The TN Supreme Court ruled that a parent must still provide child support even if the children are granted full custody to someone other than the other parent. Read the story from the Knoxnews website, here.
How can a parent make the decision to withold support from their own kids, while this case went through the court system and eventually made it to the Supreme Court?
I would think there wouldn’t need to be any question about it … child support is paid to the child, with their caregiver as the trustee. One would think … One would also hope that the funds would go directly to the actual support of the child, instead of boats, lake lots, Florida vacations, etc.
The child support laws in Tennessee are absurd. Only recently has there been any kind of attempt to make it somewhat equitable for both parents. Used to be, a minimum wage non-custodial parent could have been paying up to half their paycheck to a millionaire custodial parent. And the state cares not one whit if the paying parent had enough left to live on or not.
Did you know that if a child was taken into state custody, but placed with a parent until permanent custody was decided, that parent would have to pay child support to the state? Normally, a child in custody is placed in foster care and the parents pay support which is then used to pay the foster care stipend. But blood relatives are not eligible for that stipend. Crazy, no?
I have been on all sides of the child support situation, and have compared what Tennessee laws are to other states. Tennessee is downright shameful …
Don’t get me started parenting time and interference … Oy!
I agree. Child Support should support the child regardless of whom the court has decided is best to care day to day for the child.
My shock came with the notion that this dad felt that he didn’t need to support his own kids, because his wife died and the grandparents were given custody.