This article is a part of our Family Law 101 series.

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What is Child Support?

In Virginia, child support during separation and after divorce means one parent paying at least part of the expenses of providing children with food, shelter, clothing, medical services, dental work, and mental health help. Generally the noncustodial parent pays child support to the custodial parent on the assumption that the custodial parent (the one with whom the children live most of the time) is already paying most of the costs.

What are the Child Support Laws in Virginia?

Child support basics are enforced through more than 200 sections of the Code of Virginia, but the most important laws are:

  • 16.1-278.16. Failure to comply with support obligation; payroll deduction; commitment
  • 20-60.3. Contents of support orders
  • 20-60.5. Support payment provisions; how paid
  • 20-61. Desertion or nonsupport of wife, husband or children in necessitous circumstances
  • 20-79. Effect of divorce proceedings
  • 20-79.1. Enforcement of support orders; income deduction; penalty for wrongful discharge
  • 20-107.2. Court may decree as to custody and support of children
  • 20-108.1. Determination of child or spousal support
  • 20-108.2. Guideline for determination of child support; quadrennial review by Child Support Guidelines Review Panel; executive summary
  • 20-113. Procedure when respondent fails to perform order for support and maintenance of child or spouse or owes support and maintenance or additional support and maintenance
  • 20-124.2. Court-ordered custody and visitation arrangements

Your family law attorney is familiar with the applicable laws, including complex issues like child support orders from outside Virginia (including orders decreed in foreign countries). You need to go well beyond the basics to protect yourself, safeguard your finances, and provide the appropriate help to your child.

What Is Child Support Used For?

During your marriage, the children you and your spouse produced required gargantuan amounts of care, attention, and money. In divorce, the children still need assistance to live. Child support is that assistance and it comes from both parents, though the payments generally transfer from the noncustodial to custodial parent. The custodial parent’s contributions for child support are calculated but not apparent.

Consider the expenses a typical minor child incurs each month, with no possible means of generating income to cover those expenses:

  • Food and beverages
  • Snacks
  • Shelter
  • Clothing and shoes
  • Toys and tools
  • School supplies
  • Entertainment
  • Extracurricular activities
  • Gifts
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Doctor visits
  • Dentist visits
  • Mental health visits (psychologists, counselors, or psychiatrists)

The money needed for all those necessities of living, and more, comes from both parents’ incomes. A lawyer specializing in family law can explain even greater detail about child support.

Who Does Child Support Go To?

Child support is paid directly to the custodial parent for the benefit of the child or children of the marriage. The payment does not go to the minor child. The custodial parent can spend the child support payment in any way desired, with the courts assuming the money will be spent in support of the child’s best interests.

That means the parent paying child support cannot second-guess the way the money is spent by the custodial parent, nor can the payor question if the custodial parent is spending any income on the child.

Who Pays Child Support?

Either parent can be ordered to pay child support by the Virginia Circuit Court or, later, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. The law is gender neutral and looks only to the parent shouldering the larger share of parenting, ordering the other parent to make child support payments.

Technically and legally, both parents pay child support. The custodial parent is presumed by the court to be paying a percentage of monthly gross income to feed and house the child. That financial support is not apparent in the same way as direct payments from the noncustodial parent to custodial parent are. Custodial parents do not have to demonstrate that they do, in fact, spend a certain amount on the care and feeding of children in their custody.

Interestingly, each parent’s income is a secondary factor in calculating child support, after custody:

  • Suppose the higher-earning parent is also the custodial parent; the lesser-earning parent will still be required to pay based on that parent’s gross income, according to the guidelines found in Virginia Code § 20-108.2
  • This amount may be considerably smaller than the same calculation applied to the higher-earning parent, but the court assumes the higher-earning parent is already paying a major portion of that income for care and upkeep of the kids
  • If the lower-earning parent has custody, the higher-earning parent’s gross income yields a greater amount of monthly child support paid to the lower-earning parent
  • The assumption is that, in either circumstance, roughly the same amount of income will be spent by both parents for child support

How Much is Child Support?

Different payment arrangements are made for the different types of custody:

  1. Sole custody — One parent has the children all the time, with the noncustodial parent visiting the kids regularly and making significant child support payments
  2. Shared custody — Each parent, as nearly as practicable, enjoys the children 50 percent of the time
  3. Joint custody — The division of responsibility between the parents may be unequal, with the child living with one parent a majority of the time but not all the time

Calculations are made using Virginia Code § 20-108.2, which has combined income guidelines for every level of monthly gross income from $0 up to $35,000.

Fortunately, the Commonwealth provides worksheets — and many internet resources provide online calculators — for computing child support payments.

Generally, both parents’ incomes are combined, adjustments are made for support for other children, receiving public assistance and spousal support, and other modifications, and then a number is generated. This will be the amount the noncustodial parent must pay the other parent on a schedule determined by the court or through a property settlement agreement.

When Child Support Is Due

Because Virginia’s workers operate under many different pay cycles, child support can be tailored to suit:

  • Monthly payments
  • Biweekly payments
  • Weekly payments

A judge, or the contents of the property settlement agreement, will determine the frequency of child support payments based on the current employment and pay cycle of both parents.

In earlier times, “deadbeat Dads” were common—and “deadbeat Moms” too! Today the legal system is much less tolerant of parents who fail to pay child support.

At What Age Does Child Support Stop?

Child support can continue for a minor child until the child reaches age 18. Special needs children can continue to receive child support after age 18.

Other instances in which child support will continue past 18 include:

  • A child still in high school
  • A child who does not support herself or himself
  • A child who lives in the household of the parent requesting child support

In those three circumstances, child support ends at age 19 or upon graduation from high school, whichever is sooner.

The noncustodial parent is also free to continue child support payments after the legal obligation ends. Often, once the child turns 18, such payments can go directly to the child (who is legally an adult).

What Happens if Child Support is Not Paid?

Some types of payments are not considered child support:

  • Funding college
  • Paying for the child’s auto insurance

In property settlement negotiations or in a judge’s ruling, voluntary payments and payments outside the legal scope of child support are not included in calculations of financial responsibility. Costs for health insurance, however, can be part of child support.

When a payor shirks a court-ordered duty to pay child support, the payee has many legal remedies:

  • The payee’s attorney can petition the court to hold the payor in civil contempt of court
  • The Virginia Department of Social Services’ Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) can become involved and request a judge to jail the negligent parent for up to a year of incarceration
  • Interest charges can accrue on unpaid child support
  • DCSE can receive payments from the payor to be passed to the payee, monitoring these payments to ensure compliance
  • DCSE can order an employer to move money directly from the payor’s paycheck to the payee electronically, circumventing the payor entirely
  • Professional licenses, motor vehicle licenses, and certifications can be suspended; passport applications and renewals can be blocked
  • A judge can assess fines

A payor who claims to be indigent (unable to make payments) can request a revision to the child support schedule based on a “material change in circumstances.” Active military personnel can have this review expedited under Code of Virginia § 20-108.

The services of a good family law attorney can untangle even the most complicated child support dilemma. The Firm For Men has helped many Virginia men navigate the process and provide fair, just child support payments. Contact us today or telephone us at (757) 383-9184. We can provide accurate, helpful advice from the very first consultation.