Laws, they are always changing. As of September 15, the state of Massachusetts has new child support guidelines in effect. Several changes have been made with the hopes of making things simpler on parents.
Some of the biggest changes have to do with child support calculation. The amount of time children have with each parent has been used to determine how much child support was to be paid. This is not necessarily the case now.
Another change has to do with extra expenses such as day care. Many children require day care or other after school programs as their parents work. Under the new guidelines, there is a new way to determine how much the custodial parent should receive as a day care credit in order to help them offset the expense of these necessary programs.
Another big change has to do with older children — those between the ages of 18 and 23. Children who have graduated from high school and who are now pursuing higher education may receive financial help from both of their parents. Under the new support guidelines, parents are now obligated to pay a certain amount of college expenses.
These are just a few of the significant changes to the Massachusetts child support laws. These new child support guidelines will be good for at least three years, at which point they will be subject to revision once again. Those who have questions about the new guidelines can turn to an experienced attorney who will be able to provide case specific answers.
Source: mass.gov, “Child Support Guidelines“, Accessed on Sept. 27, 2017