Minnesota Legislature - Office on the Economic Status of Women

Overview

If you receive child support or spousal maintenance without the county's assistance:
Your child support/spousal maintenance order may include language which states that you are entitled to an "automatic" cost-of-living adjustment every two years. However, the adjustment in your child support/spousal maintenance does not happen automatically.

You need to determine what the adjustment should be and then notify the person who pays the child support/spousal maintenance what the new amount is and when it is to take effect. This can be done any month, as long as it has been two years since the last adjustment.
You must also file the Cost-of-Living Adjustment Form, the Letter of Notification, and the Affidavit of Service by Mail with the court where your child support or divorce decree was finalized. If the child support or spousal maintenance is paid to you directly from his/her employer, you will also need to send copies of the forms to the employer indicating the new amount. (These forms are available on the Calculating the Adjustment page.)

If the county is collecting child support on your behalf:
If the county child support office is collecting child support for you, that office will take care of calculating the biennial cost-of-living adjustments from the person who pays your child support. The county will do this adjustment in May regardless of the dates of your original child support and/or maintenance orders. If the county is collecting both child support and spousal maintenance for you, that office will also take care of calculating the cost-of-living adjustment for spousal maintenance.

If the county is only collecting spousal maintenance on your behalf:
If the county is only collecting spousal support for you, you must calculate the cost-of-living adjustment yourself (as of May 1996, county child support enforcement offices no longer compute cost-of-living adjustments for spousal maintenance when there is no child support order). You need to determine what the adjustment should be and then notify the person who pays the child support/spousal maintenance what the new amount is and when it is to take effect. This can be done any month as long as it has been two years since the last adjustment. You must also file the original forms in this packet with the court where your child support or divorce decree was finalized and file copies with the Child Support Enforcement Office in the county when the payments are sent. If the child support or spousal maintenance you receive is paid directly from his/her employer to the Child Support Enforcement Office, you will also need to send a copy of the forms to the employer.

Last Updated: 09/22/05 (mmp)