You may have breathed a sigh of relief on the day that the judge issued the child support order in your divorce case. Perhaps your former spouse had not been contributing much to the financial support of the children during the divorce process. Or, maybe their contributions had been irregular, and you could not depend on them. Whatever the problem was, a court order had now created a legal obligation for your former spouse to make regular child support payments of a specific amount. You probably thought that surely, now, the payments would be made on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, the issuance of a child support order does not always compel the party who is required to pay support to actually make their payments. This can make for a very stressful situation in which you are constantly scrambling to make ends meet, and perhaps even having to make difficult financial choices and sacrifices.
If you are in a situation where your former spouse is not making their child support payments, you may be tempted to prohibit them from talking to or seeing the children. Don’t do it. Custody and visitation are subject to a separate court order, which you do not want to violate. More importantly, interfering with contact could be detrimental to your children, who want and need to have relationships with both of you. Also, parents who are involved in the lives of their children are more likely to support them financially than parents whose relationships with their children have become strained or distant.
There are a few things that you can do if you are not receiving your child support payments. Some parents find it easier to base their monthly budget only upon income that they know that they will receive. In other words, they do not include their child support payment in their monthly budget. This is not easy to do, and it will most likely require some sacrifices, but they may be worth the reduction in stress that comes with knowing that you will be able to cover your expenses each month whether or not your ex pays the child support payment. You can also obtain legal assistance in collecting child support, by contacting an attorney or the Office of Child Support Enforcement.[clear-line]
If you would like to speak with a knowledgeable New Jersey divorce attorney regarding your child support case, please call Girolaw today at (201) 690-1642 to arrange a free consultation.
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