By Cole Lauterbach/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – A new law taking effect on July 1 will dramatically change the financial formula behind child support requirements for divorced parents.
Next month, the laws in Illinois regarding child support will change to reflect not only the income of the divorced parents but also the amount of time that they spend with their children. The intention is to take away the winner-loser feeling of a custody battle and also give involved parents without full-time with the kids a financial break.
Instead of one side being awarded custody, there is an agreed division of time the law refers to as “visitation.” The more time with the kids, the less a parent has to pay in child support. In the complex formula, one day more for a parent making $200,000 could mean almost $10,000 less to be paid in child support that year if it crosses one of the thresholds set in the law. This assumes the other party makes $50,000.
“There’s a huge difference in child support depending on how much time you get,” divorce attorney Andrew Vaughn with Chicago-based Nuvorce said.
The law may be a well-intentioned, but it creates an incentive for one parent to hoard time with the kids, he said.
“It will incentivize the parent to withhold the parenting time with the child from the other parent,” Vaughn said.
While the new law is not retroactive, any divorce not finalized by next month or modified in the future will be subject to these new changes.
Divorce rates have dropped more than 25 percent since 1980. According to a study by Bowling Green State University, less than a third of heterosexual marriages result in divorce. Illinois is home to one of the lowest divorce rates in the nation, at about 15 per 1,000 married women in 2015.
