Your child’s other parent doesn’t really receive the child support for his or her own use — it actually belongs to the child. That’s why both incomes are taken into consideration when determining the amount due to the child — because the court wants to minimize the financial impact of the divorce on the child, not the adults.
How does Florida determine child support?
While the Florida courts generally have a basic formula that they use to determine what each party has to pay there are some situations that are a little outside of the norm. This is called a support deviation.
The request for a deviation doesn’t appear in the standard form, so each situation has to be judged on its own merits or negotiated between the parties before a deviation can be used to increase the amount of support being paid
What deviations are common in support cases?
There are several basic deviations that you may often see in child support cases, because the basic formula doesn’t take these into account:
— Babsitting or daycare services including after-school care for older children
— Expenses that go beyond the norm for school supplies, books or fees, including summer programs (which are typically paid for by the parents in many school systems if they are for remedial work)
— Private lessons or special tutoring in any subject or unique skill, like dance or music
— A monthly spending allowance, if that is something that the child is already accustomed to having
— A monthly clothing allowance if that is also something the child already has
— Medical costs for a disabled child or a child with unusual health problems of the kind that can be expected to create a regular extra expense for the parent with physical custody
— Orthodonic costs, which are something that can often be an issue in modification requests when an older child suddenly needs expensive braces
— Insurance premiums, including medical, dental, and life insurance
Keep in mind that these aren’t the only deviations that the court can consider. If you’re the parent with primary physical custody and there’s an unusually heavy expense related to your child that would have to come out of your pocket alone unless it is figured into the child support and existing support isn’t enough to cover it, talk to your attorney about filing for a deviation in the formula.
Source: www.leg.state.fl.us, “The 2016 Florida Statutes Title VI Chapter 61.30,” accessed July 07, 2017
