Rule 506.Minimum orders and low-income adjustments

The floor. A support obligation for one child is not less than 20% of the primary allowance for one child; for 2 or more children, 20% of the primary allowance for two children, rounded to the nearest multiple of 10. It does not apply where the children are in shared placement, or in split placement with at least one child of the union living primarily in each household. A disabled person with actual income below the self support allowance may be assessed less, on the nature and extent of the disability, available resources and the totality of the circumstances.

A minimum order says that supporting your child is an obligation of being a parent rather than a bill that only applies above a certain income.

The ceiling. Except under the minimum order provision, no parent may be obliged to pay more than 50% of net available income — or 35% where they have children to support in three or more households.

Incarceration. After 180 days of continuous confinement, every prospective current support obligation established or modified after January 31, 2019 automatically decreases to one half of the minimum order. The same applies to new and modification petitions where the obligated parent has been continuously confined for more than 180 days at the hearing or mediation. The presumption is rebutted where the parent has independent income, resources or assets to pay consistent with their pre-incarceration circumstances.

The change is one of the more humane provisions in the chapter, and also one of the more practical. A person in prison earns nothing; the arrears accrue anyway; and they come out owing a sum they can never pay, which is a well-documented route back inside rather than to work. The obligation does not revert on release, but release is a substantial change of circumstances for modification.

The details. A petition may be filed to fix the exact adjustment date and to determine whether independent resources exist. Every written order for new or modified current support must warn of this potential adjustment. Parents under orders that issued before February 1, 2019, or who were previously denied relief because of the reasons for their incarceration, may petition under the current standard — though where the obligation was already calculated on continuous confinement under the old standard, relief comes only two and one-half years after the last determination of current support. The Division of Child Support Services may use the administrative procedures of Rule 302 to make these adjustments.