The state of Illinois takes child support delinquency very seriously. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, Division of Child Support Enforcement has the authority to pursue parents who owe $5,000 in more in past-due child support.
In the state of Illinois, appellate court decisions have found that net proceeds from a non-custodial parent’s personal injury settlement do count as income for the purposes of child support payments. While it may seem unfair that the money that is supposed to go towards an injury victim’s medical bills and pain and suffering has to go towards child support, that is simply the reality.
In Illinois, the law broadly defines “income” for the purposes of child support. When we turn to Section 505(a)(3) of the Dissolution Act (750 ILCS 5/505(a)(3), we can see that “net income” is defined as the “total of all income from all sources.”
Taken further, we can see that the Illinois Supreme Court has included “gains and benefits that enhance a non-custodial parent’s wealth and facilitate that parent’s ability to support a child or children,” as income (Mayfield, 2013 IL 114655, (citing Rogers, 213 Ill. 2d at 136-37)).