How Do I Know if the New Changes In Child Support Affect Me

On June 1, 2018, Alabama made changes to Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration Rule 32, which is used to calculate child support. If there is a third party payment to a child such as Social Security or other benefit, then the party on behalf of whom that benefit is paid gets to deduct that amount from their child support obligation if they are required to pay child support.

Here are the changes as they read in the Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration Rule 32:

APPENDIX

Rule 32(8) (9), Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration (9) Credit for Third-Party Payment to Child.

(i) Social Security retirement, survivor’s, or disability insurance benefits, veteran’s benefits, railroad retirement, or any other third-party payments paid for the benefit of the children based on the support obligor’s earnings record or other eligibility requirement attributable to the support obligor shall be credited against that parent’s support obligation, for so long as that support obligation is being received by the support payee, as follows:

(1) Determine the total child-support obligation; then

(2) Determine the monthly benefit amount that is attributable to the obligor and that the support recipient receives for the children and then subtract that amount from the total child-support obligation.

(a) If the children’s obligor-based benefit exceeds the total support amount, then no additional support amount should be ordered.

(b) If the children’s obligor-based benefits are less than the obligor’s total support amount, then the difference between the benefits received for the children and the total support amount becomes the ordered child-support obligation.

(ii) The following payments made for the benefit of a child by a third party shall not be credited toward the support obligor’s child-support obligation:

( 1) Payments that are not based on the support obligor’s earnings record or other eligibility requirement attributable to the support obligor;

(2) Any payments resulting from the disability of the child;

(3) Any payment received in excess of the amount of child support owed to the child;

(4) Any payment received by the child shall not be credited against arrearages that accrued before the date the obligor was deemed eligible to receive the third-party payment;

(5) Social Security income benefits paid to the child;

(6) Adoption subsidy paid to adoptive parents of a special-needs child pursuant to§ 26-10-20 et seq., Code of Alabama 1975.