Many family courts establish a pre-set calculation for child support amounts based on each parent’s financial abilities. Whether the payor decides to fulfill their court mandated obligation is another question and there can be many reasons why these payments stop:

• If a child turns 18 years old, most likely, child support payments will legally stop unless it has been pre-negotiated for payments to continue until the child turns 21 or graduates from college.
• The payor voluntarily decides they aren’t going to pay due to a lack of visitation rights or dual custody. Often the payor feels if they can’t see their child they shouldn’t have to pay because they see their obligation as part of the parenting process. Most courts will still require payments but having visitation rights does increase the chances of having the maintenance plan fulfilled.
• If the payor is frustrated and angry with the co-parent, holding back maintenance payments can be an act of dominance and control.
• The payor is unable to pay due to a job loss, temporary disability or if they are an entrepreneur and the economy forces them to shutter their business and declare a business bankruptcy. This can lead to a financial hardship and often, the payor will ask the court for a temporary relief of payments. At times, the court will consider granting a temporary relief but that still effects the payee’s ability to support their lives and those of their children and creates a financial hardship for them.
• The payor choses not to pay regardless of the court-mandated settlement. In most cases, states will garnish the payor’s wages and the IRS will garnish their tax returns. Many states will take a fee for collections and that often leaves the payee with less than they were anticipating.

From a legal standpoint, however, courts generally view:

• Child support as the child's right, not the parent's right
• Visitation and custody as separate matters from support obligations

For organizations like NASDF that work with divorcing families, this highlights an important reality: many child support enforcement problems are not purely financial. They are often rooted in a breakdown of the parent-child relationship and unresolved emotional conflict between the parents. Addressing those underlying issues can sometimes improve compliance more effectively than enforcement alone.

Regarding a payor’s inability to pay due to a job loss, temporary disability, death or business bankruptcy, there is now an insurance policy that will cover for these unexpected circumstances called Support Insured. It’s an exclusive product that only the National Association for Single and Divorced Families members can receive but joining the association only costs $19 per month. It will continue the payment schedule for up to one-year and it automatically renews every year until the obligation contractually expires.

Finally, some states do require that life insurance be included in the divorce settlement to ensure if the payor dies, the child support and alimony payments will typically continue until the children reaches 18 years or, if they are in college, it can cover educational costs and living expenses.

The perfect combination to ensure payments continue due to life circumstances would be to include a long-term life policy with Support Insured. For more information, please visit NASDF.org and click on the Support Insured tab.

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