I had a great question today about how to calculate income from child support and thought it was worth sharing. I often find that child support is the most miscalculated source of income. Whether this is due to lack of understanding or the huge variance in the way child support payments are actually made I can’t say; nevertheless mistakes abound when it comes to this.
In the recent example that I reviewed today, the resident had a court order to receive child support in the amount of $230 per month. The printout from the local courthouse showed that resident had acutally received a large variety of payments every month, none of them actually $230.
The print out reflected the last 12 payments that were made to the custodial parent…beginning February 2010 and ending August 2, 2010. The print out was created and effective September 1, 2010.
Because this history did not reflect an entire year of payments,the best to way to calculate this would be to add up all of the payments received and divide it by the seven months of history provided (Feb – Aug). Unfortunately, I found that the contract administrator wanted to actually use the print out as the entire annual income, when in fact it was not representative of an entire year of payments received.
It is important to note that this file should be well documented to notate that the resident did receive any payments prior to the first date on the print out and that the September payment was not actually received at the time the printout was generated.
Don’t forget that when calculating annual income for Section 8 residents, we are obligated to anticipate annual income, but it should be based on the amount actually anticipated to receive. Because child suport can so often vary in amounts and frequency, this is usually an example of annual income that has to based on actual amounts received.
Always remember to make sure your calculations make sense, are well documented, and include a calculator tape.
Happy file reviewing!