A few statements I hear a lot are: “the money isn’t going to my kids. I want to mom/dad to account for the money.” ”He/she is living better than I am.”
Child support helps cover many things. It is to help provide a home to live in. Rent for a parent and children is more than if the parent only had to house themselves. Then there is PG&E. Children use electricity as do the adults. How about transportation? A parent needs to have a car. The car needs gas, insurance and maintenance. Gas cost is higher if the parent has to take the children to school, appointments and extracurricular activities. Then there is food to eat. Depending on the age the food bill can add up. The children need clothes and personal care items. There are school supplies and projects that have a cost. Many children are in activities. Those all have a cost. There are registration fees, special clothes, costs if they travel, weekly or monthly charges if the children are in lessons. All parents want to have some extra to do fun things like eating out, parks, movies etc. It all adds up.
As for the living situation, it may look that way. One thing to remember is the parent with the larger share of time with the children is providing more for the children. The out of pocket cost to feed/house/clothe one person is far different than two, three, four and so on.
Does the support allow the receiving parent to live better than they might without the support? Sometimes, yes. The support calculation is set up to keep the standard of living for the children similar in each household.
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