My ex, the non-custodial parent, decided to quit his job. He wrote a letter to the court house telling them so and sent me a copy via e-mail. We have (4) young children. He has visitation once a month and not always lives up to it. He remarried to a divorced woman with (2) kids of her own. Her ex lives out of state and she has custody of her two children. She has a job too. He's been unemployment for over a month and now behind on support payment. I do have a job but my income alone is not sufficient to cover all the basic living bills, i.e rent, groceries, utilities. I can make it work, but that means the kids will be undernourished and deprived the basics. Some people had mentioned that both he and his new wife may be responsible for keeping up the payment whether he's employed. I can't find this online for Illinos support law. I don't want her money. I'm looking to find out if legally he can do this to avoid paying support for the four childrend we share. After 20 years with him & (4) kids later - he's been nothing but indecent and selfish beyond words can describe. He's the father and he's responsible for his children. Please advise what I need to do besides reqporting that there's no support being made to the court house. They told me I have to wait until he misses (2) payments. He missed one already. We live in Illinois. Thank you.

No doubt he's one of the 47%. :)

He remains responsible for the court-ordered child support. If he is jailed, his driver's license and passport cancelled, the court and the pertinent agencies won't care that he isn't working; the important thing is that he could be working. So his child support obligation won't be reduced as it might if he had been fired.

And no, his current wife is not responsible for paying his CS obligation.

To reiterate, his current wife's salary or assets cannot be used to pay his support obligation. Since he quit his job voluntarily, it is unlikely a court will reduce his support obligation. So he is subject to the full penalties available under the law for non payment of support.