Legal Question in Family Law in South Carolina

I will give you some basic information but if your boyfriend wants to know exact answers for his situation please ask him to meet with a local family law attorney. Now, if the wrong numbers for your boyfriend's income or his ex's income were used then he needs to contact DSS and ask that child support be recalculated. If the correct numbers were used for income, cost of children�s health insurance, number of children, any support paid to others and cost of work related daycare then the child support amount is likely correct. As for the $150 that he has paid for birthdays, that will be considered a gift and not support. He is not required to do that in the future, but if he wants to give the children money that is great...but it is not child support. As to which parent should claim the children on taxes, generally the parent with custody of the children claims the children. Have your boyfriend review his divorce decree and see if it says anything about who will claim the children. If it does not say anything then it�s probably the mother because it appears she has custody. I am confused about why your boyfriend is giving his ex a portion of his tax return even though he does not claim the children. Unless there is something in the divorce order which says he is required to do this, and I really doubt that there is, then he is probably giving her a gift. If his ex is not filing taxes then your boyfriend needs to ask her if he can claim the children while she is not working. If he is going to do this I would have him get an attorney's assistance so that he could have this added to their current order. As to his ex living with a man, this could cause issues in a couple of areas. First, if they are not married, there may be a restraint in their court order against overnight girlfriends and boyfriends with the children. Again this is where an attorney's assistance would be helpful. Also, you are right; if she is living with her boyfriend she may be giving the state false information about her current living arrangements. If she is receiving housing assistance and she has a man living in the home without advising the state, she could lose her housing. You have provided a lot of information, but the best advice I can give you is to have your boyfriend meet with an attorney. Many attorneys offer a low cost consultation. A consultation will give your boyfriend an idea of what he needs to do to help his specific situation. Please make sure he takes a copy of his divorce papers to the consultation. Good luck!