Do I have to pay child support if I find out the child is not mine?
While biological parents virtually always must pay child support, the child support obligations of non-biological parents are much more limited. If you are not the biological parent of a child, you typically will not need to pay to support that child after a divorce or separation, except in limited circumstances.
Can you get a refund if the child you support isn’t really yours?
To answer our first question – can you “get a refund” if you’ve paid child support for a child who is not yours? – that answer is no, because when you made those payments, you were meeting a legal obligation that you accepted when you signed an Acknowledgment of Paternity.
When does a father not have to pay child support?
It also happens at times that a man who fathered a child may not be asked to pay child support until the child’s mother receives public assistance. In that case, the government may come to the father seeking back child support to reimburse the government for their assistance payments.
When does a man become the father of a child?
A man is legally considered to be the father of a child if the couple were married when the child was born. Even if they were divorced during the pregnancy, he is presumed to be the father if the baby was born within 300 days of the divorce date.
What should a non custodial father know about child support?
It is important for a non-custodial father to provide information to the court up-front to make the payments are fair as possible. While it depends on the judge and the circumstances, a child support payment is usually not reduced if a father quits a full-time job and returns to school.
Where does child support go when a mother receives public assistance?
In some cases such as when the child’s mother receives public assistance, any child support paid by the father will go directly toward the state where it is then split with the federal government.