Ex is suppose to be paying me for child’s health insurance premium

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you everyone for your replies. The cost to add my husband is not higher than it would be to just add my kid. Before marrying him I was paying the $350 a month for just my son. When I added my husband then it was an additional $150 to add him, totaling $500. I thought I was being fair to ask for just half of the total amount since its for 2 people.

I will not be taking him to court. It would end up costing me a lot more.

Here's the problem. Prior to getting remarried, the cost to add your child was $350, so your ex should have been paying that. After getting married, the cost is now only $150 since you have to pay for your husband either way. If your ex agreed to cover your son on his insurance (assuming he had it), you would still have to pay $350 to cover your husband. So therefore after marriage, your cost to add your son is only $150 whereas before it was $350.

He can agree to half as a just agreement, but he doesn't have to. Note, this is the way that many custody agreements work, you take the amount you pay with the child ($500) and deduct the amount you would pay without the child (in this case $350) to get the payment amount. It automatically assumes that the child is the last to be added to the calculation since that is the element that is adjustable between the two calculations.

[Anonymous]

>>I don’t understand this. Even if parents are married, there is no requirement that they have to pay anything towards their kids college expenses. Why are the rules different for divorced people? <<<

Have you filled out a FAFSA form lately? There is an "expected contribution" form the parents need to pay, and yes it is expected! I think there was a case a few years ago where a child sued a parent to pay for her college education and she won.

[I don't believe a child can declare themselves independent til age 24, which is what my niece is doing (2 more years!) so there will be no expected parental contribution. She will qualify for more aid that way.]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:>>I don’t understand this. Even if parents are married, there is no requirement that they have to pay anything towards their kids college expenses. Why are the rules different for divorced people? <<<

Have you filled out a FAFSA form lately? There is an "expected contribution" form the parents need to pay, and yes it is expected! I think there was a case a few years ago where a child sued a parent to pay for her college education and she won.

[I don't believe a child can declare themselves independent til age 24, which is what my niece is doing (2 more years!) so there will be no expected parental contribution. She will qualify for more aid that way.]

A student and adult can be independent at any time after 18, if they are truly independent. That means that the 18+ yo is paying for 100% of their expenses - housing, food, insurance, and college costs. However, that means that the parent can no longer claim them as a tax deduction and many don’t want to give that up.

Even if a parent will not contribute toward college, if the student is still living with them during non-school periods, the student still wouldn’t be indenpendent for aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you everyone for your replies. The cost to add my husband is not higher than it would be to just add my kid. Before marrying him I was paying the $350 a month for just my son. When I added my husband then it was an additional $150 to add him, totaling $500. I thought I was being fair to ask for just half of the total amount since its for 2 people.

I will not be taking him to court. It would end up costing me a lot more.

Take him to court. They will see you are ripping him off and not calculating it right.