Child Support Cases That Include Daycare Costs in Orlando, Florida
Orlando Child Support Attorneys Often Face Adding Child Care Costs to Child Support Calculations, However, There Are Some Situations Where They Do Not Go Into The Calculation
One issue that often goes hand and hand with child support cases is the situation where a child or children who are part of the support case are enrolled in daycare, after school care, wrap around care, or some other type of child care that costs the parents money. This very typical scenario is often overlooked by child support attorneys in Orlando and these additional costs are regularly included in support calculations even at times when they do not need to be. This leaves child support attorneys to figure out when daycare costs are included in child support?
In family law cases there are three main times where child care costs such as daycare are seen as necessary and should be added to child support guidelines calculations and they are when the parent placing the child into daycare is: working, actively seeking work, or in school to get a better job. Each of these instances will usually be seen by the court as a cause for daycare costs to be necessary. Additionally, in these cases the costs of the child care will be included into the child support guidelines and each parent will be responsible to contribute to this expense pursuant to their percentage of financial responsibility as determined earlier in the guideline calculations based on each parent’s income.
If a parent is unemployed they will usually be imputed an income equal to minimum wage on a full-time work schedule. This is because most of the time it is a safe assumption that a person is able to at least earn that amount unless they are disabled or mentally incapacitated. Though the court is able to go below this amount if there are circumstances and hardships which were beyond the parties’ control it is something that is seen rarely and usually will not get someone relief if they simply cannot find work.
“Anyone who is not sure how to run child support guidelines for their case should talk to an attorney as the Florida guidelines are quite complicated” – Sean Smallwood, ESQ. Orlando child support attorney
When Can I Ask That Child Care Costs Not Be Included In Child Support?
If childcare or daycare costs are at issue in a child support case the fist question to ask is: why is the child in daycare? If the answer fits into one of the three circumstances listed above then it is usually safe to say they should be added to support calculations. However, if the answer to this question does not fit the above three scenarios then you may have an argument as to why the court should not include these into child support numbers.
Very often one will come across a case where a parent has a child enrolled in daycare simply to get free time to go off and do their own thing, often while living with their own parents and not working, looking for work, going to school, or even paying any bills. In this situation the parent paying support should carefully examine the facts and talk to a child support attorney about their case as it relates to child care costs.
Sean Smallwood is an Orlando divorce attorney for the law firm Sean Smallwood, Orlando Divorce & Family Law P.A. where he represents clients in all areas of family law and divorce. 100% of the practice is devoted to family law. As an attorney in Orlando, he has helped many families with a wide variety of family law cases including Divorce, Child Custody, Child Support, and many other issues.
