For example, if a child goes to live with the other parent on a long-term basis, it will cost that parent more money to provide for the child's care. Therefore, child support should be adjusted. The change in circumstances must be unexpected and not merely because a parent decides to make a change in employment. Voluntarily quitting one's job cannot be used to justify a reduction in child support. The court will not reduce a child support order based on a voluntary decision to leave a job unless such termination of employment was done for good reasons.
Many parents are seasonally unemployed.
If such unemployment or other temporary unemployment was already taken into consideration when the amount of child support was determined, temporary unemployment will not be unanticipated. Once per year, each parent is allowed to ask the other parent for a copy of her or his last income tax return, recent pay stubs showing employment income, and other paperwork showing what income the parent is earning at this time. For as long as the parents have an obligation to support their children, the parents are required by law to exchange this information once per year when asked, even if the court is not involved. This informal exchange of income information will give each parent the opportunity to see whether the child support should stay the same or should be adjusted. To begin the process you fill out a written Petition to Modify Child Support .