If you have been struggling to get your child’s other parent to contribute financially to the care of the child you share, or if you simply want to ensure that your child’s other parent is legally obligated to financially support their child, applying for child support may be in you and your child’s best interests.
We go into greater detail below about how you can apply for child support and how your child support payment will be calculated.
In most cases, if you are the custodial parent of a child, you can seek child support from the noncustodial parent, as you are the parent providing for the child’s care the majority of the time.
Child support cases can become more complicated if parents share custody of their children but one parent earns more than the other. Once you have determined that you are ready to file for child support, there are a couple of different ways you can do so.
To start, you could head down to your county’s Domestic Relations Section (DRS). Here, you will be able to fill out and submit a paper application. There are a couple of other forms you will also need to submit with your paper application, including a complaint for support and an intake questionnaire.
Another way you can apply for child support in PA is to do so online. You can visit the Pennsylvania Child Support Program’s e-services site to apply for child support immediately and from the convenience of your home. When applying for child support online, you should have your child’s social security number, your custody order, any order of protection that might have been granted, and other relevant documentation ready.
The PA Child Support Guidelines are a great way to obtain a better idea of what your child support payments could be. This is essentially a table that relates the paying parent’s income, the number of children who will be covered under the order, and how much the paying parent would pay.
However, the guidelines do not provide payment amounts for high-net worth families or parents who earn less than $1,000 per month combined.
What’s more, there are other factors that could influence the child support payment order, including how many children the noncustodial parent is obligated to, health and daycare costs, the income of additional spouses (if either parent has since become married), and more.
If you have additional questions about how to go about obtaining a child support order, meet with an experienced Pittsburgh divorce lawyer at Lisa Marie Vari & Associates, P.C. To schedule your initial consultation at our office, simply call our firm at 1-844-VARI-LAW (827-4529) or find us online
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