Illinois Child Support Considers Both Parents’ Incomes

Child support is money paid from one parent to another for a child’s food, clothing and lodging. In Illinois, it can also include child care, insurance premiums and medical costs, and extracurricular activities  of the child. Child support is usually court-ordered in a divorce or parentage proceeding until the child is emancipated.

In Illinois a court will review both parents’ incomes to calculate child support. The Illinois Department of Health and Family Services  (DHF) developed tables to calculate the dollar amount each parent should contribute based on the party’s income and the number of children.  The DHS charts determine net income of a parent and calculate support. The court also will take into consideration the amount of time a parent has with a child. When a child spends 146 nights of his or her time with a parent, then adjustments will be made in the parent’s contribution to child support. Other factors also impacting the amount of child support such as each parent’s other children, if a party is paying or receiving spousal support (maintenance), and the needs of the child.

Enforcing Child Support

if an order for child support has been entered by a court but is not being paid, either a private attorney, the litigant,  or DHS enforced by the Illinois  State’s Attorney may file a petition to enforce the court order and hold the non-paying parent in contempt of court.  This can result in the non-payor being ordered to pay attorney’s fees or being sent to jail until payments are made.

Modifying Child Support

Parents who can no longer pay child support due to change in income can seek a modification of his/her child support obligation. Also parents who would like to increase in the child support received can file a motion to increase child support if a substantial change in circumstances has occurred, such as the other parent has increased  income and the child’s needs have increased.  As additional documents will be needed to present to the court, a private attorney or the State’s Attorney may be helpful in achieving this result.