If you are getting child support in Illinois, you may wonder what exactly the support is to be used for. It is probably likely that you do not get enough support to cover every expense your child has, but this is not how child support is intended to be used anyway. According to the State of Illinois Circuit Court of Cook County, child support is to help with essential expenses. These are things like housing, food and basic clothing. Extra expenses that are not considered essential are not supposed to be covered by child support.
In a perfect world, all your child would need are essential things, but that is not how it works in the real world. You will likely have expenses beyond what child support covers. For example, if you have a young child, you may need to pay for a babysitter. An older child may choose to join the school band and need an instrument. Perhaps your daughter is going to prom and needs money for a dress, hair, makeup and shoes. If you do not have money left over from your child support, then you are footing the bill for all of these expenses on your own.
If you can openly discuss this with your ex-spouse, then you may be able to negotiate additional help for these other expenses. However, in most cases, it is better to negotiate during your divorce to ensure you can get help with them. Extra expenses that you may want to negotiate include daycare, education costs, medical expenses and sports fees.
