Child Support Worksheet/Deviations. The revision stresses that even if the parties agree, a child support obligation worksheet must be filed. If the agreed upon child support deviates from the amount shown on the Worksheet, reasons for the deviation must be provided to the Court. This permits review in case of a support modification and assists in any case file review for federal review purposes.
Calculating the Parenting Time Credit when a parent spends a different number of overnights with their children. A new way was added to calculate parenting time to address a long standing problem of how parenting time should be calculated when the noncustodial parent spends different amounts of overnights with their children. The parenting time credit is calculated for each child on the parenting time credit worksheet, and then the credits are averaged together. This averaged dollar amount is used on the Child Support Obligation Worksheet.
Split Custody and child support. The Domestic Relations Committee restructured the wording of the section on Split Custody and Child Support (1) to make the section flow better, and (2) to move the language of the explanation of the section to the start of the section. It makes each step of the calculation clearer and includes a split custody example within the explanation. Clarification was added indicating two worksheets are needed for the split custody calculation in the first sentence of the paragraph.
The 6% rule is being removed from the child support guidelines. The 6% rule provides ordinary uninsured health care expenses are paid by the parent assigned to pay them, generally the noncustodial parent, of up to 6% of any child support obligation. Extraordinary medical care, above 6% of the child support obligation, are an “add-on” and have to be shown (generally by the custodial parent) to the court if the parties cannot agree to their payment. The Domestic Relations Committee believes the rule is not well understood and it makes keeping medical payment records difficult. The committee decided to do away with the 6% rule in its entirety. Health insurance premiums are already an “add-on” and covered on the Child Support Obligation Worksheet. The committee agreed parents from the beginning should share the cost of uninsured health care expenses in proportion to the parent’s incomes. They defined the uninsured health care expenses.
Copies of documentation of the health care expenses paid or incurred must be provided to the other parent in thirty (30) days of receipt was added. If not provided in thirty (30) days to the other parent, the expense may be ineligible for contribution. The committee added this requirement to prevent one parent from “ambushing” the other parent years later with an expense. The “ambushing” by one parent, which happened frequently enough to be seen as a problem by the courts or compiling a large number of medical expenses into a large bill and providing it to the other parent as a lump sum happened too often. Providing the health care expenses within thirty (30) days also provides notice to the other parent of what medical issues are occurring with the child.
The phrase, “… must be provided to the other parent within thirty (30) days of receipt or the expense may be ineligible for contribution.” The word “may” is used here to cover bills which may not be provided in thirty (30) days, e.g. a hospital bill, but which the court should have discretion to order the other parent to pay.
In addition, the guidelines now require the parent exercising parenting time should pay for routine non-prescription personal care expenses. This includes band aids, Tylenol, toothbrushes, and other items. Parents should contribute in proportion to their incomes to the costs of uninsured health care claims.
Revisions to the Weekly Support Schedules for Weekly Child Support Payments. The current Weekly Support Schedules reflecting the combined weekly obligations have remained essentially unchanged since they were adopted in 1989. They are based on the research of Thomas J. Espenshade using the Engel method of estimating parental spending on children and using household data collected in 1972 and 1973. The Domestic Relations Committee members examined estimates of spending on children employing the most recent economic data available to determine the costs of raising children while using the Rothbarth model for the allocation of household spending to determine whether changes to the schedule should be made. The revised Weekly Support Schedules reflect the more recent estimates at all income levels except the low income adjustment. In general, the adoption of these new estimates led to increases in the combined obligations of parents.
Due to the abolition of the 6% rule and the removal of non-insured health care expenses as a controlled expense, the increases in the combined obligations of parents were slightly reduced.
In 2010, a low income adjustment to the Schedule (shown by shading) was adopted, lowering the combined obligations of one parent whose earnings reflected a minimum wage employment to provide a self-support reserve. Given the rest of the Weekly Support Schedule is based upon the combined income of two parents, the Committee adopted a change to the low income adjustment to base the adjustment on two minimum wage jobs ($580) instead of the one minimum wage job ($290) in the current adjustment. The Committee also decided to reduce the rate the adjustment was phased out above $580 of combined weekly gross income to the point the schedule reflects the Rothbarth based estimates of spending on children. Both of these changes to the low income adjustment resulted in larger reductions in the combined obligations than provided by the current low income adjustment.
