After the establishment of your child support order, you and your ex-spouse must follow the legal terms of your document and, in most cases, provide your kids with financial stability until they turn 19 or finish high school.
However, just like most changes in life, your child support costs are not permanent and may be modified by the courts in certain situations. To help provide a clearer perspective on this topic, here are answers to three frequently asked questions about child support in Indiana.
What will happen if I get behind on my support payments?
Since child support is a court order, you must honor your financial obligations for your child and send the payments as scheduled. When you stop sending payments, the court’s standard response is to enter an income withholding order, in which it orders your employer to take a portion of your salary to pay your due child support amount. You may also lose your driver’s license, be reported to a credit bureau and/or have your tax refunds taken.
My son decided he wanted to live with me. Can I stop paying for child support?
If your son changed his primary residential parent without following the proper legal procedure, you need to notify the court as early as possible and request a modification of your custody and child support orders.
You will need to submit the required forms and go through the standard legal proceedings to become the custodial parent so that your ex-spouse will be the one responsible for paying child support. However, there is no guarantee that you will be approved as the custodial parent; the court has the discretion to grant or deny this request.
My ex-spouse got a promotion. Can I request an increase in our child support costs?
Yes, if your ex-spouse’s income has increased, you may seek the court’s help in this matter. Support can be modified if it has been at least a year since the last modification and if the amount of support recommended would differ from the current amount by at least 20%. Other changes, such as an increase or decrease in your own income or child care costs, can affect this number. To begin the process, you need to file a petition for modification with the court that made your original child support order.
Alternatively, if your ex-spouse amicably agrees to change your existing support amount, you may file a written agreement for the modification in court, accompanied by a child support obligation worksheet showing how the new child support amount was calculated.
Protecting what matters most
By proactively reading valuable resources online and seeking the guidance of legal counsel, you can gain better familiarity with Indiana’s child support processes and successfully seek the change that you are trying to pursue.
