What Child Support Covers and What it Does NOT in the State of Utah

 

In the state of Utah, when a married couple with children decides to divorce, if the children are under the age of 18, a judge will set up a child support schedule. For parents who can decide on a child support arrangement themselves, then a judge will not interfere.

The Utah Child Support guidelines are always used to determine how much child support the children will receive, except in cases where parents have already made arrangements, or in cases where the guidelines don’t particularly apply.

It’s important to note that both parents can be ordered to pay child support. The primary expenses used to calculate child support are those related to:

• Medical
• Dental
• Health insurance

In some cases, parents are ordered to share childcare expenses. Additionally,
‘extraordinary medical expenses’ must also be shared or paid by the parents; however, these expenses must be stated in the divorce agreement. Having an attorney on your side can ensure all of your bases are covered.

A Child Support Worksheet is used to calculate how much each parent will have to pay, and you can view that here. In many cases, the non-custodial parent is the only one ordered to pay child support, with the exact amount being determined according to both parents’ income as well as any retirement contributions.

Children With Disabilities

For children who have disabilities which hinder them from working or being able to take care of themselves, child support may be required even after the child turns 18. This doesn’t apply if the child chooses to get married. In fact, any child that chooses to get married either before or after the age of 18 will disqualify him or herself from receiving child support.

What Can Child Support be Used For?

It’s imperative to understand what child support is to be used for. As stated before, in the state of Utah, any support that is supposed to be applied toward cover medical, health insurance and dental expenses will be outlined in a child support agreement. Any funds left over can then be applied as the custodial parent chooses, such as paying for the children’s clothes, gas expenses to get them back and forth to school and so on.

It is important to note that parents share the cost of taking care of the children. For example, if Dad gets the children on the weekends, his support that he pays goes toward paying for a portion of the food that the kids eat while they are with their mom during the week, but on the weekends, Dad still has to cover the full cost of food. The same applies to Mom. Parents must pool their money together according to the Income Shares Model, and then child support is fairly determined.

What Child Support Does Not Cover

Some parents who pay child support get very confused as to what the funds do and do not cover. To put it simply, the parent receiving the support can spend the funds in any way that he or she sees fit. As long as the funds are being applied toward some type of living expense -school photos, transportation, academic tutoring- then a judge will have no problem with the money being spent on those things.

Parents paying child support sometimes get angry because they see that even though all of their children’s needs are getting met, the leftover child support is being spent by the recipient parent on a new car, clothes for him or herself, etc. Unfortunately, the leftover funds can be spent however the parent chooses as long as the child’s needs are met, including medical, health and dental care expenses.

The only way that a parent paying child support could receive sympathy from a judge and possibly have a court-ordered child support agreement changed is by proving that the parent receiving the support is not taking care of the child. For example, if the child doesn’t have decent clothes to wear back and forth to school but the parent receiving the support manages to supply a drug habit, then this would definitely be a reason to take the child support and custody case back in front of a judge.

Other than that, there is nothing that child support does not cover.

Is There a Way to Get Certain Expenses Included in Child Support?

Yes, there is. If your child has certain activities that he or she regularly takes part in and has for an extended period of time -summer camp for the past 10 years- then you may be able to add provision into your divorce agreement, which would require for these expenses to be split by both parties. Other things that you can add in provisionally include elective medical procedures, such as braces, and certain types of extra-curricular expenses.

If you would like more information about child support in Utah, please feel free to contact Jennings and Medura, LLC today. We’re always available to help you with any of your divorce and child support needs.