Child Support (Arghh!@$&%@!)
Leave it to the state to make a system that leaves absolutely no one happy. As every non resident custodial parent in Illinois knows, parents who do not have custody of the child(ren) are obligated to pay a fixed percentage of their net income to the other parent. Lost your job? Too bad, keep paying. You were not told about the support hearing, and had an imputed income assigned to you that is unreasonable? Oh well. And if you fail to pay your support, whether it is correct or not, then out come the penalties. Everything from losing your license to ending up in jail.
On the other side of the equation, there are many parents trying to raise children while the other parent is avoiding paying child support through various means. For every parent unfairly hurt by a one size fits all child support statute, there is a single parent struggling to raise one or more children without any help from the other parent. I find it silly that Illinois cannot track deadbeat parents who jump from state to state to avoid paying support. Those people are jerks.
The reality is that most custodial parents are women and most payers are men. This affects legislation, and people's mindsets. For example, until a few years ago, one state near Illinois used the term his or he when referring to the parent responsible for paying child support, and she or her when referring to the custodial parent. Ouch. The good news (for children) is that courts are actually looking more and more into which parent is better suited to raise the child(ren) in the relationship.
