My toddler lives in Missouri with her mom and I live in Louisiana with my wife, step-son, and our new baby. I'm ordered to pay $133 a month but usually paid $200 for any extra things her mom can get for her. This is through the Family Suport Division. I was going to college part time until a year ago and working 5 days a week up until my son was born 2 months ago. My wife is in the military and works a lot with odd hours. We've figured out that it's cheaper for me to stay home with the boys than pay for daycare. My wife says she'll give the $133 monthly for my daughter.

Can I modify my child support to show that I don't make an income? And if yes, do I have to wait a full 3 years after the order went into effect (I have 1 year until then)?

I know I'll still have to pay support, I just want it a little lower. I'm not trying to dodge responsibility. My ex doesn't even want my money. She makes a ton of it as a construction worker and refuses to use the health and dental care I have my daughter on since she has it through her employer. She wants to be independent of me.

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Originally Posted by aikmdad

My toddler lives in Missouri with her mom and I live in Louisiana with my wife, step-son, and our new baby. I'm ordered to pay $133 a month but usually paid $200 for any extra things her mom can get for her. This is through the Family Suport Division. I was going to college part time until a year ago and working 5 days a week up until my son was born 2 months ago. My wife is in the military and works a lot with odd hours. We've figured out that it's cheaper for me to stay home with the boys than pay for daycare. My wife says she'll give the $133 monthly for my daughter.

Can I modify my child support to show that I don't make an income? And if yes, do I have to wait a full 3 years after the order went into effect (I have 1 year until then)?

I know I'll still have to pay support, I just want it a little lower. I'm not trying to dodge responsibility. My ex doesn't even want my money. She makes a ton of it as a construction worker and refuses to use the health and dental care I have my daughter on since she has it through her employer. She wants to be independent of me.

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I don't know if Missouri requires a certain time before you can go back into Court BUT I am not aware of any jurisdiction that won't allow you to go back and file for a reduction if you can prove changed circumstances.

You seem to realize you have a duty to support this child but you intend to go back to Court with no income - what result are you hoping to accomplish?

I'm just trying to lower the support to help my wife and boys live with more comfort. My wife has been ordered to change stations from here to Hawaii in the beginning of September this year. She has family there that say they'll give me a weekend job as a lifeguard. That's the income I was hoping to give my daughter. I want the order lower so I know I'll be able to cover it all. And I don't want to go to court. This order is handled by hearings through the FSD.

If your ex doesn't want your money, could you possibly make an offer of what you would like your monthly child support to her to be--if she agrees, then you could draw up paperwork saying you are both in agreement and have this documented by FSD...

If your income changes, you can submit the change and ask for it to be modified. But I think the 130 a month is close to Missouris min payment.
Or not far from it. I believe that even if your income is lower or not at all, they will base it off min wage for a certain amount of hours a week, even if you are not working. ** based on what you should be earning.

In the states that I know you can ask for a review after whatever time was set in the original hearing (if none was set then it is usually three years unless a significant change has been made). I have no hope of it being lowered because it is already really low. The way that I believe it will be calculated is by what your degree is in. This is what you stand to make should you decide to use it. There are a couple web sites that give a good idea of what you would stand to make in any field in pretty much all areas of the country. OR as Fr. Chuck said they could use minimum wage for a set amount of hours per week. However, as I already said I don't see it going down.