Children: Girl: 8, Boy: 11 and Boy: 12
Mother: Been on welfare for 10 years with short stints of working at Burger King but quit twice because "it was too stressful".
Father: Works construction, seasonal, has between a $35,000 to $55,000 a year income depending on weather each year.
Mother's lawyer has said multiple times (in settlement meetings so I know it cannot be used) that mother is looking to work full time and I have her posting on Facebook looking for cash work as well as her admitting to working under the table at a club.
We have come to an agreement on most of the issues at hand however we are not agreeing on CS and section 7 expenses.
I have the children every weekend an month minus 1 weekend and every Thursday night. it is worded that I shall have access every weekend from Friday after school until a) Sunday at 7pm if I cannot get them to school or b) Monday at school, if I am able to bring them to school. (We live in different areas and my work schedule is the reason for this wording). I also have them Thursday from 5pm until 9pm or Friday at school, if I can get them there. My goal is to rearrange my work schedule so I will be able to get them there every time.
We share major holidays and I have the rest of the long weekends. I get 3 weeks in the summer and 1 10 day vacation time taken anytime during the year.
In the end, I end up with 49% of the time with overnights, if all overnights are counted. 42% of the time counting hours. My lawyer says it is shared custody. I know that doesn't automatically mean a reduction in child support, and I am ok with it and know my worst case scenario however I am not going to go in and give into my worse case scenario.
Best case scenario - I can input her income however how likely is it that this will happen if she continues to choose to be on welfare until the case is done (her and her lawyer have stated that is what she is doing) I am hoping to be able to input it to minimum wage as that is what she was making at the last job she had which wasn't under the table.
My bigger question is in regards to section 7 expenses especially if I am unable to reduce my CS and input her income. My daughter who is 8 is in competitive cheerleading however she only tried out in May and has started at the beginning of the month, years after we separated (we are dealing with a motion to change, not a new order). Her mother has made it clear she will not be paying for any of it and that I am responsible for it and transportation and competitions. In the end, it will cost me about $6000 for the year however for the fixed expenses, it is still $4500. I do not want to ask her to pay for any of it because clearly she cannot as she is on welfare however I want to know if I can be successful in this being a section 7 expense even though this isn't consistent with our spending pre separation and therefore reduce the burden a little bit. Would that even work with her choosing to stay on welfare?
Thanks for your help!
Mother: Been on welfare for 10 years with short stints of working at Burger King but quit twice because "it was too stressful".
Father: Works construction, seasonal, has between a $35,000 to $55,000 a year income depending on weather each year.
Mother's lawyer has said multiple times (in settlement meetings so I know it cannot be used) that mother is looking to work full time and I have her posting on Facebook looking for cash work as well as her admitting to working under the table at a club.
We have come to an agreement on most of the issues at hand however we are not agreeing on CS and section 7 expenses.
I have the children every weekend an month minus 1 weekend and every Thursday night. it is worded that I shall have access every weekend from Friday after school until a) Sunday at 7pm if I cannot get them to school or b) Monday at school, if I am able to bring them to school. (We live in different areas and my work schedule is the reason for this wording). I also have them Thursday from 5pm until 9pm or Friday at school, if I can get them there. My goal is to rearrange my work schedule so I will be able to get them there every time.
We share major holidays and I have the rest of the long weekends. I get 3 weeks in the summer and 1 10 day vacation time taken anytime during the year.
In the end, I end up with 49% of the time with overnights, if all overnights are counted. 42% of the time counting hours. My lawyer says it is shared custody. I know that doesn't automatically mean a reduction in child support, and I am ok with it and know my worst case scenario however I am not going to go in and give into my worse case scenario.
Best case scenario - I can input her income however how likely is it that this will happen if she continues to choose to be on welfare until the case is done (her and her lawyer have stated that is what she is doing) I am hoping to be able to input it to minimum wage as that is what she was making at the last job she had which wasn't under the table.
My bigger question is in regards to section 7 expenses especially if I am unable to reduce my CS and input her income. My daughter who is 8 is in competitive cheerleading however she only tried out in May and has started at the beginning of the month, years after we separated (we are dealing with a motion to change, not a new order). Her mother has made it clear she will not be paying for any of it and that I am responsible for it and transportation and competitions. In the end, it will cost me about $6000 for the year however for the fixed expenses, it is still $4500. I do not want to ask her to pay for any of it because clearly she cannot as she is on welfare however I want to know if I can be successful in this being a section 7 expense even though this isn't consistent with our spending pre separation and therefore reduce the burden a little bit. Would that even work with her choosing to stay on welfare?
Thanks for your help!
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