I have 2 issues with child support, any advice is much needed?

Question

I have 3 teenagers with my exhusband and he only pays 600.00 a month child support. He does not pay for insurance, extra curricular activities, doesnt buy them clothes or shoes, never helped with child care expenses, never pitched in for trips, camps, sports, or senior pictures. 600.00 a month thats it not a penny more. His payments have been very sporatic over the coarse due to frequent job changes and knee injury. At times being 6 mo behind. His wages are now being garnished. Problem now is he works for a trash company now where sometimes his paychecks bounce and sometimes they sit on the money taken out of his checks for child support and dont send it for 4 to 6 weeks, while he gets paid weekly. I have called enforcement to no avail. They give them threats but dont follow through. I was getting weekly checks for two months in a row and it suddenly stopped and havent gotten a check for 4 weeks.

Since this has caused me to be behind once again I asked him to give the kids lunch money for the week, and his reply was ,"thats what you get child support for. And he says, "thats your job, they dont live with me. Has anyone experienced this with an ex and how did you make it through.
Also what can I further do to consistantly get the support to raise my kids when child support enforcement wont even do thier job.

Answer 1

ok i went through the same thing you are going through let me tell you what to do. If there is a court order in effect for the child support and if you go through the child support enforcement like i did you go down to your local sherriff's dept and file for a petiton to take out a warrant. They will only do this for criminal cases however it is criminal if he is in violation of his court order and not paying . They will set u up a court date to plead your case. However chances are it will never go to court. Because he has to appear to if he doesn't a bench warrant will be issued not only for the child support order but also contempt of court or failure to appear. If he does show up then if he is found guilty then he will be taken to jail right then and there. My x always got the court notice and paid in full what he was behind. All the proof that you need is a printout of the payment made and the arrears amount. Your child supportenforcement can help you with the paper work.. Just call and say you need proof of your payments and arrears. This is full proof and a very quick way to get your cash Good luck to ya Need to know more write back and i will send you a email address i am pretty much a pro in this area....

Answer 2

You could take several steps.... depending on your state you may be able to file for yourself. Also, if the company truly bounces his paycheck and does not pay the child support like they are suppose to check your state guidelines. In my state the company can be held responsible for the money if they don't withold the proper child support amount. It is right in the income deduction order/garnishment. Read the garnishment Order carefully.
You mentioned you haven't got a check in four weeks, usually enforcement, at least in my state, won't start enforcement proceedings until they are 30 days behind. I know it stinks but that is the way it is. And of course it all takes times. You also said sometimes he is as much as 6 months behind so he must have an arrears balance? Is he paying on this balance? If not, you can ask to go to court and make him pay on this weekly too. If you want him to pay for insurance you can go back to court and ask for a modification.
L.

Answer 3

Get your lawyer on this NOW. I know it may be expensive to do that but your other option would be to sit and wait it out never getting caught up in payments. Which would be cheaper and best for the kids? His place of work has got to be held liable and could get into serious trouble because they are basically in contempt of a court order. While you have a lawyer working on that have him also run a income check to see if you are due an increase. I'm not sure where you live but in Illinois you can check an ex's wages once a year. I know you are in a difficult position and I wish I could be more help. Hang in there and take care.

Yes my daughter has the same problem getting anything "not directed from the courts" from her ex. His reply is usually "you already get all my money!" They are going back to court the first of Feb. to revise visitation, child support & such. One of the things her lawyer is going to insist on is the ex paying for half of school fees, sporting fees and school clothes. If you need to talk some more write me at [e-mail].

Answer 4

There are far too many pro-bono father's rights lawyers that fight for dads out there for you to have to pay high dollar for attorney fees. If you have children of your own, you need to fill out and file with the courts an income declaration that shows that the money that he makes is just enough to support the household he currently has. if she is remarried, the courts also are required to consider step dad's income and the ultimate goal is to not have birth father be put in the financial situation to cause his other children to suffer, the gap in income levels between mother and father to be minimal so that when the child has visitations the living arrangements are close to equal so the child doesn't feel uncomfortable while transitioning between the two households and the state to receive any owed reimbursement that they may be able to collect on. Now, child services should not be collecting on behalf of your state if your scenario is correct because no mother with a home, cars, sea doos and so on would ever qualify for welfare or assistance. The child support office that is garnishing his wages would not be doing so off of a 1998 default in appearance. They would have sent him multiple dated notices and opportunities to petition and submit documents/pay stubs to demonstrate that the amount that they set to garnish is too high/low. A garnishment of $950/month is obviously the highest they could have started with and because he didn't contest it, they ran with it. 13 is not a baby and while verbal agreements aren't worth the paper they are written on, written and notarized statements from the child about where his support has been coming from, from the Dr. offices that would have all records of payment cash or money order and any form of receipts showing a dated consisted pattern of payment would build a supportive case. If you can, step back and look at the picture not as the new wife but as the mother of the child and seriously ask yourself if he has been consistent with the payments, supported his child no matter how despicable the mother be and if in good faith you believe that he has done his part you need to ask him why he chose to ignore and disregard all of the notices and steps that were offered to him up to this point when something could have been done to prevent a garnishment. You may find that he and his employer have known about this for some time and didn't inform you or take the notices seriously. I have seen true deadbeat dads actually purposely get fired and take low paying jobs to avoid a high dollar garnishment but they, in my opinion don't deserve the right to reproduce. I on the flip side too $100/month for the last 18 years from my x husband because I didn't want him to financially unable to restart a life with a new family or grow to resent his son over a financial obligation when we were just kids when we married. I was probably a dumb *** since it was so very hard and my son is oblivious to his father's financial contributions but I didn't feel right accepting what the court decided was fair when I just wanted the kid.

Answer 5

I worked in child support enforcement for many years. Unfortunately, they can only send you the $$ as it is received by the employer. They can contact the employer though to try to get the $$ sent in more frequently. However, he is responsible for paying the $$ if the employer does not collect it. Sounds like he may have a legitimate problem with his employer if his paychecks bounce but he should have enough sense to get another job. Who would work somewhere if the paycheck bounces regularly?

If he is behind on support, then insist that they take the case back to court for non-compliance with the court order. If nothing else, it will give the judge a chance to determine if he has other assets or exactly what his income is now. Good luck

Answer 6

Depending on where you live...$600.00 is NOTHING for 3 kids! LEGALLY child support is supposed to cover half of the cost of living per child....that includes rent/mortgage, food, electricity, gas, education, clothes, yadda yadda yadda...Basically if you were to split all your bills by four (Yourself =3 kids), take the 3/4 total and divide that by 2, that will give you a clearer picture of what his fair share is. You NEED to go to your District Attorney's office. With all the publicity over these Dad's not paying, the DA's are really helpful in getting the monies to us Mom's! Good Luck!!!

Answer 7

I have never seen a dime of child support in 13 years, and there is an order the only thing I can say is tough it out, you are the better parent and when you see your kids succeed you will be the one thanked for it. Also try getting your kids to ask thier father for stuff they need or want that can sometimes work

Answer 8

"thats what you get child support for" is what they ALL say.

i have no idea how old your child support order is, but you can take him back for 'modification' any time you want.

1) call your CS worker and tell them you want a cost of living increas hearing scheduled.
2) look at the link below for the calculator. just find your state, and fill in the fields. THAT is what you are supposed to be getting for child support.
3) every state is different (slightly) in these matters, but most require both parents to pay for medical insurance, etc. if you have a court order stating that you pay for it, get it changed (modified) so that he has to help pay for it.
4) if you need legal help, contact your local Legal Aid Office. they are in every state and most counties. they go on a sliding scale, so its free to most. look in the phone book or call your county court clerks office for the number. if no luck, call your states Bar Assoc for it. make an appointment and they will file the papers for you.
5) teenagers cost more money then babies. their clothing is more, they consume more food, pads, bras, acne medicines, more doctor visits (more active, thus more injurys), their class trips are more money, etc. some states recogize this and adjust the support because of it (such as WA).

I live in NJ, have 4 kids (lots of teens) and i know teens cost more for a fact. i spend a small fortune on their needs.

here are some links. i know they are a lot, but take your time to pick through them. most have some great info on them. just click on your state and find the section you need.

the last few are to help you.


http://www.wantedposters.com/deadbeats_usa_a_to_f.htm
http://www.deadbeatjustice.com/list.htm
http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc422.html
http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq4-5.html
http://www.irs.gov/localcontacts/index.html
http://www.divorcelawinfo.com/
http://www.divorcelawinfo.com/calculators.htm
http://www.helpyourselfdivorce.com/child-support-calculators.html
http://www.divorcehq.com/deadbeat.html
http://www.lawchek.com/Library1/_books/domestic/qanda/childsupp.htm
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/region2/index.html

http://www.supportkids.com/

http://www.singlemoms.org/info/main.htm
http://www.singlemotherresources.com/
http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/njcomputerchick
http://www.parentswithoutpartners.org/chapterfind.asp
http://www.mowaa.org/
http://modestneeds.org/
http://freecycle.org/
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn.nsf
http://www.redcross.org/where/chapts.asp

Answer 9

Do you have a job? Or are you trying to live on just the child-support? Unless the divorce decree and support order says that your ex must pay for insurance and or clothes etc. Then he doesn't have to pay anymore than the $600 per month.

If his employer is writing paychecks that bounce, or they sit on the money and don't send it, then you should contact your attorney and have him pursue a legal action against the state and your ex's employer where it pertains to paying the childsupport taken out of his check.

I once worked for a company they were taking child support out of my paycheck on payroll deduction, i didn't hear anything from the state for about a year. Until i one day got a letter saying i was behind by about 6000.00 dollars. I hadn't heard a word from the ex on not receiving the money.

So i called her, she mentioned she hadn't received a cent in a year. I took all my pay stubs to the state they photo copied them, then i went to my employer and asked to see the cancelled checks for the paid child support deductions. They couldn't produce them and so i demanded my $6,000 bucks they paid it right then to me, and fired me.

I took the check to the state and paid. Sometimes employers can't be trusted to do the right thing. Best get a lawyer and deal with this. It's the only way.

Answer 10

Keep calling the child support enforcement. Explain them that the way they gather the money is not working for you. They need to do something about that. And keep calling until they figure it out. There is not much you can do. He's not helpful, so there is not much you can do. I don't think a lawyer will help you a lot, it might cost you a lot of money.