Guide to Child Maintenance

What is Child Maintenance?

Child maintenance or better known as child support is regular, reliable financial support that aims to help satisfy a child’s everyday living costs. Those parents who do not hold custody, meaning those parents who are not responsible for day-to-day care of the child will pay child maintenance to the other parent.

Child maintenance cases, their amounts and the determination of who is the obligor (parent who pays the other parent) and the oblige (parent who receives child maintenance) are handled by a local court system’s family law department. Each child maintenance case is different and will necessitate some form of legal guidance; all child maintenance cases and their intricate regulations will differentiate based on locality.

Child Maintenance is instituted and maintained to provide financial support for both the child and oblige; child maintenance is issued to a single parent after a relationship has been terminated in some fashion. Child maintenance is issued by a family court of law to the parent or caretaker of the child to satisfy rearing expenses, such as food, clothing, health care, education, diapers, toys, etc. In essence, the purpose of a child maintenance program is to establish a sense and state of being, that would be similar, in terms of financially, had the parents remained together.

As stated before, all child maintenance cases are administered and ruled-on by a family law division in a particular jurisdiction. In addition to the ruling, the presiding legal authority will determine the rate of payment for the parties involved. Each court system will utilize specific variables to determine the rate of payment; however, in general, there are universal factors which greatly influence the rate of pay for the parties involved.



Determining Child Maintenance Payments:


Although child support laws are different between each state, in general, there are three primary criteria in determining a child support payment rate. The first, and arguably most influential factor, is income; the amount of income earned by both parents, will be factored into the determination of child support.


The second factor is custodial responsibility; child support will be offered to the parent who most adequately maintains their role as a responsible caretaker. And lastly, the number of children will be evaluated when determining the rate of a child support payment; the higher the number of children involved in a child support settlement, the higher the prospective child support payments will be. This relationship exists, because more children is proportional to more responsibility, including both parental and financial.


Child Maintenance Laws:

In the United States, all state governments maintain unique child support laws. For instance, child maintenance support laws of California will differentiate from New York Child maintenance laws. Understanding your state’s applicable child maintenance laws will expedite your filing and organize your particular case. According to all state’s child maintenance laws, every child needs financial and emotional support from both parents; the average child support program benefits all children by enforcing parental responsibility for their support.