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What Happens to the Support You Receive From Your Ex-Spouse If Your Fortunes Improve After Marriage?

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Your friends and family will tell you that the first year after divorce is the hardest, and they are right.  You feel the financial struggles most acutely, when you are managing the finances of more than half of your former family on less than half of your former family budget.  This is especially the case if you stayed out of the workforce to raise your children.  Now that you are divorced, you are doing almost as much parenting as you used to do, while also managing the responsibilities of your job, and it seems like there is never enough time and money to go around.  If the court has ordered your ex-spouse to pay alimony or child support, then you worry every month about whether your ex will pay on time, and whether you will get the entire court-ordered amount.  It does get easier, though.  You and your children get used to your family’s new routine.  You get to know your coworkers better the longer you stay at your job, and, more importantly, your pay increases.  Eventually, you start dating someone new, and perhaps you even remarry and move in with your new partner.  Your new circumstances may or may not affect your child support order.  A Boca Raton child support lawyer can help you if your ex-spouse wants to reduce the child support amount just because you are doing well.

The Remarriage of an Alimony Recipient Terminates the Alimony Obligations

Now that Florida has abolished permanent alimony, all alimony awards have an automatic end date.  The court can reduce the alimony amount if the paying spouse suffers a reduction in income due to illness or involuntary job loss.  If the recipient spouse remarries, the alimony order automatically ends.  The paying spouse can also petition the court to terminate the alimony obligations if the recipient spouse enters a financially supportive relationship with a new partner, even if the recipient spouse is not legally married to the new partner.  In some cases, there is room for debate about whether the recipient spouse is in a financially supportive relationship.  In one instance, a woman successfully persuaded the court not to modify her ex-husband’s alimony obligations; she lived with a male housemate, but they had separate bedrooms and bathrooms and did not go out together socially.

Your Increase in Income May or May Not Affect the Child Support Amount

Child support is based on the children’s expenses and on how the parenting plan divides parenting time between the parents.  If the paying parent suffers a reduction in income, he or she can petition the court to reduce the child support amount.  Increases in a parent’s income usually do not affect the child support amount, and the remarriage of either parent definitely does not.

Contact Schwartz | White About Finding Your Stride After Divorce

A South Florida family law attorney can help you if your spouse refuses to pay child support now that you have reentered the workforce and remarried.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1784653201253199548&q=divorce+farm&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2014&as_yhi=2024

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