A NEW INCOME

A New Income Q&A

Q: Ex-wife is staying home with her new baby with new spouse is this voluntary unemployment?

My husband is paying child support for his two boys that we have 50% of the time. His ex was mostly a stay at home mom at the time of divorce, so the payments were based on her zero income. The kids are now in school, and the deal was that she would start to work. BUT she just had a baby with her new husband and expects to stay at home for another 5 years. Is this considered voluntary unemployment and can the payments be adjusted based on her "potential income"?

A: Nope. She doesn't have to work, and you have no say in that. She has a new baby and wants to be home with that baby. There is no deal that she would start to work---the courts don't force people to work. Even if she did start to work her income would have to be really good in order to offset your husbands support since it is based mostly on his income. You need to be careful with "potential income" because it goes both ways. Meaning, if your husband is earning less than he could be elsewhere, they will take that into consideration. Plus, they basically go off what his ex was making during her last job which was HOW long ago if she was a stay at home mom? The point is that we're talking pennies here----why bother?

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