There are many components that go into the calculation of a child support obligation. Calculating a parent’s income for purposes of determining a child support obligation is not as simple as one may think. Pursuant to the Pennsylvania support law, “income” is defined very broadly. The definition, includes, but is not limited to, wages, salaries, bonuses, fees, commissions, interest, rents, royalties, dividends, pensions and all forms of retirement. Also included in “income” is “Social Security disability benefits, Social Security retirement benefits, temporary and permanent disability benefits, workers’ compensation and unemployment compensation.”

Further, in the Pennsylvania support guidelines, under the section titled “Calculation of Monthly Net Income,” the subsection titled “Treatment of Public Assistance, SSI Benefits and Social Security Payments to a Child Due to a Parent’s Death, Disability or Retirement” it states, in part: “If a child is receiving Social Security derivative benefits due to a parent’s death: * * * If the surviving-parent obligor receives Social Security derivative benefit, the benefit shall be added to the parent’s monthly net income to calculate child support.”

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