Tips to Using Child Support Responsibly

Child support is money that a non-custodial guardian pays the custodial guardian in order to take care of the child's expenses. Those expenses are meant to cover basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter. In Pennsylvania, a custodial parent receives those funds until the child reaches the age of 18. Once received, the custodial parent must use those funds responsibly. How does a parent do that? Here are a few tips to learn how.

Budget

To create a budget, you:

(i) Calculate how much money you receive monthly from child support;

(ii) Add up monthly costs on child expenses such as basic necessities, education, transportation, and extracurricular activities; 

(iii) Make a plan of which percentage of your child support will be used for what expense, for example, 35% for education, 15% for transportation, etc.; and

(iv.) Adjust your budget to fit certain needs as time progresses such as emergency expenses.

Consistency

Once you create a budget, you have to stay consistent with it. That can be accomplished by:

(i) Setting up a direct deposit to receive child support;

(ii) Creating automatic withdrawals of child costs; and

(iii) Receiving electronic notifications of both withdrawals and deposits.

There are many more tips but accomplishing these two will ensure that your child support statements are being used efficiently and transparently.

EJ Umoh, Intern for Main Line Family Matters