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Will Child Support Change
During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

COVID 19 has become a pandemic immediately after the spread of the virus. All educational institutions were closed, concerts and events canceled, and many businesses centers closed or allowed to work online. This was done to stop the spread of the virus. As a result of the Pandemic, many people lost their jobs or their earnings are considerably reduced. This pandemic has affected the economy of every country including the United States of America and things have changed dramatically. Nobody knows how long this pandemic will continue, that is why everyone is trying to adapt himself to the changed scenario.

Effects of COVID 19 on family laws

The court decides about support payments according to your income and property/assets you were having at the time of agreement. The terms are difficult to modify unless there are strong proofs of material changes in your ability to fulfill the terms.

The effects of COVID 19 also spread to family laws including matters regarding child support,Child custody, and visitation. We all have seen at the beginning of the pandemic that courts were closed and jury duty stopped and petitions were being filed by mail. As the courts are closed, it is not possible to neither establish a new support obligation nor modification on the existing one. That is why it is expected new scheduled matter may get delayed. At the same time, initiations of enforcement proceedings by the Domestic Relation section can also be delayed due to COVID 19 pandemic.

Effects of COVID 19 on Non-custodial parents

Things are not easy for non-custodial parents especially when they have lost job or their income is reduced considerably. Due to these consequences of COVID 19, people are not able to fully pay child support after the divorce.On the other hand, your spouse expects on-time full payment regarding child support regardless of your economic condition. Due to this partial payment or completely non-payment for child support, you can face negative repercussions like suspension of your licenses, bank account seizures, and problems in a tax refund, etc. If you are one of the non-custodial parents and unable to pay them on time full amount for child support then you have to prepare yourself to get protection or relaxation from the court.

Despite the financial challenges due to COVID 19 Pandemic, child support payments are not reduced or paused. This is because the needs of your child are not changed due to pandemic rather there are the same needs regarding food, medical, shelter, clothing, etc. Here is a guide for people having trouble paying child support: Are You Having Difficulty Paying Child Support?

How will child support change during COVID 19 pandemic

It is a fact that the income of many people is lost or reduced during the COVID 19 pandemic. It is time to think about how to save money for yourself and pay for child support until a consistent income starts. Economic conditions of countries and people telling that child support will become a challenge and more than a struggle until the end of the pandemic.

It is the right time to prepare yourself to face the pandemic challenges by attempting to modify the terms of the court order in both formal and informal ways during this pandemic. One of the informal ways of modifying the responsibilities of your child support is to have a meeting with another parent of your child and inform him/her about your problems regarding income. You can also make the commitment of partial payments during the pandemic and the rest of the payment when consistent income starts. You can also request him/her to overlook missed payment and not to go in court for being less amount paid until your economical crisis is over either by getting a new job or start of consistent income. In this way, you can avoid the enforcement case if the other parent of your child agrees with you. If he/she files a petition for an enforcement case that means the start of the hearing procedure where both spouses will give strong evidence and then the judge will decide about the violation of court order has occurred or not.

How child support is secured?

The answer is through the establishment of a support order that can be obtained by filing a complaint through the home Domestic relation section. This support can be modified by filing a petition for modification. This modification can increase, decrease, or terminate the child support orders but it depends upon showing appropriate circumstances. Non-custodial parents have genuine reasons behind failure to pay but the support order will continue to charge the full amount until the court modifies the order.

If you are a non-custodial parent and responsible to pay for child support but unable to fulfill the court orders then you can hire a family law attorney who can help you in filing a petition for modification of the support order. But you have to provide proof of your reduced or complete loss of income during the COVID 19 pandemic. Usually, bank statements are excellent tools because salary usually comes into your account through online transactions.

On the other hand, if you are the custodial parent and not receiving child support payments from another parent of your child then hire a family law attorney who is an expert of child support cases.

CONCLUSION

There is some hard fact after the COVID 19 pandemic. These are summarized in the below lines.

The economy of the countries and people is badly affected by COVID 19 Pandemic
People lost jobs, the business closed, opened with restrictions, and then closed again
Income of the people is either reduced or lost completely
More problems for the non-custodial parent especially when the job is lost or income is reduced
Courts are either closed for a public hearing or opened for a limited time
Hearing of petition and enforcement of support orders are also delayed
There is no change in the needs of the children regarding medical, food, shelter, clothing, etc.
How long this pandemic will last? No one knows

So, it is time to get advice from the family law attorney for relaxation in payment support.