Child Support is More Than a Child’s Expenses
{3:48 minutes to read} While the New York Child Support Standards Act (CSSA) is not perfect, it does provide a sensible framework for addressing the indirect expenses that a parent experiences. These indirect expenses are the most difficult to calculate and the most difficult for the child support payor to understand.
“I’m willing to pay 100% of my children's expenses for clothing, activities, medical insurance and expenses — why should I have to pay child support?”
That may sound logical, but it ignores the many tangible and not-so-tangible expenses that a custodial parent incurs.
So, to address those difficult-to-quantify expenses, the CSSA uses a formula that multiplies parents’ incomes by percentages based upon the number of children.
What I understand from my upstate colleagues is that the CSSA works fairly well. But in the metropolitan New York area where the housing costs are radically different from other parts of the state, it can be challenging for someone to pay support by the CSSA and maintain a home where the children can visit comfortably. It can be equally challenging for the recipient of child support to make ends meet on support by the CSSA.
In those situations, I’ve seen couples take two approaches:
