Will Child Support Go Up if the Custodial Parent Quits Her Job

My question involves child support in the State of: Michigan

Some background info: This is involving my first ex-wife, who has her support order out of Michigan. It also turns out that she is the one that the TANF arrears I mentioned in another thread were for... a FOC rep told me the TANF arrears was from years ago, but I am wondering if she misread the file. TANF does not show up at all on MiCase.

I just found out that she quit her job in response to my request for modification due to being laid off. Our daughter spilled the beans on a website. I have since found another job and have cancelled the hearing, however I strongly expect her to file for a modification due to her loss of income when she sees that I cancelled the hearing from my side. I suspect she quit expecting to get a higher CS order.

I have plugged in my new income and her income at zero into the calculator I made from the new MI guidelines, and my support order goes up to more than $800 a month. I already pay about $450 a month to another ex-wife, and another $200 in arrears to the ex in question in this post. I can't afford this kind of decrease in take-home pay since I only net after taxes about $2200 a month. I know the law dictates that no more than 65% can be garnished, but this will leave me in a position of accruing arrears even while I am paying that max amount... again. I just had a modification in October of last year so that I am able to pay off arrears. My order before that was so high between the two exes that I was accruing arrears in both cases because I had an income I never made imputed to me. (I work in IT and she thinks I make a lot more than I do.)

Is there a way to get income imputed to her because she quit? I don't have proof other than my daughter's post (and hard telling if that is the truth), but I am guessing that my ex will claim she is now disabled or got laid off herself. Is there a way to ask the court to make her prove why she is no longer working and impute income if she indeed did quit or got fired? Is there a way to petition the court to allow an order to go below the support guidelines in order to allow me to bring home what I was before, which was only $600 anyway? I just got to the point where I am able to contribute to the household with my current fiance... I really hate to go back to bringing home $126 every two weeks when I am making more than $35k a year. Between the child support and health insurance, yes, that is all I brought home before I got the modification to be in line with my true income. However, it appears if she has zero income, my support order will go back up to the previous level even though my income has not increased.

Thanks, guys. I'm really scared here so any advice you could give would be great.

Absolutely request that she is imputed an income equal to AT LEAST 40 hours @ min. wage.

Thanks. According to my calculations, that only raises my order by about $40, which is less than 10%. Will they allow that without question, or will I have to prove she is voluntarily unemployed? Would it be possible to impute her former income of $36K since she has made that much for 8 or 9 years, or at least a level higher than min. wage?

My concern is that imputing income is no longer allowed... I thought I had read something where Michigan changed the laws so that income can no longer be imputed for child support. Is that only referring to certain types of cases and not voluntary unemployment? That is how I got my order modified before... I asked that income no longer be imputed to me since I had never made the amount they calculated the order at... but perhaps it is different if there is a history of making a certain salary?

You have got to be conspiracy-theorizing. Do you honestly believe a woman would give up a $3000/month job in order to live off of a little bit of child support? She is either really bad at math or there's really another reason she quit her job. Could it be that she just wanted to stay home with her kid(s)?

I could see why you might think that, but her goal really is to make my life as miserable as possible. In our last modification hearing, she requested I be sent to jail for not paying on my arrears, voluntarily relinquishing her CS checks, even though she was getting over $800 a month for four years and I still had a job. This is just the way she rolls. Her husband makes enough to support them well, so the actual check she gets isn't the point. It isn't about the money, so my language was misleading. It is about whatever will make me more miserable. She will do what it takes and file for a modification. I have dealt with her for the last 15 years on this issue and I know her MO.

Quote:

---

Quoting shortie

---

Do you honestly believe a woman would give up a $3000/month job in order to live off of a little bit of child support?

---

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised. Sounds pretty ridiculous to a logical-thinking person. Not to everyone. I have heard one woman actually brag about doing this very thing.

Quote:

---

Quoting FatherWhoWon

---

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised. Sounds pretty ridiculous to a logical-thinking person. Not to everyone. I have heard one woman actually brag about doing this very thing.

---

What is there to brag about? "Haha, I'll show him! I'll make less money!" I don't doubt there are people that think like that...but it is still very hard to believe.

Quote:

---

Quoting shortie

---

What is there to brag about? "Haha, I'll show him! I'll make less money!" I don't doubt there are people that think like that...but it is still very hard to believe.

---

Seriously. Some parents are more about screwing the other parents, even when they're cutting off their own nose to spite their own face (if you will).

Especially if the mindset is, "Well I just won't work so Other Parent will have to pay more child support - I get to play SAHP, and they pay more. I don't even have to get off my ass!".

- - - Updated - - -

Quote:

---

Quoting FatherWhoWon

---

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised. Sounds pretty ridiculous to a logical-thinking person. Not to everyone. I have heard one woman actually brag about doing this very thing.

---

Then again I could've just said "Ditto FWW".

Quote:

---

Quoting shortie

---

What is there to brag about? "Haha, I'll show him! I'll make less money!" I don't doubt there are people that think like that...but it is still very hard to believe.

---

No, in my case, it is "Haha, I'll show him! I'll make him and his new wife-to-be as unable to support themselves as possible! They can barely afford to live thanks to me!"

Like I said, her husband makes enough to support them well. Money has nothing to do with it on her end... she gets to live the same with or without my money. It isn't even manicure money... or retirement account money... or college money or savings of any kind. She has no interest in helping our kids go to college. She is quite selfish, and actually left me with the kids while I had no job when we first broke up. It is "I know he's getting screwed" money.

I didn't believe women like this existed before I got married. I didn't heed the warnings of my exes' friends and my mother. I still believed they were rare when I went into my second marriage. Sadly, both of my ex-wives are like this. They are psychologically damaged somehow... I am sorry I didn't see it at first. As I've said in another post, crazy was attractive to me when I was a young man. You might say it's me, and of course I'm no saint... but I know I don't deserve all this. I wasn't abusive or a complete jerk.. in fact, quite the opposite. I was gullible and controllable, so this is what I get. Lesson learned. Thank goodness my fiance doesn't want kids.

These types do exist... I never believed it until I experienced it. Be forewarned, young men... and women. There are nasty men like this too... people who are not afraid to use children as weapons.

How vindictive. Smh.