay 50% of the difference between the cost of a 1 bedroom and a 2.
Where I live that would amount to no more than $100, depending on the neighborhood. For utilities I would bill the non-custodial parent for 10%. The question would realisticly rise of, what if the non-custodial parent can’t pay? If the father guineully cannot pay, he would need to speak with child support enforcent and a payment plan would be made.
Some states charge interest on unpaid child support. That would be not be a part of my plan. By the way, non-custodial parents that cannot pay their child support can go to child support enforcement and have the amount of their payment changed today. I know several fathers that have done this.
I would give the non-custodial parent a three month time frame to either pay or show they cannot before summoning them to court for non-payment. If at that time they do not start making payments and they are shown to have the ability to they should spend time in county lock up according to what the judge deems correct.
I wonder why non of our congressmen have a more balanced approch to child support.
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