What expenses are covered by monthly child support payments?

When couples in California go through a divorce everyone will need to deal with dividing their property and potentially alimony depending on the circumstances. However, couples who have minor children have additional issues that they must resolve in their divorces. These issues include child custody, visitation and child support. The first two issues deal with decision making and when each parent will have the children and child support deals with paying for the children’s financial needs.

Child support is calculated based on the parents’ respective incomes and the percentage of the total income that each parent earns. It also takes into account how much visitation time that each parent has with the children. The child support payments are monthly payments that go to the parent generally with more time with the children, however, parents may not know exactly what expenses those payments cover.

Expenses covered by child support

There are many expenses that parents pay for their children each month. Basic child support pays for food, clothing, shelter, health insurance premiums and other essentials. It can also include past support payments.

In addition to basic child support, child support orders can also include payments for child care costs, extracurricular activities such as sports, music lessons and school activities and co-pays or uninsured medical costs. Also, if parents live a significant distance from each other, it could include payments for extraordinary travel costs for transporting the children.

There are many parents that pay child support for their children. The amount they may pay each month depends on a number of factors regarding the parents’ income, the amount parents pay for health insurance, whether they require child care and the amount of time they each have with the children. Child support may seem somewhat straightforward, but there are many different factors considered when determining the amount and consulting with an experienced attorney could be beneficial.