Do Mothers Ever Have to Pay Child Support in Illinois?
Posted on August 10, 2021 in Child Support
Women have made historical strides in the last 100 years in America. As recently as the 70s, women needed a man’s signature to obtain a credit card. Today, however, women are outperforming men in earning high school diplomas, university degrees, and even graduate degrees in medicine and law. More and more women are the primary breadwinners in their households.
These rapid changes in American women’s economic status have begun to reflect in the nation’s child support statistics. Although there is a long-standing suspicion in the American social consciousness that men are less likely to get allocated parental responsibilities for their children - and therefore more likely to pay child support - this is increasingly untrue. Men often are given parental responsibilities after divorce, and when this happens, fathers have a right to receive child support from the child’s mother for the same reasons and in the same amounts that men must pay.
When Do Mothers Have to Pay Child Support?
Illinois law states that a child has a legal right to material support from both parents, and attempts to provide a child material support by estimating the financial benefits the child would have received if the parents had not gotten divorced.
Regardless of who has parental responsibilities or parenting time, child support payments are assessed by beginning with a formula that primarily relies on the parents’ net incomes. This is true whether they are a male or a female. If a mother makes more than the father, she is likely to have to make child support payments.
How Are a Mother’s Child Support Payments Calculated?
Judges can modify the Illinois child support calculation formula according to the family’s unique circumstances, but a mother's child support obligation is calculated in the same way that a father’s obligation is. Several factors besides the parents’ income can influence the amount of the support payments, including whether a child primarily spends their time with only one parent and payment obligations parents have to other children.
Punishment for non-payment for child support is also the same for women as it is for men. Illinois takes the needs of children very seriously, and consequences for failure to pay include fines, wage garnishment, suspension of driver’s license, and even jail time.
Contact a DuPage County Child Support Lawyer
Fathers with parental responsibilities increasingly rely upon timely child support payments from their former spouses. If you are owed child support, consider legal representation by a Wheaton, IL child support attorney with Andrew Cores Family Law Group. We work hard to keep your family’s best interests at the forefront and we will use every option under Illinois law to get you the support payments you are entitled to. Call us today at 630-871-1002 for your free, confidential consultation.
Sources:
https://www2.illinois.gov/hfs/SiteCollectionDocuments/StandaloneSupportObligationWorksheet.pdf
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/20/734408574/new-report-says-college-educated-women-will-soon-make-up-majority-of-u-s-labor-f
https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2089&ChapterID=59
