What are the child support guidelines?
A. The Child Support Guidelines are guidelines passed by the Ohio legislature which calculate child support orders based upon the financial circumstances of both parents. Use of these guidelines is required for the establishment or modification of all child support orders in Ohio. The amount of child support which is calculated using the worksheets and schedules contained in these guidelines is presumed under the law to be the correct amount of child support in each case.
A child support award allows the custodial parent to provide the child with all of the essentials, such as food, clothing, and shelter. In order to ensure that the courts issue consistent chid support awards, the State has enacted the Child Support guidelines. These guidelines are a formula which guides the person with factors to consider in reaching a child support award. The guidelines are derived from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. The guidelines take income info from both parties, and this info is applied to a formula to calculate a child support award. The current guidelines also provide for a self-support reserve for the payor parent. Basically, this means that if a person is too poor, and they can’t even survive, then they don’t have to pay child support. As of February 7, 2003, the self-support reserve was $181, or 105% of the poverty guideline for one person.
A. The court has adopted guidelines, which are intended to provide guidance about what it actually costs to raise children. The Guidelines fix a range of support that should be paid by both parents, proportionate to their available incomes. There is a rebuttable presumption that the Guidelines are correct, providing, for example, that the children have not reached 18, are not away at college, and provided further that the combined net weekly income of the parents does not exceed $2,900; $150,800 combined net annual available income per year (after subtracting out tax, social security, and other allowable deductions from gross income). However, child support amounts may be negotiated above or even below those in the Guidelines amounts – provided just cause can be shown for going below them. The judge may modify the levels in the Guidelines if a finding can be made that – due to the circumstances of a particular family, the Guidelines amount would be unjust or otherwise inappropriate. As
The court has adopted guidelines, which are intended to provide guidance about what it actually costs to raise children. The Guidelines fix a range of support that should be paid by both parents, proportionate to their available incomes. There is a rebuttable presumption that the Guidelines are correct, providing, for example, that the children have not reached 18, are not away at college, and provided further that the combined net weekly income of the parents does not exceed $2,900; $150,800 combined net annual available income per year (after subtracting out tax, social security, and other allowable deductions from gross income). However, child support amounts may be negotiated above or even below those in the Guidelines amounts – provided just cause can be shown for going below them. The judge may modify the levels in the Guidelines if a finding can be made that – due to the circumstances of a particular family, the Guidelines amount would be unjust or otherwise inappropriate. As al
