Can undue hardship be claimed because of high travel costs to exercise parenting time?

High travel costs incurred to exercise parenting time are among the specific circumstances the Federal Child Support Guidelines recognize as a potential basis for an undue hardship claim, particularly where parents live a significant distance apart and regular travel is genuinely necessary to maintain the child's relationship with the parent seeking the reduction. As with any undue hardship claim, establishing the circumstance itself is only the first step; the claiming parent must also show their household's standard of living is not higher than, or roughly equal to, the other household's before a court will actually grant relief.

Courts look at whether the travel costs are reasonably necessary rather than a matter of personal preference, how much they actually amount to relative to the parent's income, and whether more cost-effective arrangements were realistically available. Documentation of actual travel expenses, such as transportation costs and frequency of trips required by the parenting schedule, is generally necessary to support this kind of claim credibly. Because the standard-of-living comparison is often the harder part of the test to satisfy, a parent considering this claim should assess both stages carefully before proceeding.