Settlement Counts As Income For Child Support Calculation?

Location: Pennsylvania

A few years ago I was involved in an accident where the other driver (of a semi) was ruled at fault. I immediately retained a personal injury attorney who’s been handling the situation since then.

At some point, the county I have a child support case in issued a non-disbursement order (at the time, I was on arrears due to a change in employment, but I’ve since gotten up to date and now have a credit on it). A settlement has been reached and we’re in the final stages of getting it over with.

However, the county is telling me that to dissolve the order, my attorney has to provide them with a bunch of information which is fine, whatever. But Domestic Relations is telling me that they will seize all of it, have a hearing, and use that settlement as “income” to recalculate my support obligation?

My attorney is telling me that she’s never heard of that in her years of practicing, though she has seen the state seize funds for arrears but, again, that’s not the case here; I’m actually ahead. (Edit: I never missed any work, so that’s not an issue either.)

Im barely treading water here, financially, I can’t really afford to have the state be saying I’ve doubled my income this year (I was planning on using the settlement to pay off debt and give myself room to actually breathe for once). Is Domestic Relations correct, or is this a case of a county worker not knowing what they’re doing, or is it possible that there’s something I’m misunderstanding?