Child support - how is it calculated?

[Amandine.K]

Hi,

We are getting divorced and have agreed on shared custody (one week with mum and one week with dad). The children will be based with me though. How is alimony calculated? We have 3 kids, his income is significantly higher than mine. Would social services be the next step?

Thanks!

[Amandine.K]

Sorry I did mean child support!

Do you have to be officially divorced to do the arrangement? We are only starting the 6-month reflexion time.

[ajdias]

Make an appointment with your social office (lastenvalvooja?) and ask for their help before you agree anything.
Here's a handy calculator to give you a starting point.
Google "elatusapumaksu laskuri" for more info.

[Amandine.K]

Thanks everybody.

Cory, we are pretty much in the same mind frame, so I think we pretty much know what we need to do for the kids.

[ajdias]

Actually, in my case, we found it much easier to agree without any outside interference when we sat for the first time to discuss matters.

That is great; you can go and just ask for guidance and information, not necessarily for them to mediate or interfere. The more informed you are, the better the decision is likely to be.

[Amandine.K]

Regarding the calculator, is it to be calculated per child or you enter the value for all the children? If I put the value for one child, it gives me about 109€, if I do for the three at the same time I get 79€. Quite a big difference...