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How does CS work if DH retires?

Flying.Purple.Step.Monster's picture

I know it depends on the area... I'm in MO.

So CS just looks at her income and his income. What if he was to retire? What does that do to child support? He doesn't retire until after they are off CS but I was just curious. What if we decided that he would be a stay at home dad for our BS?

Comments

Mercury's picture

In my state they would look at what he could be making if he were still working. It's called willful unemployment/underemployment here. It sucks. Nobody would try to force a man in an intact family to work until they are dead to support a lazy woman but it's ok to force a divorced guy to do it.

kathc's picture

If he makes less money than she does it might make sense for him to be home caring for their child while she works and they won't have to spend tens of thousands a year on child care. I have a friend whose husband stays home because her salary was almost double his. With him working it would have covered daycare and not much else. They're much happier now. Divorced dads don't get that option because they're forever expected to think only of their "first family"

twoviewpoints's picture

If your DH decided to just be a stay at home father, CS would still be calculated at what he could be making (I suppose if he had full residential custody, he might receive CS from the BM. But if she has a low income, he'd only be cutting off his nose to spite his face).

If he were retiring, CS doesn't go away. He would still have an income. If he's of social security retire age, he'd have that. If he's not of SS age but is n early age retiree from say the military or police force, there's a pension and he's still young enough to obtain employment. There might however be something like a reduction in CS...but nope, anyone with minor children are still responsible for supporting their children.

twoviewpoints's picture

My SGS gets part of his BM's disability as CS. My SS paid CS to BM for years, but when SGS was given by court to SS the part of disability payments BM received extra for having a minor child, went to SS for SGS.

BM use to work (when she took her meds and didn't drink and was stable) but then went off on federal disability and lost custody of SGS due to mentally not being able to care for him.

Sports Fan's picture

We were toldby our lawyer that unless there are special circumstances, I.e. health reasons, most courts consider retirements as voluntary and don't reduce child support. We asked because DH is retiring from the Navy in 6 months. We were told that it was highly unlikely that we could get a reduction since DH was retiring after 20 years by his own choice. The Navy wasn't kicking him out.