What If You Can’t Pay Child Support Because of Covid-19?

There are a lot of situations that can affect your ability to pay child support in life. For example, maybe you become ill, or you’re injured in a car accident, and you can’t work or you have to put a substantial amount of income toward your medical bills. 

Right now, there’s a situation affecting the entire world and potential child support payments as well, which is covid-19. 

The covid-19 pandemic has had serious economic implications for most people. After most states started reopening businesses, some nearly immediately closed many sectors once again. The boosted unemployment benefit is coming close to ending and likely won’t be renewed, and financial hardship is something on the top of many people’s minds. 

What if you’re facing economic hardships because of coronavirus, and you’re worried you can’t pay your child support? What can you do?

Gather Documentation

Before you make any specific move, you may need to gather all of your documentation that shows how your expenses have changed through the pandemic, and also what your income looks like. 

Most courts will consider both parent’s gross income by looking at their Income and Expense Declaration, and this may include unemployment insurance benefits as part of your income. 

Earning capacity may still be considered instead of income. Earning capacity refers to a parent’s ability to work and their opportunity to work. If the court finds that you don’t have the opportunity or ability to work, earning capacity may not be considered. 

Talk to a Lawyer About a Modification

If you’re worried about your ability to pay, you should speak to a lawyer about filing for a modification. You’ll have to show that there has been a significant change in your circumstances, but the coronavirus pandemic could be one that’s fairly easy to show because it’s affecting so many people. 

If you think it would be possible, you should ask the other parent about a modification of child support and see if they agree. Then, a judge can make the new order official. 

With that being said, an official order can be challenging because a lot of courts are closed and even if they’re open, they may be slow because of a backlog of cases when they were closed. 

Your court may schedule a telephone or video hearing, but otherwise, you may have to wait for your request to be heard. 

In the meantime, make sure you can show that you’ve been looking for work during this time. 

For example, you might want to bring emails you’ve sent to potential employers, and copies of employment applications you’ve sent out. 

If your court is still operating on an emergency-only basis, it’s possible that you could get retroactive child support relief if you have a successful modification. 

Get In Touch with Your Local Child Support Agency

If you’re facing a somewhat dire situation and you really aren’t able to pay at all because of financial hardship, and you can’t get a hearing for a modification soon enough, you should think about contacting the child support agency where you live. 

You can find your agency by visiting the U.S. Office of Child Support Enforcement, which has links to offices in every state. 

The offices might still be closed, but even so, they can still take calls and you may be able to get in touch with a caseworker.

A caseworker at a local agency can help you with coming up with an agreement with your ex. 

Most of these agencies do understand the impact of coronavirus, and the need it’s created for financial help. 

The Department of Revenue has also said that noncustodial parents who are concerned about their ability to keep up with childcare payments should contact them directly to see if a solution can be reached. 

Keep in mind that while the expanded Pandemic Unemployment $600-a-week payments are coming to an end, if you do receive unemployment and you’re ordered to pay child support, it may be withheld from your payments. 

Overall the best thing you can do during covid-19 as far as child support payments go is to be proactive. Don’t just hope it will go away and recognise that nearly everyone is facing some level of financial hardship or uncertainty. Start by talking with the person you share children with about your situation and go from there. 

Since many courts are reopening, you may be able to get a modification of your order.