Child Support in Delaware: Calculation, Filing, and Enforcement

Child support in Delaware is a monthly payment one parent makes to the other to help cover a child’s living costs, set by the Family Court using a calculation called the Melson Formula. Both parents owe this duty whether or not they were ever married or live together, and the obligation generally runs until the child turns 18, or until high school graduation if the child is still enrolled, up to age 19.¹

How the Monthly Amount Is Calculated

Delaware is one of only a few states that uses the Melson Formula, a three-step calculation that starts with each parent’s basic needs, adds the child’s basic needs, and then shares anything left over.²

Self-Support Allowance

The first step sets aside a minimum amount of each parent’s income for their own living expenses. That self-support allowance is pegged at 110% of the federal poverty guideline for one person and updates as the guideline changes. Income below that line is not touched by the support calculation.

Primary Support Allowance

Next, the formula figures what the child needs for food, shelter, and clothing. The primary support allowance has a flat “per household” piece and a “per child” piece that grows with each additional child. Both parents share this amount in proportion to their incomes. A parent earning less than the self-support allowance can still be ordered to pay a minimum amount, which depends on the number of children.

Standard of Living Adjustment (SOLA)

After basic needs are covered on both sides, the Standard of Living Adjustment takes a percentage of each parent’s remaining income for the child: 12% for one child, 17% for two, 21% for three, and an additional 2% per child after that.² The point is that children should share in their parents’ financial success rather than receive only subsistence support.

What Counts as Income

The court looks at each parent’s gross income from all sources: wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, self-employment earnings, rental income, investment returns, and certain government benefits. It also weighs health, earning capacity, the family’s standard of living, and the general equities of the situation.³

A parent who is voluntarily unemployed or deliberately underemployed won’t get credit for the lower income. The court can impute income based on what that parent could reasonably earn given education, skills, and work history.

Remarriage usually stays out of the calculation. A new spouse’s income is generally ignored. If the paying parent lacks enough income to meet the obligation and has remarried, the court may consider half of the combined household income. A custodial parent’s remarriage almost never changes what the other parent owes.

How Parenting Time Affects the Number

Overnights matter. Delaware recognizes three thresholds based on average annual overnights with the paying parent: 80 and 125 overnights each trigger an adjustment that lowers the obligation, and 164 or more overnights qualifies as shared placement, which produces a more significant recalculation.² A parent who already houses and feeds the child for a large share of the year is spending directly on the child’s needs, and the formula reflects that.

Health Insurance and Medical Costs

Every Delaware child support order includes medical support. One or both parents may be required to carry health insurance for the child, and unreimbursed medical costs are split between them in the same proportion as their incomes under the formula.²

Insurance counts as affordable when the premium covering the parent and dependents is less than 10% of that parent’s gross income. If neither parent has coverage now, both have an ongoing duty to enroll the child once affordable coverage becomes available. A parent seeking reimbursement for out-of-pocket medical expenses has to request it by December 31 of the second year after the expense; miss that window and the right to reimbursement is presumed waived.

Opening a Child Support Case

There are two ways to get a support order: file directly with Family Court, or apply through the Division of Child Support Services (DCSS).

Filing in Family Court

You file a Petition for Child Support with a financial information sheet at the Family Court in New Castle, Kent, or Sussex County. The civil filing fee is $90, plus a $10 court security assessment, for $100 total.⁴ If you can’t afford that, you can apply to have the fee waived.⁵ Bring recent pay stubs, W-2s, your most recent federal tax return, and documentation of childcare costs and the child’s health insurance premiums. Self-employed parents should bring profit and loss statements and business tax returns. Disclose any legal obligation to support other children from a different relationship, because that affects your available income under the formula.

Applying Through DCSS

DCSS can file the petition for you. The application fee is $25 and is waived entirely for recipients of Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, General Assistance, or Child Care Subsidy benefits.⁶ DCSS can also locate a missing parent, establish paternity, set up an order, and enforce an existing one. One thing to understand: the Deputy Attorney General handling your case represents DCSS as an agency, not you personally. You are a client of the program, not of the lawyer.

What Happens After You File

The other parent must be formally served with notice, usually by a sheriff or process server. The court can’t issue an enforceable order without proper service. If the other parent can’t be located, the court may allow alternative service.

Your first court date is a mediation conference, not a trial. A Family Court mediator runs the formula using both parents’ financial information and tries to help you agree on a number. If you both accept it, a consent order goes to a judge for signature. If you can’t agree, the mediator may enter a temporary order and the case moves to a hearing before a Commissioner, either that same day or on a scheduled date.⁵ At the hearing, both sides present evidence, and the Commissioner issues a final order.

Enforcement When a Parent Doesn’t Pay

Once an order exists, DCSS oversees collections through the State Disbursement Unit, which processes payments and tracks the running balance.⁷

Income withholding is the default. The court attaches the paying parent’s wages when the order is entered, so payments come out of the paycheck before the parent sees it.³ If a parent falls behind, the attachment automatically increases to cover arrears by up to 20% of the current order or $20 per month, whichever is greater.

Beyond wage attachment, the state can:

Intercept federal and state tax refunds to cover past-due support.
Suspend a driver’s license, professional license, or recreational license for non-payment.
Trigger passport denial once arrears exceed $2,500 under federal law.⁸
Report unpaid support to credit bureaus, which can block loans and housing.
Bring contempt proceedings, which can include jail time and liens on personal property.

Delaware has no statute of limitations on collecting past-due support. Arrears don’t expire, and the enforcement tools stay available until the full balance, including any interest, is paid.

Changing an Existing Order

Child support orders can be modified when circumstances change, but the rules depend on how old the current order is.²

If the order is less than two and a half years old, you have to describe a substantial change in circumstances and show that a recalculation would change the monthly amount by at least 10%. Qualifying changes include a major income shift, job loss, permanent disability, a change in the child’s primary residence, or a significant change in childcare or health insurance costs. After two and a half years, either parent can ask for a review without meeting the 10% threshold or the stricter pleading standard.

The process is the same as the original filing: Petition for Modification with updated financial documents, service on the other parent, mediation, and a hearing if needed. One rule catches people off guard: a modification only takes effect from the date you file the petition, not the date your circumstances actually changed. Lose your job in January but wait until April to file, and you still owe the original amount for those three months. And you can’t reduce or stop paying on your own while the modification is pending. The existing order stays in force until a judge signs a new one.

Incarceration

A Delaware child support obligation is automatically suspended when a parent has been incarcerated or involuntarily committed for 180 consecutive days or more. During the suspension the monthly amount is set to $0 and no interest accrues on existing arrears.⁹

The suspension does not apply in three situations: the incarcerated parent has the financial means to pay anyway, the parent was convicted of domestic violence against the custodial parent or the child, or the incarceration is itself for failing to pay child support. When the parent is released, the original order resumes on the first day of the first full month after release.

Taxes

Child support has no federal tax consequences on either side. The paying parent can’t deduct the payments, and the receiving parent doesn’t report them as income.¹⁰ The child’s dependency exemption generally belongs to the custodial parent, though parents can transfer it using IRS Form 8332.

When Support Ends

A current support order terminates automatically when every child covered by it turns 18. If a child is still in high school past the 18th birthday, support continues until graduation or age 19, whichever comes first.¹ Support also ends if custody of all children on the order transfers to the paying parent by court order or by written agreement between the parents.

Delaware does not extend child support to college tuition or other post-secondary costs.² Once the statutory obligation ends, no court can order a parent to pay for higher education. Parents who want to address college should put that in a separate written agreement. Current support ending doesn’t erase arrears; any unpaid balance stays collectible until it reaches zero.¹

1
Justia. Delaware Code 13-517 – Termination of Child Support
2
Delaware Courts. Frequently Asked Questions About Child Support
3
Delaware Code Online. Delaware Code Title 13 Chapter 5 Subchapter II
4
The Family Court of the State of Delaware. Schedule of Assessed Costs
5
Delaware Courts. Child Support – Family Court
6
Delaware DHSS. Division of Child Support Services Application
7
Delaware Code Online. Delaware Code Title 13 Chapter 22 – Division of Child Support Services
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 652 – Duties of Secretary
9
Delaware General Assembly. Senate Bill 81
10
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Information for Non-Custodial Parents