Living with Someone Other than Your Spouse Could Affect Child Support

If you live with someone that is not the parent of your child, that person does not have any legal obligation to support your children. Typically, the amount of child support your ex-spouse pays to you should not be affected by you living with another person.

However, if your partner provides shelter, clothing, food or any other items for you, your ex-spouse may ask the court to reduce his or her child support obligation. Their argument would be that because your new partner pays many expenses for the children, you have more available income, which lessens the need for them to continue to pay the same amount of money. Occasionally, parents that move in with a new partner can benefit from signing an agreement to keep all property and earnings separate so as not to lose support payments.

Regardless of the arrangement, your ex-spouse is still required to make support payments, whether or not they are lowered. It isn’t particularly uncommon for an ex to be angry about the new living arrangements of his or her former spouse, and attempt to get out of payments by quitting their job or refusing to get work. Courts are wise to these types of strategies, though, and will still hold parents responsible for their support duties. It is a crime in all states to not follow through with child support payments.

Also, parents cannot take it upon themselves to change the terms of your child support agreement. Even if you are living with a new partner and do actually have an improved standard of living, there must be a formal request to modify the child support arrangement in court before any change in payment amounts can be considered legal.

If you have further questions on how your living arrangement could impact child support, work with the Long Island family law attorneys at Bryan L. Salamone & Associates today.