Child Support for Unemployed Parents: A Guide

Published on December 4, 2024 · 8 min read

Key takeaways

Unemployment isn’t a bar to requiring a parent to pay child support. If a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the court may impute income to that parent and order them to pay child support based on imputed income.
A parent’s wages aren’t the only financial resources the court uses to calculate child support. The court might look at a parent’s savings, investments, property, insurance benefits and prize winnings to calculate their support obligations.
Even if a parent’s unemployment isn’t voluntary, the court might decline to change their support obligation if their job loss doesn’t make a significant enough change in their circumstances.

Calculating child support payments for unemployed parents

When you’re heading into any child support dispute, you might be thinking that your or the other parent’s paychecks dictate how much one of you will pay. That’s often true, but not always. Courts have other ways of calculating child support if one parent doesn’t have a job. These ways of calculating support may depend on whether a parent is unemployed voluntarily or involuntarily.

This article goes over what you might see in a child support case where at least one parent isn’t working. Of course, how a court may deal with a parent’s work status in a child support case depends on the laws in that parent’s state.

Factors for Calculating Child Support Payments

In many typical cases, child support calculations are based on the amount of parenting time each parent gets and the parents’ combined income. Even if a parent is not ordered to pay child support, the court must assess their income and use it to calculate the other parent’s support obligation. The court may use a parent’s actual income to calculate child support, or they may impute income to the parent based on what the court believes the parent could earn (more on that later).

Typically, the noncustodial parent pays support to the custodial parent. However, if the child is living with someone other than a parent or is in the custody of the state, both parents may be ordered to pay child support.

Depending on the state, a family law judge may consider many sources of income in calculating child support, including:

Salary and wages
Overtime pay
Commissions
Severance pay
Unemployment benefits
Recurring income from retirement plans or pensions
Income from dividends
Rent income
Income from interest
Income from a trust
Royalty income
Income from annuities
Capital gains
Social security benefits
Monetary gifts
Prize money
Business income
Self-employment income
Disability insurance benefits
Workers’ compensation benefits
Payment for independent contractor work

Tip

Think about the ways a parent may pay for child support the same way you might think about the ways a person may pay a big bill when they’re in a bind. When finding ways to pay off a debt in tough times, an individual might dip into their retirement benefits or sell stock. The court in your state might look at a parent’s ability to pay child support the same way and keep the parent’s obligations the same, even when they aren’t working.

How does child support work if the mother or father has no job?

If a parent doesn’t have a job or any financial resources like the ones we listed above, a court might do one of two things:

Reduce the parent’s child support obligation based on changed circumstances
Order the parent to pay child support (or continue paying child support) if the court believes that the parent without a job is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed

Let’s look at each of these above-listed scenarios separately.

Reduction of a support obligation after a job loss

The court may still require a parent to pay child support with no job. But a parent might be able to ask the court to modify their child support obligation if they lose their job and there has been a substantial and continuing change in their circumstances that would make a child support order unfair.

Courts generally presume that there has been a substantial change if recalculating a support obligation would cause a certain percentage change in the final amount. For instance, New Mexico presumes a substantial change if recalculation results in a change of more than 20%, and Colorado recognizes a substantial change if recalculating the support amount causes at least a 10% change in the support obligation.

Tip

Try the child support calculator on your state’s court website or the website for your state’s child support enforcement agency. When you plug your information into one of these calculators, you might see if a change in your circumstances meets your state’s threshold for a substantial change that warrants a different child support obligation.

Imputed income child support when a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed

A job loss doesn’t always justify lightening a parent’s child support responsibilities. If the court believes a parent doesn’t have a job or earns less pay voluntarily, the court may impute income to the underemployed parent. Imputed income child support means that a court might look at how much money a parent could be earning at a job (or a better job) and then require that parent to pay a support amount based on what they could be making.

Tip

Since both parents’ incomes are relevant to calculating child support, you may be imputed income even if you aren’t obligated to pay child support. The amount of income imputed to you will affect the amount of child support the court orders the other parent to pay. Regardless of whether you’re a custodial or noncustodial parent, you need to be prepared to present evidence of your income and explain your reasons for unemployment or underemployment.

What counts as voluntary unemployment?

Like many other factors, whether a parent is voluntarily unemployed for a child support case depends on each state’s laws. A state might presume that every parent is able to work at least 40 hours per week and put the burden on the parent to prove that their lack of work is not voluntary. A state might decide that a parent’s unemployment is voluntary after finding a substantial likelihood that the parent could earn more income by making a reasonable effort to apply their skills, education or training.

A court might not identify a parent as voluntarily unemployed if one or more of the following circumstances apply:

The parent’s unemployment is the result of the parent’s incarceration
The unemployed parent has been awarded disability benefits through Social Security, the Veteran’s Administration, or another government agency
The parent left their job due to a career change with benefits that outweigh its adverse effects (for example, leaving a career with a lot of travel or overtime for a career that allows more time with the family)
The parent’s unemployment or underemployment is a temporary change that will eventually lead to an increase in income (for example, switching from full-time to part-time work while attending school)
The parent’s caretaking responsibilities for minor children make it unreasonable or impractical for them to work (for example, the cost of daycare would be more than the parent could earn from a job)

How do state courts calculate imputed income?

When calculating child support based on imputed income, a judge may consider the following qualities and circumstances of the unemployed parent:

Work history
Whether employers are willing to hire the parent
Literacy
Education
Age
Job search history
Job opportunities in the parent’s community
Assets
Health
History of earnings
Barriers to employment
Skills
The prevailing wage in the parent’s community
Whether the parent’s prior job has ceased to exist or significantly changed

Reviewing the above-listed factors and imputing income might ensure that a noncustodial parent pays child support even if unemployed.

Tip

When a parent stops working, don’t look at just the career they had but also all the ways they could use their skills to find a job in another field. If a parent loses their long-term job as a mechanic but has the skills to make good money in an available retail job, the court might deem them voluntarily unemployed. This could happen even if the parent can’t find another mechanic job. You may consider hiring a vocational expert to assess the other parent’s earning capacity or your own.

Evidence for calculating child support

Courts have many options for calculating support obligations and developing child support orders. And parents have many options for proving what their child support rights should be.

Evidence of a parent’s income and earning capacity (or lack thereof) could include:

Tax records
Bank statements
Medical reports
Education records
Investment documents
Property records
Witness testimony
Job search results
Correspondence with former, current or prospective employers
Pay stubs
Expert vocational evaluations

How an attorney may help

Sometimes, the job market and children’s financial needs are unpredictable. The law has mechanisms that allow parents to make changes to their child support obligations or continue to demand support payments after a job loss. While many parents may seek this legal relief on their own, others feel more comfortable tackling these tasks with the help of an attorney.

A child support attorney might help by identifying when an unemployed parent may or may not be liable for child support. An attorney may also help with gathering evidence to prove what a parent’s imputed income should be and opening and maintaining a case to modify a parent’s obligations when their circumstances change.

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Calculating child support payments for unemployed parents

Factors for Calculating Child Support Payments

How does child support work if the mother or father has no job?

Reduction of a support obligation after a job loss