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Voluntaraly unemployed custodial parent

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clo12

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Florida

I just had mediation this week where custody and child support issues were settled. We have one child. My wife (soon to be ex) has been unemployed for for almost two months. I am working full time. I have to assume 100% our child's care. She tells me that she will not work just so I can pay her rent. She is also trying to collect unemployment from the state.

Is she required to find work in a reasonable amount of time? Is she required to show any proof that she is trying to find work?
 


brisgirl825

Senior Member
She'll most likely be imputed an income of atleast 40 hrs min wage. However, they can also take a guess as to what she could be making if she were employed and that could be more than min wage.
I wouldn't worry to much about this. Tell your lawyer to make sure that the judge imputes an income.

GL.
 

Gracie3787

Senior Member
clo12 said:
What is the name of your state? Florida

I just had mediation this week where custody and child support issues were settled. We have one child. My wife (soon to be ex) has been unemployed for for almost two months. I am working full time. I have to assume 100% our child's care. She tells me that she will not work just so I can pay her rent. She is also trying to collect unemployment from the state.

Is she required to find work in a reasonable amount of time? Is she required to show any proof that she is trying to find work?
Yes, she is required to show proof of trying to find work- to the unemployment office. Is she collecting unemployment now, or is she still waiting for it? Either way, in order to collect unemployment, she has to do a job search, and keep a record of the contacts she has made.

Was CS set at the mediation? If so, was the state guidelines used and was a monthly income imputed to her? She can choose to not work, however, CS has to be commputed using BOTH parents' incomes. If you have an attorney, ask your attorney to explain why you are 100 % responsible for your child.
 

clo12

Junior Member
Gracie3787 said:
Yes, she is required to show proof of trying to find work- to the unemployment office. Is she collecting unemployment now, or is she still waiting for it? Either way, in order to collect unemployment, she has to do a job search, and keep a record of the contacts she has made.

Was CS set at the mediation? If so, was the state guidelines used and was a monthly income imputed to her? She can choose to not work, however, CS has to be commputed using BOTH parents' incomes. If you have an attorney, ask your attorney to explain why you are 100 % responsible for your child.
According to her she is still waiting for unemployment compensation (she is not a very honest person). CS was set at mediation, i am paying 100%, plus daycare and healthcare!! The midiator DID NOT impute any income to her (the state guidelines were used). Her income was set to 0 (zero)! I do not have an attorney.
 
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legalcuriosity

Guest
clo12 said:
According to her she is still waiting for unemployment compensation (she is not a very honest person). CS was set at mediation, i am paying 100%, plus daycare and healthcare!! The midiator DID NOT impute any income to her (the state guidelines were used). Her income was set to 0 (zero)! I do not have an attorney.
You should appeal the findings and one of the first things you should ask is an imputing of her income. The more evidence you can provide of where she worked prior, previous experience, amount she made, etc. Also, look up the laws of your state's revised code regarding calculation of child support and the such and use that language in your appeal as well.

If you still aren't satisfied with the ruling from the appeal, you can appeal THAT to a higher court. You might want to consult an attorney or paralegal.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
legalcuriosity said:
You should appeal the findings and one of the first things you should ask is an imputing of her income. The more evidence you can provide of where she worked prior, previous experience, amount she made, etc. Also, look up the laws of your state's revised code regarding calculation of child support and the such and use that language in your appeal as well.

If you still aren't satisfied with the ruling from the appeal, you can appeal THAT to a higher court. You might want to consult an attorney or paralegal.
Ok...stop here for a moment. Before you take this advice...take her previous income and your income information (and any other relevant factors) and run the number on an online child support calculator (to find one just google "Florida Child Support Calculator". Run the numbers at zero income for her, and then run them again at what she was making prior to her unemployment. However, when you run them at what she was making prior to her unemployment, be certain to include whatever daycare would cost if she were working.

Nine times out of ten...any amount that you would save because she was working, would end up being counterbalanced by your share of daycare costs.
Even if the kids are in school...there is after school care and summer daycare costs.

Also, in many states (and I can't remember if Florida is one of them or not) the fact that she has zero income vs some imputed amount, doesn't have a very dramatic effect on child support.

I did a study a couple of years back. I ran numbers on child support calculators for all 50 states....I ran them at the cp having zero income, 1/2 of the income of the ncp, and the same income as the ncp. In most states the variation was less than 15%, (and more than 50% of the states less than 10%) between zero income and the same income as the ncp....there were some exceptions, but only in a handful of states.

You also need to take into consideration the cost of appealing. If you are going to save 100.00 a month if she gets an income imputed, and it costs you 2500.00 to retain an attorney...thats a minimum of two years worth of savings just to recoup the cost of your attorney.

If you have to appeal to the higher courts....then you could easily spend 10,000....how long would it cost you to recoup that?
 

haiku

Senior Member
yep, even in states where they count the income of the CP it does not matter much because they are usually given a 20,000 credit a year at least for housing the child.

And if CP is not a high wage earner, her working or not, is not going to matter much at all.....
 

Gracie3787

Senior Member
clo12 said:
According to her she is still waiting for unemployment compensation (she is not a very honest person). CS was set at mediation, i am paying 100%, plus daycare and healthcare!! The midiator DID NOT impute any income to her (the state guidelines were used). Her income was set to 0 (zero)! I do not have an attorney.

Does your wife have an attorney?

Apparently your divorce isn't final yet, has a date for final hearing been set?

Can you afford an attorney? If not, contact the local Legal Aid office or get a low cost consultation thru the lawyer referral service 1-800-342-8011. You probably need an attorney to straighten this out.

If you have to continue to go pro-se research Florida Statutes, chapter 61 at
http://www.flsenate.gov/statutes/

It may be possible for you to file a motion objecting to the mediation agreement, or objecting during the final hearing. The agreement reached was NOT according to Fl. law at all:

1.Child care costs CANNOT be included into CS if custodial parent is unemployed, and not in school. Fl. Statute 61.30 (7). (You are wrongly being charged for daycare costs.)

2. In Fl. BOTH parents are responsible for the support of thier children. Fl. Statute 409.2551 and 61.14. (Your wife had been working, and is capable of working).

3. Income should have been imputed to your wife- Statute 61.30 (2)(b). your wife's unemployment is apparently voluntary because if she isn't getting unemployment after 2 months, that means that she probably doesn't qualify for it. ( If a person quits thier job or was fired for good cause, they don't qualify for unemployment).

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember reading something about being able to object to a mediation agreement within 10 days of service of it (before it's filed with the court) I believe it was in the Florida Family Law Rules concerning mediation. I don't have the web site address with me right now, but you can try going to http://phonl.com/fl_law/rules/famlawrules/ to find a link to the Family Law Rules. And also the Civil Rules.

The other posters may be correct that imputing her income won't make a huge difference, however, it will make some difference and it's definately not fair or right for you to pay for daycare for a CP who refuses to work.
Good luck.
Gracie :)
 

clo12

Junior Member
Thank you all for your advice. I don’t want to give the wrong impression here, i love my son to death and he has ALWAYS had the best from me. I want to be able to give him the best but i also want his mother to provide for him as well. i just want everything to be fair. Its bad enough everything else we have to go thru. She clearly just wants to male my life a living inferno....

She does not have an attorney. The divorce is not final and the court date has not been set (at least i haven’t received notice yet). If i could afford an attorney before i cant now. I've been trying to handle this myself, which is probably why i getting jerked...i just learned that she got some unemployment compensation.
 

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