According to a recent Vibe article, a child of the famous rapper 50 Cent feels like he’s getting short-changed.
The article concerns Marquise Jackson, son of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who is 25, getting $6700 a month from his father in child support, and determining that inadequate to meet his needs.
“$6700 a month in the state of New York City, you do the math,” he reportedly said in an interview posted to Instagram.
The interviewer observed, “Child Support has broken up more families than anything else in the world,” and while that might be hyperbole, the interview’s right in noting that conflict can be generated by disagreements over child support payments.
At the Law Office of Lisa A. Vance, we note on our site, first and foremost, that “children need their parents” and that “divorce doesn’t change that.”
We also note, “We help parents seeking child support, as well as parents expecting to pay child support. If you expect to receive child support, we know just how important this support is. Whatever your circumstances, our attorneys will do our best to help you.”
As this hints at, child support impacts everyone involved in a divorce, and it’s not as simple as people make it out to be. Typically in our society, men make more than women and men thereby pay child support to women, but that’s not always the case.
We’ve written a lot about the subject over the years. We’ve provided thoughts on what to do if your ex misses a child support payment. We’ve talked about whether health insurance and medical costs tie into child support. We’ve covered the impact of your child graduating from high school on your child support payments. And that’s just scratching the surface on questions that surround the topic.
If you’re getting divorced in Texas, there are specific provisions as to how much child support should be paid based on a parent’s income, how many children that parent will need to support after the divorce (including children from past relationships), and whether that parent is self-employed or works for an employer. This calculator on the Office of the Attorney General’s website is a solid tool for figuring out what should be worked into a divorce decree.
However, most people don’t stay in the same job at the same amount of income until all their kids turn 18. Decrees can be modified, especially if a parent’s circumstances change and that parent can’t pay as much as the decree spells out. However, because a decree is a legally-binding document, parents paying child support can’t just decide those terms no longer apply to them — that’s a time to contact the OAG’s office and then consult a lawyer.
While people don’t typically find themselves in a debate over whether $6700 a month is enough for one child, the current case involving 50 Cent makes clear that emotions are bound up in child support issues, especially when people perceive the child support amount owed each month as the difference between making it and not.
No matter what side of the equation you’re on, we’re big believers in making sure child support amounts are fair, realistic, and designed to help children get what they need while allowing parents to make ends meet. At the Law Office of Lisa A. Vance, we work with parents to understand the system, to see what creative solutions might be possible, and to do whatever can be done to keep it conflict-free.