Child support modifiable when income changes
QOur divorce agreement requires my ex to pay me alimony and child support.
Our children were then 3 and 5. Now they are 8 and 10, it costs a lot more to take care of them, and their activities cost serious money.
I asked my ex if he’d pay more child support. He said if I tried to modify the order, he’d ask to reduce the alimony.
What would you advise?
AThe Massachusetts Legislature recently passed the so-called Alimony Reform Act (ARA). Then came a decision by the Appeals Court ruling that surviving alimony agreements cannot be modified by the court or by your ex.
But child support can be modified each time there is a change in the parents’ income. Your first step is to go online to the Mass Child Support Calculator. Plug in your income, what you think your ex’s income is now and the other required information. Then click for the calculation.
That number presumes you have the children two-thirds of the time and your ex has them one-third of the time. If so, that number is presumptive. The judge is required, in a motion session without a trial, to immediately change the old child support to the new number.
But if your ex has the children about half the time, the judge can lower the presumptive order. And, if the children are with you most of the time, the presumptive number should be increased.
Of course, if you don’t know how much your ex now earns, and he won’t tell you, take that as a signal to file a complaint for divorce and a demand for his current financial statement. You can also do discovery to require him to produce his W-2 and lots of other documents.
If the two of you have a combined annual income over $250,000, and especially if your ex earns more than $250,000, the judge will typically order him to pay a higher child support or to pay for the children’s activities, summer camp, etc., or both.
So if you know how much he earns, and you’d be OK with the presumptive number, show the calculation to your ex. Then suggest he talk with his lawyer, who will explain the Massachusetts child support system. If he then agrees, have your lawyer prepare the necessary papers to file in court to get a judgment of modification that preserves the old agreement except for incorporating the new child support payment.
If your ex doesn’t agree, you need to get his attention by immediately filing a complaint for modification. But don’t expect him to be happy about it.
Of course, trying to make him happy is no longer your job, eh?