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Curious11434 · Apr 30, 2011, 06:53 AM

The child is in Germany. I am in New York City. The "Cost Of Living" is over 50% higher than it is where the custodial parent lives is Germany. Would it be wise for the "Non-Custodial" parent to request a "COLA" adjustment? Especially when it APPEARS that courts and the office child support ALWAYS favor the custodial parent?

JudyKayTee · Apr 30, 2011, 07:06 AM

Child support in NY (is that where the support was set?) is by Statute. It does not matter where the custodial party lives.

I am seeing COLA wording built into support orders so that the parties don't have to keep going back to Court. I've seen a review of the financial picture every two years. I don't see Courts favoring the custodial parent because, as I said, it's by Statute, a percentage. I don't see anybody getting rich on child support.

But, again, in NY the cost of living doesn't matter. It's a fairly simple formula based on 17% of earnings.

Or isn't your order out of NY?

Curious11434 · Apr 30, 2011, 07:43 AM

Uh,. ok.

Curious11434 · Apr 30, 2011, 07:43 AM

Uh,. ok.

kcomissiong · May 2, 2011, 07:19 AM

If the custodial parent lives in Germany, the support order was probably filed there and was referred to New York for enforcement. It will be calculated by the formula in whichever jurisdiction issued the original child support order. There is no COLA adjustment that is applied for Child Support. Your order is reviewed periodically (JudyKayTee, mentioned two years in NY, but this may be different if the support order was issued by Germany) and adjusted if necessary, and you may petition for a downward adjustment if your circumstances dramatically change. But no, generally child support does not take into account the cost of living where the non-custodial parent lives. They use a standard formula to calculate the support amount.