Indiana has statutory guidelines for establishing child support. The guidelines start with the gross income of both parents and then take into consideration other child support obligations, other prior born or subsequent children, the number of children, health insurance, and daycare expenses. Child support will continue until a child reaches age 19. However, if the child is disabled, then the non-custodial parent’s child support obligation could continue past age 19. If you have a child that is receiving Social Security Disability benefits or Social Security Insurance benefits, you should talk to your attorney about the potential impact of these benefits if support is modified. Once established, a child support obligation can be modified if it has been more than one year since the last modification and there would be a 20% change in the support amount.
Many clients often wonder how to collect their child support once the judge issues an order establishing child support. In many cases, the next step is to issue an Income Withholding Order to the non-custodial parent’s employer. The employer is then obligated to withhold the child support directly from the parent’s pay check to pay to the custodial parent. If the non-custodial parent changes employers, there may be a lapse in child support payments as a new Income Withholding Order must be issued to the new employer.
Enforcement issues are more difficult if the non-custodial parent is self-employed or regularly unemployed. Even an unemployed, non-custodial parent has an obligation to pay his child support. If the non-payment of child support has gone on for several weeks, you may need to seek court intervention to assist with the collections. As the support recipient, you can file a motion with the Court to hold the non-paying parent in contempt due to the non-payment of child support. Contempt simply means that one party is not doing what the court ordered him to do. The court will then hold a hearing to address the non-compliance with the child support order. If the non-paying parent is unemployed, the court will want to know what he is doing to seek employment. Your attorney can assist you with filing this motion with the court.
One other option is to enroll in the IV-D program with your local prosecutor’s office by completing an application and paying a small application fee. The prosecutor’s office will then obtain information about the non-custodial parent’s employer and income. The prosecutor’s office also has the ability to suspend driver’s licenses or professional licenses, conduct tax refund intercepts, place liens on vehicles, etc. to obtain compliance with the court order on child support. This option is often less expensive than paying your attorney to do the same things.
