Child Custody and Child Support Basics

By: Janice Dantes

Since divorce is illegal in the Philippines and generally still frowned upon in our Filipino culture, there are few resources available for our kababayan to best move forward with their lives especially when they have minor children. Below are some important things to know if you are divorcing with children or just breaking up with your children’s mother/father:

1. There is no “Divorce Only” option. I once had a divorce case set for trial where the husband told the Judge he wanted the “Divorce Only” option and did not want to pay child support or otherwise deal with the children. There is no such thing as a divorce only option when it comes to children. Child support and child custody (now known as allocation of parental responsibilities and parenting time) have to be addressed.

2. Both parties have a financial responsibility to the children. The traditional depiction of child support is the mom stays home while dad pays 28% of his income to mom. End of Story. This old model did not take into consideration mom’s income, the time dad spent with the children, or any other contributions the parents were already making. The state of Illinois along with many other states have adopted the “income shares model.” In this model, both parents’ incomes are considered when calculating child support. Further, if the non-custodial parent (meaning the parent who does not live with the children) has significant time with the children, that parent’s child support contribution could be reduced. This model takes into account income disparities (e.g. mom is the residential parent but makes significantly more than dad) and well as 50/50 custody arrangements (e.g. if dad is the non-custodial parent but has the children half the time, his child support is reduced because it is assumed he is spending money on the children when they are with him). When calculating child support, there is a strong position from the courts that both parents should be working and should have the ability to earn at least a minimum wage income. Therefore, if you are a parent who has stayed home for the entirety of the marriage, the child support will be calculated based on a minimum wage income and not on $0.

3. There is no more Joint Custody/Sole Custody. The terms “custody,” “joint custody” and “sole custody” are no longer used. Custody of the children is no longer an all or nothing game. The courts now use allocation of parental responsibilities and parenting time. This means that parents must decide how they want to divide responsibilities with each other and what kind of schedule they want for the children. For parental responsibilities, parents must decide if they want joint or sole decision- making over significant areas impacting their children including but not limited to: education, religion, healthcare, and extracurricular activities. They also have to decide on a regular parenting schedule as well as a holiday/vacation schedule. Typical holiday schedules have holidays alternate each year. There are a variety of parenting schedules, but 50/50 schedules are now more commonplace as there are more dual income households.

If you would like to know more about child support and custody issues, please call (312) 546-5077 or janice@pinaylaw.com.

Thank you for reading. Until we meet again, love one another.