child support

In most cases, unless child support has been ordered by the family law court system, you cannot get child support all the way back to your child’s birth. To obtain a child support order that will require your child’s other biological parent to pay child support, you must go through the family court system and obtain a child support order.

You can file a Petition for Support through the Domestic Relations Section office in your local court jurisdiction.

However, if you and your child’s other biological parent have separated but your divorce case has not made it through the family law court system, the child support could be ordered retroactive from the time of your separation. Similarly, if you and your child’s other parent never lived together, your child’s other parent could be ordered to pay retroactive child support from the time of your child’s birth. In some cases, it is possible for the court to require the other parent to help pay for expenses not covered by insurance incurred during the pregnancy, the birth, and just after the birth, relating to the baby.

Child support that is unpaid but has been ordered is one of this nation’s largest debts. It is estimated that 30 million U.S. children are owed more than $40 billion in child support, according to the Association for the Enforcement of Child Support.

When The Paying Parent Falls Behind in Child Support

If the non-custodial parent has fallen behind in payments, you must wait 30 days before you can take enforcement action in Pennsylvania. Ultimately, if the parent who is in child support arrears fails to respond to enforcement compliance, their wages could be withheld. If, however, all options so far have not resulted in the parent who owes support being in compliance, that person could potentially be found in contempt of a court order and jailed.

Questions about Child Support and Enforcement? Skilled Jenkintown Child Support and Divorce Attorney

To find out more about your rights regarding child support, custody, paternity, divorce, or any other family law matter, please schedule a confidential consultation with family law attorney Joanne Kleiner, in Jenkintown, PA. Reach us at 215-886-1266 or you can fill out our intake form and we will contact you.

Keeping you focused on the big picture and the issues that matter most…Joanne E. Kleiner & Associates. We serve clients throughout Montgomery, Bucks, Philadelphia counties, and the surrounding areas.

The issue of who pays for college becomes all the more important in light of the staggering student loan debt and increasingly high cost of a college education.

Is it possible to get child support to cover college education in Pennsylvania? In some states, yes indeed, child support obligations can be extended through the age of 22 to include the cost of a college education. Sadly, in Pennsylvania, there is no statute that mandates college child support.

In Pennsylvania, the law mandates that any child support a parent receives for the child in question ends when the minor turns 18 years of age or is otherwise emancipated from his or her custodial parent.

That said, at the time of a divorce, parents might negotiate an agreement relating to sharing costs of the child’s college experience and other related expenses. The agreement then becomes part of the divorce agreement. In cases such as these, the written agreement would be enforceable.

This means that the parent paying child support would have to honor his or her agreement to pay support related to the “college tuition” agreement in the divorce settlement.

What If We Agreed Verbally to Share College Costs But I Have No Written Agreement?

Interestingly, in a recent case a mom tried to hold her ex-husband accountable for an oral agreement they made during the marriage about sharing their children’s college expenses. However, in this case, the court did not extend enforcement of agreements to oral agreements made during the marriage.

This means that even though the couple when they were married had spoken extensively about sharing college tuition costs for their children when the time came, that didn’t count. The court held that the couple made these agreements while they were married and assumed that they would be living together sharing expenses during the time of their children’s college educations, but this did not happen, so they should not be held accountable to the agreement as the circumstances surrounding the oral agreements had drastically changed.

If you are divorcing and want to protect your child’s potential to receive support for his or her college education, the time to do it is during the divorce. Issues to work out include:

• College location
• Anticipation of college costs in the future when your child attends
• Potential colleges
• Kinds of expenses that would be share, such as tuition, room, board, activities, travel, spending money, car expenses

Just writing in a divorce agreement that you and the other parent will share college expenses isn’t enough. Agreements such as these should also take into account issues like if there will be an academic standard that the child will be held to, release from the contract in the case of a disability of significant loss of income, and the like.

Seeking to Negotiate a College Tuition Payment Agreement in Your Divorce Settlement? Skilled Jenkintown Child Support and Family Law Attorney

If you are considering divorce or going through a divorce and concerned about how to pay for your children’s college education, discuss your potential options with an experienced divorce and child support attorney. Find out more about how to maximize potential for support for college expenses for your child when the time comes. To schedule a completely confidential consultation with a knowledgeable and caring family law attorney at Joanne E. Kleiner & Associates, in Jenkintown, PA, please call 215-886-1266 or you can fill out our intake form and we will contact you.

Keeping you focused on the big picture and the issues that matter most…
Joanne E. Kleiner & Associates. We serve clients throughout Montgomery, Bucks, Philadelphia counties, and the surrounding areas in matters involving Social Services, Child Protection, child custody, support, divorce, and other family law matters.