Child support guidelines in any individual state must conform to certain criteria set down by the Personal Responsibility And Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, 1996 which requires all states to adopt uniform criteria in deciding child support payments.

This act also established various tough sanctions to be enforced in states against non paying parents such as the power to withhold certain professional and personal licences and providing for strong enforcement procedures.

The main thrust of PWRORA is to force individual states to follow certain principles in enacting state legislation in relation to child support. These general principles include-
1.    both parents to share equally in providing for their children in proportion to their ability to pay;
2.    child support must cover the child's basic needs
3.    generally no matter how badly off a parent is, there will seldom be occasions when a parent's obligation is set at 0
4.    child support is due and owing to the child regardless of the marital status of the parents
5.    the state in framing their child support laws must encourage the involvement of both parents in the child's upbringing.

In summary, the state must ensure that the income of both parents is taken into account and must be objective, fair and provide for the basic needs of the child, particularly his health care needs.

The Family Support Act, 1988 creates a presumption that the state's decision in relation to the amount of child support to be paid over is correct but this presumption can be rebutted by evidence showing that the award is inappropriate or unjust.

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