Child support reduction during summer visitation???

[ldomustang17]

All,

I have the kids every summer for a month, sometimes two yet I am still required by the agreement to pay my ex child support and daycare costs even though she doesn't have the kids.  Is this standard practice?  Has someone out there challenged this to get a reduction during the months non-custodial has the kids?  Would love to hear from you all before summer visits start...

Brian

[hadenough40]

Yes, we went through this in the state of NJ.  When the ex originally asked my husband to take the kids for the entire summer he agreed, but only if she signed an affidavit stating that CS would be abated for those 10 weeks.

After 2 years of this happening, the CP found a new love interest and moved in with him.  Not only did she decide that my husband wasn't going to thave the kids for the summer anymore, she also tried to reduce his parenting time.  I guess she figured that because she was restructing the parenting plan, that it would be set in stone.  Therefore she told my husband that because of the changes she was making his CS would increase also.

The changes as she mentioned never happened however CS was re-worked.  The actual ANNUAL amount of CS did not increase, but it is now paid 52 weeks a year, even though the CP doesn't have the kids for 10 of those weeks.  Basically the amount of CS that my husband paid for 42 weeks was stretched out for 52 weeks.  Based on how stupid the CS agencies are, keeping the payments continuously flowing leaves less room for error.  It's brutal financially in the summer and no matter how much we budget for it, it's a struggle.

But, when calculating CS, the amount of time you spend with your kids and expenses that YOU incurr during that time should be factored in.  So you may be paying all year long, but your expenses have been taken into consideration.

This is just telling you what generally happens.  I still don't like it...in our case we're  not talking about a couple weeks of visitation...we're talking about 10 solid weeks in a row.  The CP is not buying as much food during those weeks, her utilities are probably lower.  So, the kids are NOT there for a long enough period of time to LOWER HER expenses but she still gets paid.  That's why the kids go to disney world every year with HER.  She gets over $2,000.00 each summer with no expenses to apply it to.