Can You Get Both Alimony and Child Support?

Yes. You can receive both alimony and child support at the same time. They are two separate awards that exist for two different reasons, and getting one does not cancel out the other. Child support is money for your children's needs. Alimony (also called spousal support or maintenance) is money to help a lower-earning spouse after a marriage ends. A court can order both, one, or neither, depending on your situation and your state's law.

That said, the two awards are connected in practice. Many states calculate child support first, then look at what's left when deciding alimony. So while you can get both, the numbers influence each other.

Child support vs. alimony: what's the difference?

These two payments are easy to confuse, but courts treat them very differently.

• Child support belongs to the child. It is meant to cover food, housing, clothing, school, and medical care. Parents generally cannot bargain it away, because the right belongs to the child, not the parent. It is usually set by a state formula based on each parent's income and the parenting schedule.
• Alimony belongs to the spouse. It is meant to address an income gap between divorcing spouses, especially after a long marriage or when one spouse left the workforce. Unlike child support, alimony is highly discretionary and is far less predictable.

Because they serve different purposes, a judge can award both in the same divorce. A stay-at-home parent of young children, for example, might receive child support for the kids and temporary alimony while finishing school or re-entering the job market.

How courts decide child support

Child support is the more standardized of the two. Every state runs a child-support program under a federal framework. Federal law (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 654) requires each state to operate a single child-support agency and to provide services for establishing paternity and setting, modifying, and enforcing support. In exchange for federal funding, states must adopt standardized enforcement tools.

The practical result: child support follows a written formula in your state. Judges have limited room to deviate, and the order can be enforced aggressively. Under 42 U.S.C. § 666, states must use procedures such as automatic income withholding from a paycheck (§ 666(a)(1)), liens against property (§ 666(a)(4)), and suspension of driver's, professional, and recreational licenses (§ 666(a)(16)). Past-due support can also trigger a federal tax-refund offset (authorized under 42 U.S.C. § 664). And under 42 U.S.C. § 659, even federal wages and benefits — including military pay — can be garnished for support.

How courts decide alimony — and why it varies so much by state

Alimony is where outcomes differ dramatically from state to state. There is no national alimony formula. Each state sets its own rules on whether alimony is available, how much, and for how long. Some states have moved toward guideline calculations or durational caps; others leave it almost entirely to a judge's discretion.

Courts weighing alimony commonly look at factors like:

• The length of the marriage (long marriages are far more likely to produce alimony)
• Each spouse's income and earning capacity
• The standard of living during the marriage
• Whether one spouse gave up a career to raise children or support the other's career
• Age and health of each spouse
• The time and training the lower-earning spouse needs to become self-supporting

Because the rules are so state-specific, the single most important step is to check your own state's spousal-support statute or talk to a local family-law attorney. Do not assume a friend's outcome in another state predicts yours.

Can you get a divorce without child support?

This is one of the most-searched questions, and the answer has two parts.

If you have no minor children together, yes — there is simply nothing to order. Child support only exists when there are children to support. A childless couple's divorce will not include a child-support order.

If you do have minor children, you generally cannot get a divorce that ignores child support. Because the right belongs to the child, courts are reluctant to approve a settlement that waives it or sets it at zero without a good reason. Some parents agree to a number that deviates from the state guideline, but a judge still has to review and approve it as being in the child's best interest. You can sometimes agree to little or no support — for example, in a true 50/50 custody split where both parents earn similar incomes — but you usually cannot make child support disappear just because both parents want it gone.

One more point on getting divorced at all: in most states, one spouse can obtain a no-fault divorce even if the other refuses to cooperate. Two states, Mississippi and South Dakota, require both spouses to consent to a no-fault ground; there, a refusing spouse can force you to prove a fault-based ground instead, but a divorce is still ultimately obtainable.

Time-sensitive: support can't be reduced retroactively

This trips up many parents, so flag it now. Under the federal Bradley Amendment (42 U.S.C. § 666(a)(9)(C)), child support that has already accrued becomes a judgment that cannot be retroactively reduced or forgiven — not even by a sympathetic judge. If your income drops (job loss, illness, reduced hours), you must file a motion to modify right away. A modification can only reach back to the date you filed or served the motion (which point controls varies by state), never earlier. Waiting to file means the old, higher amount keeps piling up as enforceable debt.

What happens if parents live in different states

Child support follows you across state lines. Under the Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act (28 U.S.C. § 1738B), every state must enforce a child-support order properly issued by another state, and a state generally cannot modify another state's order except under narrow continuing-jurisdiction rules. This federal law works alongside the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), which every state has adopted, to decide which state's order controls. The bottom line: moving away does not erase a support obligation, and you can't shop for a friendlier state to rewrite an existing order.

Bankruptcy won't wipe out support

If the paying spouse files for bankruptcy, both alimony and child support are protected. A "domestic support obligation" — which includes child support and most alimony — is non-dischargeable under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(5), meaning bankruptcy cannot erase it. It is also paid first among unsecured claims under 11 U.S.C. § 507(a)(1). Even a property-settlement debt owed to an ex-spouse under a divorce decree is generally non-dischargeable in Chapter 7 (§ 523(a)(15)). In short, you can pursue both alimony and child support knowing bankruptcy is not an escape hatch for the person who owes them.

How the two awards interact

Even though you can get both, the math is linked. Many states run child support through the formula first, because supporting the children is the priority, then consider alimony based on the income that remains. Alimony you receive may also count as income in some support calculations, and child support paid out may reduce the payer's available income for alimony. The order in which they're calculated, and how each affects the other, is set by state law — another reason the details depend heavily on where you live.

Note too that the tax treatment changed for recent divorces: for divorce or separation agreements executed after December 31, 2018, alimony is no longer deductible by the payer or taxable to the recipient under federal law. Child support has never been tax-deductible or taxable. A tax professional can confirm how this applies to your agreement.

What you can do

1. Separate the two requests in your mind and your paperwork. Ask for child support and spousal support as distinct items; one does not replace the other.
2. Look up your state's rules. Find your state child-support guideline (usually online with a calculator) and your state's alimony/spousal-support statute. Alimony is where state differences are largest.
3. Gather income proof for both spouses. Pay stubs, tax returns, and a budget. Both awards turn on income and need.
4. Open a case with your state's IV-D child-support agency if you need help establishing or enforcing support — these services exist under federal law and are low-cost.
5. If your income changes, file a modification immediately. Remember that already-accrued support cannot be reduced retroactively.
6. Get local advice. Because alimony is so discretionary and state-specific, a consult with a family-law attorney in your state is worth it before you settle.

This article is general legal information, not legal advice; consult a licensed family-law attorney in your state about your specific situation.