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Groenstein v. Groenstein1/19/2005
l spouse, to protect the children and insure that the payments are used for the children's benefit. But paying the child directly does not transform this substitute for the parent's earnings into income for the child.
Maples v. Maples, 899 P.2d 1, 5 (Wash.App. 1995). Alaska courts have found that " lthough the benefits are payable directly to the child rather than through the contributing parent, the child's entitlement to payment derives from the parent, and the payments themselves represent earnings from the parent's past contributions." Miller, at 577 (discussing social security retirement benefits, but concluding that there is no difference between retirement benefits and disability benefits for child support purposes.) In Oklahoma the reasoning is similar: "Social Security benefits are analogous to private insurance, where a parent insures against his ability to fulfill moral and legal obligations due his minor children. The payments to a minor child are a direct result of the earnings and payments of the parent through his prior employment." Wilson v. Stenwall, 868 P.2d 1317, 1319 (Okla.App. 1992).
[ ] When noting what other courts had done when faced with this question, the Connecticut Supreme Court noted, "'These payments are for the purpose of replacing income lost because of the employee's inability to work upon becoming disabled.' The benefits 'are not gratuities but are earned, and they substitute for lost earning power because of the disability.'" Jenkins v. Jenkins, 704 A.2d 231, 235 (Conn. 1998) (citations omitted). The Jenkins court goes on to reason that child support calculations are based on the concept that the child should receive the same proportion of parental income as he or she would have received if the parents had remained together. Because both the disability income received by the disabled parent and the dependency benefits received by the children would have been available to support the children if the family had remained intact, those amounts should be included in the child support calculation. The failure to include these benefits in the disabled parent's gross income leads to child support based on an income figure that does not accurately reflect the income available to the family unit. Id.
[ ] We agree with the reasoning of these courts. Because dependency benefits represent an amount earned through the parent's contributions to the social security program, it is proper to include those amounts in the disabled parent's income. We likewise agree that including those amounts in the parent's income accurately reflects the funds available to support the child, which will result in a more appropriate support calculation. Therefore, the funds paid to the child must be included in the disabled parent's income.
[ ] Logically then, we must also conclude that the same amount must be credited to the disabled parent's support obligation once the appropriate amount of presumptive child support is calculated. "The majority view . regards social security benefits [paid to the dependent children] as earnings of the contributing parent and, for this reason, allows benefits paid to a child on the parent's behalf to be credited toward child support obligations." Miller v. Miller, at 577; see also Kricken, at 62 n.86 (collecting cases). Indeed, " ore than thirty states have allowed a credit to the noncustodial parent for SSDI dependency benefits or for Social Security retirement benefits paid to the minor children of the noncustodial parent." Rosenberg v. Merida, 697 N.E.2d 987, 990 (Mass. 1998) (citing Michael A. DiSabatino, Annotation, Right to Credit on Child Support Payments for Social Security or Other Government Dependency Payments Made for the Benef
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