South Carolina Child Support Calculator

South Carolina child support depends on both parents’ income before taxes and the number of children. The parent with less time pays their share, based on their share of the income. For example, a parent earning $1,000 a week before taxes, whose children live mostly with the other parent earning $3,000 a month, pays about $584 a month for one child and $872 for two.

The amounts are the same for any schedule up to 109 overnights a year with the paying parent; from 110, the shared parenting adjustment can lower them. The schedule these amounts start from, in $50 steps up to $40,000 of combined monthly income and six children, is in the 2024 South Carolina Child Support Guidelines (Regulation 114-4750).

South Carolina uses an income shares formula, so both parents’ incomes count. It adds the parents’ incomes before taxes and looks up the schedule amount. It then adds health insurance and child care. The parent with less time pays their share of the total.

The steps are in Regulation 114-4720, on Worksheet A:

1. Find each parent’s gross income from all sources, including alimony received. SSI, cash assistance (TANF), and food stamps (SNAP) don’t count. If a parent earns less than they could on purpose, a judge can count what they could earn.
2. Adjust it. Subtract alimony and child support paid under other orders. A parent with other children living with them also subtracts a credit (75% of the schedule amount for those children).
3. Add the two incomes and look up the schedule amount. The DSS calculator uses the nearest $50 step of the schedule, and so does our estimate.
4. Add the children’s health insurance, ongoing medical costs insurance doesn’t cover, and child care.
5. Split it by each parent’s share of the income. The parent with less time pays their share. South Carolina assumes the parent the children live with spends their share directly on the children.

Example

One parent earns $4,000 a month and the other $2,000, so their combined income is $6,000. The schedule amount for one child is $878. The higher earner has two thirds of the income, so with fewer than 110 overnights a year, they pay about $586 a month.

It can, once each parent has at least 110 court-ordered overnights a year (30%). From that point a judge can use South Carolina’s shared parenting adjustment, which lowers support more as the time gets closer to equal. With one child and gross pay of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays $586 a month with fewer than 110 overnights, about $500 at 120, about $352 at 146 (40%), and about $220 at equal time.

To use the adjustment, each parent needs more than 109 court-ordered overnights a year, and both parents must pay for the children’s expenses beyond child support. Worksheet C, the shared parenting worksheet, multiplies the schedule amount by 1.5. It then works out what each parent owes for the time the children spend with the other parent, and the parent who owes more pays the difference. From 110 to 128 overnights, the amount moves step by step toward that result, as the state’s DSS calculator works it out. Overnights are counted over a whole year, so a month-long summer visit doesn’t lower support. See Regulation 114-4730.

Child care a parent pays so they can work or look for work is added to the support amount, after subtracting the tax credits for it. The parents split the total by their shares of the combined income.

For example, if child care costs $600 a month after credits and you have two thirds of the combined income, your share is $400. When the parent the children live with earns more than a set amount ($3,200 a month with one child), the worksheet lowers the cost by 27% to account for tax credits, by up to $68 for one child or $135 for two or more. The cost has to be reasonable: no more than quality licensed care costs, under Regulation 114-4720(A)(14).

The court orders coverage from the parent who can get the most complete coverage at the most reasonable cost. The cost of covering the children is added to support and split by each parent’s share of the income. The parent who pays the premium gets credit for it. Medical bills insurance doesn’t cover, above $250 a child each year, are split the same way.

• Children’s part of the premium: only what the parent pays, usually the difference between coverage for the parent alone and family coverage.
• Uncovered bills: the schedule already includes $250 a child each year for copays and over-the-counter medicine. Ongoing costs insurance doesn’t cover, like counseling or allergy treatment, can be added to the monthly amount.

See Regulation 114-4720(A)(12) and (13).

If the children live with you and you get TANF (cash assistance), you have to help DSS get child support from the other parent, for example by naming them and going to paternity tests and court dates, unless that would put you or your children at risk. While you get TANF, the support collected repays the state and none of it goes to your family. Food stamps (SNAP) don’t require this.

• TANF: if you don’t help with child support, you can lose TANF, according to DSS’s TANF questions page.
• Support collected: while you get TANF, DSS keeps current support to repay it. Once TANF ends, current support goes to you, as its child support FAQ explains.
• SNAP: the USDA SNAP State Options Report lists South Carolina as a state that doesn’t tie food stamps to child support.

The South Carolina child support guide covers how this works.

South Carolina’s guidelines aim to leave a paying parent with a low income $1,010.50 a month to live on (the self-support reserve). For a paying parent in the schedule’s shaded low-income range, the guidelines take support from the schedule using only their income, with no health insurance or child care added. The state’s DSS calculator doesn’t apply that rule, and neither does our estimate, so both show the paying parent’s share of the combined amount. When the parents together earn less than $750 a month, a judge decides support case by case, usually at least $100 a month.

• Who counts as low income: a paying parent whose monthly income before taxes is up to $1,300 for one child, $1,500 for two, or $1,700 for three, under Regulation 114-4720(A)(11). The schedule shades these incomes. Under this rule, a paying parent earning $1,300 a month with one child pays $265 a month. The DSS calculator and our estimate give $207 when the other parent earns $4,000.
• Combined income under $750: the judge must leave the paying parent enough to live on, but should still order a set amount, under Regulation 114-4710(A)(2).
• Earning less by choice: a judge can count the income a parent could earn, after looking at their work history, skills, health, and the jobs available nearby. Time in jail or prison doesn’t count as choosing not to work, under Regulation 114-4720(A)(5).

The schedule stops at $40,000 a month in combined income before taxes. Above that, a judge decides support case by case.

At $40,000 combined, the schedule amount is $3,183 a month for one child, $4,680 for two, and $5,458 for three. See Regulation 114-4710(A)(3).

Yes. Courts start from the guideline amount, but a judge can order a different amount after explaining the reasons in writing.

Reasons the regulation lists include private school or college costs, how property was divided, consumer debts, more than six children, a parent’s unusual medical costs or travel costs for visits, the child’s own income, a big difference in the parents’ incomes, and an agreement between the parents. See Regulation 114-4710(B).

Ask DSS to review your order, or ask Family Court to change it. If you ask, DSS reviews an order every three years, or sooner if your situation changes. Keep paying the current order until it changes.

• Through DSS: send a Request for Modification Review (DSS Form 27129). DSS asks both parents for financial information and can change the order if they agree, or takes it to a judge. See DSS’s page on modifying an order and Regulation 114-4740.
• Through the court: a judge can change support when your situation changes. The new amount can’t apply to payments that came due before the request was filed and delivered to the other parent, under S.C. Code § 63-17-310.

The South Carolina child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. The South Carolina Department of Social Services publishes a Child Support Calculator that adds the income adjustments, child care, and health insurance this page leaves out.

Use the DSS Child Support Calculator with the worksheets in the 2024 guidelines. Our estimate works out the amount the same way, including its rounding. When we checked it in August 2026, it didn’t apply the low-income rule above, so for a low-income paying parent both can be lower than the regulation’s amount.