The Positive Effects of Child Support on Divorced Families

Learn about the critical role child support plays in ensuring your child's well-being and financial stability, and how to navigate child support issues effectively in New Jersey.

While you don’t plan to end up divorced after you have kids, 50% of all couples in the U.S. do  split up. Co-parenting is one of the biggest challenges couples face after a divorce. Unfortunately, if you don’t seamlessly work with your ex to create a stable environment for your kids, they can suffer from stress, emotional upset, and a lack of confidence. That’s why creating a child support agreement that provides a strong foundation for your child’s life going forward is a smart way to ensure their well-being and financial stability.

8 Ways Child Support Creates a Stable Environment for Your Child

Child support isn’t just about finances—it’s also a lifeline for children and divorced parents to offer stability, access to education, healthcare, and a fair shot at a fulfilling childhood.

1. Financial stability: Child support provides a reliable source of income for the custodial parent to meet a child’s daily needs, such as food, clothing, and housing. This stability is crucial for a child’s overall well-being, as it ensures they have a safe and secure living environment.

2. Access to education: Education is essential for a child’s future success. Child support can help cover the costs of school fees, books, uniforms, and extracurricular activities, ensuring that your child has access to quality education and the opportunities it provides.

3. Healthcare coverage: Child support often includes provisions for healthcare, including medical insurance and expenses. This ensures that your child has access to necessary medical care, including check-ups, vaccinations, and treatment for illnesses or injuries.

4. Emotional well-being: Knowing that their basic needs are being met can significantly impact a child’s emotional well-being— and provide them with a sense of security and stability, which is crucial for healthy emotional development.

5. Maintaining a standard of living: Child support helps maintain the child’s standard of living after a divorce—allowing them to continue participating in activities and experiences that are important for their development and well-being.

6. Reduced stress: Financial support from child support can reduce stress on the custodial parent, which can, in turn, create a more stable and positive environment for the child. Reduced stress levels in the household can contribute to the child’s overall happiness and well-being.

7. Access to opportunities: Child support can provide the child with access to opportunities they might not otherwise have. This can include extracurricular activities, summer camps, or educational programs that can enrich their lives and help them develop new skills and interests.

8. Ensuring fairness: Child support ensures that both you and your co-parent are contributing to the financial support of your child, regardless of living arrangements. This promotes fairness and shared responsibility, which is important for your child’s sense of security and well-being.

Navigating Child Support Issues When You Live in New Jersey

Establishing an initial child support arrangement begins with understanding New Jersey’s child support guidelines. Like many other states, New Jersey uses a formulaic approach based on your income and related to support levels set by the state.  

In other words, child support obligations under the Income Shares Model, called the Child Support Guidelines in New Jersey, are calculated based on an amount that the courts determine a child would receive if the parents still lived together. The primary considerations are:

• Each parent’s income levels
• How much time each parent spends with the child (including where the child primarily lives).

The basic child support obligation gets adjusted to account for each parent’s fixed expenses based on percentages set by the state. This can include things like rent or mortgage payments and utility costs. Both controlled expenses and variable expenses are also taken into account. These expenses include things like clothing, entertainment, and other miscellaneous expenses.  

Sometimes, even after a child custody agreement is in place, your child’s other parent doesn’t pay their fair share or refuses to pay. In that case, your Smedley Law Group attorney can go to court on your behalf to get a court order. The court can also establish something called arrears—which means providing for the payment of past child support obligations that remain unpaid. This creates a legal obligation that’s enforceable even after your child has reached the age of majority of is no longer eligible for child support.

Our experienced family law attorneys are here to fight to protect your rights—and your children’s rights. If you need help modifying or enforcing an existing order, or want to make sure your child’s other parent is paying their fair share, contact us today to schedule a consultation.

Get the Right Family Law Attorney On Your Side Today for Child Support Agreement Modifications

A child support arrangement is rarely an agreement that remains set in stone. Like any other aspect of your life, the financial circumstances of both you and your child’s other parent may change over time. Your child continues to have the right to be fairly supported economically.

Our experienced family law attorneys at Smedley Law Group can help you resolve any complexities that arise in your child support arrangement. Those might include:

• Circumstances where your child’s other parent is voluntarily unemployed
• How to account for the unearned income of one or both parents
• Handling circumstances where the investment performance of one parent’s assets changes
• Considering the impact that a new child born of a second marriage can have on a parent’s financial position
• Handling cost-of-living increases.

As with any matter involving children, the best interests of your child is paramount.

To learn more about how our experienced child support lawyers can help, contact Smedley Law Group today to schedule a consultation.

Contact the Experienced Family Law Attorneys at Smedley Law Group for Guidance About Child Custody

We’ve often seen relationships between co-parents quickly become hostile. Our child custody lawyers want to help you and your co-parent reach an amicable solution that prioritizes your children’s interests. At Smedley Law Group, our child custody attorneys will advocate for you and your family every step of the way, including when your life experiences change. Call us at (856) 251-0800 or fill out our confidential contact form to schedule a consultation. We have an office conveniently located at 750 Cooper Street, Woodbury, NJ 08096.

The articles on this blog are for informative purposes only and are no substitute for legal advice or an attorney-client relationship. If you’re seeking legal advice, please contact our law firm directly.