Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
What does this actually mean in regular terms?
For purposes of this section, "gross income" means all income from all sources, and shall include, but not be limited to, income from salaries, wages, commissions, royalties, bonuses, dividends, severance pay, pensions, interest, trust income, annuities, capital gains, social security benefits except as listed below, workers' compensation benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, disability insurance benefits, veterans' benefits, spousal support, rental income, gifts, prizes or awards.
If a parent's gross income includes disability insurance benefits, it shall also include any amounts paid to or for the child who is the subject of the order and derived by the child from the parent's entitlement to disability insurance benefits. To the extent that such derivative benefits are included in a parent's gross income, that parent shall be entitled to a credit against his or her ongoing basic child support obligation for any such amounts, and, if the amount of the credit exceeds the parent's basic child support obligations, the credit may be used to reduce arrearages.
Also see: Mosley v. Mosley, 520 S.E.2d 412 (Va. Ct. App. 1999)
2 Answers from Attorneys
If you receive disability benefits,and owe child support, such benefit amounts may be used as a credit
against the amount of your current support obligation or, possibly, any arrearages that you may owe as well.
In the case where the paying parent is on disability income, and the child receives disability income because the parent is on disability, the procedure for calculating child support is to include in the income of the paying parent the amount of income the child receives based on that parent's disability (this is not income the parent actually receives, but is treated for this purpose as if it were -- nor does the income the child receives reduce the disabled parent's disability income); using that number for the paying parent's income and plugging in the other factors like the receiving parent's income, the cost of work-related child care, the cost of providing health insurance for the child, the presumptive child support is determined and allocated between the parents. Then the disabled parent's share is reduced by the amount added to the disabled parent's income to arrive at what he or she is ordered to pay. If the amount is below zero, the excess can be applied against any support arrears that may exist.
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