The Low Down On Getting Child Support From Absent Parents Who Are Unemployed

12 September 2016 by Jonathan Phillips

Are you a custodial parent who has avoided seeking child support for your child due to awkward situations such as the non-custodial parent not working or you not knowing their whereabouts? If so, you may feel helpless, but there are some things that you can do to possibly get support for your child. 

Hire a private detective.

This is a good option if the non-custodial parent is not locatable to you. Private detectives have an arsenal of resources at their disposal to locate individuals and their resources. For example, a private investigator might be able to locate proof of existing accounts by accessing credit reports and perform a skip trace to locate known addresses for the other parent.

Hire a child support lawyer.

You will likely need a child support lawyer if you have complicated circumstances such as the non-custodial parent claiming that they are unemployed.  Perhaps you are aware of how they support themselves even though it is not through regular employment. For example, some individuals perform contracted services and may not pay taxes on their income, so they may pretend to be unemployed when they actually have money coming in. If you hire a lawyer for a case involving a non-custodial parent that is not locatable, you can likely "kill two birds with one stone." This is because the lawyer will likely be able to initiate location services, and they may even be able to file a child abandonment warrant for the individual if the parent meets the criteria. This can differ according to jurisdiction. 

Understand that an individual does not have to be employed to be required to pay child support.

Perhaps the non-custodial parent has access to resources that can be counted as income. Examples of resources that could be used in a child support case are investment income, capital gains, judgments that they are awarded, and unemployment or disability income. By not seeking child support now, you could even be forfeiting future income for your child if the non-custodial parent acquires a significant amount of income such as a lottery winning or an inheritance. 

Understand that some things may irritate you, but they may not be counted as income.

You may be livid that the non-custodial parent appears to be living better than you and your child especially if you are struggling to "make ends meet" in your household. Examples of resources that they may have access to that may not be considered as income are public assistance or child support payments that they might be receiving due to having custody of one of their children. 

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