Determining Child Support Payments in Schuylkill County PA?

Question

My husband and I have custody of my step daughter and have recently decided to finally take her mother for Child support. She's 28 and has recently moved back to PA from CA because fo a divorce. She has no job (hasn't worked much in recent years) and is living with her parents. She filed for disability in CA and was denied and has supposedly filed in PA. When my husband filed for support they told him she may not be required to pay anything until the disability has been determined. Two years ago we filed for support and she cried her way out of it and we were told to wait until we had a court order stating we had primary physical custody(which we now have). I got ahold of the PA Child support guidelines which says someone with 0-800 a month only has to pay $50 a month! She has a paralegal degree and can most definately work. She told us she'll never work and never have to pay. Does anyone have any advice to help us? It seems if your a father Domestics isn't out to support you.

For starters to the rude person she's NOT disabled. She claims she can't work because of a bad back but she can pick up my 55 pound step daughter? Yet she can't sit at a desk as a paralegal? Secondly, we have no credit card debt and the support money is an obligation she has to her child. That money over the next 11 years can accumulate and she can have a nice nest egg to help send her to college. We've asked her to pitch in half for cheerleading and gymnastics and she refuses. This past year she bought her $93 in school clothes and sent us a copied receipt and told us not to ask for another thing. ( We didn't ask for the clothes) She doesn't want to pay but she calls my husband 3-4 times a day for nonsense. Her mother, who has custody of her other child, gets visitation and one time our stepdaughter was throwing up and running high temps and she called and my husband said to get her to the doctor and she said no way she wasn't going to pay the $20 copay so we went and got her.

Answer 1

well, the honor system doesnt work, thats for sure.

every state is different (slightly) regarding CS guidelines. yours is complicated by her disability. she may indeed be disabled (and you cant see it). even so, she should pay at least something to help pitch in or at least offer to babysit for free. i live in NJ and here it does matter (the outcome of the disability claim). see if you can have her at least babysit, car pool, take the child to the doctors, etc.

there is nothing worse then a deadbeat (male or female). it puts a HUGE strain on everyone and everything.

here are some links that may help. just click on your state and find the section you need (child support, custody types, visitation & CS calculator).

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

Answer 2

Unfortunately, this is a huge problem in child support. With a disability, she cannot be forced to work. But you can bet that if and when she does get any type of income she will be paying. The courts look at the whole picture and takes into consideration all things, and probably figure that forcing her to pay, either by forcing her to jail to teach her will not serve anyone any good so they wait. Meanwhile, if there is a court order for her to pay, then all this is going into arrearage, but dont expect to collect as it appears she has learned how to beat the system and proving it is almost impossible. Hopefully, she has no visitation rights. Your best bet here is dont expect anything from her and just move on with your family and forget her. Good luck

Answer 3

I have to agree with your last comment. Men have it hard concerning these matters.
But it's true someone with that type of income will be paying around 50.00 a month in support and that can include medicial expenses. Sad but true.
You can't make her work though. It doesn't matter if she's capable.
If the child is a teenager and the mother is in this state then no, I wouldn't bother. But if the mother is getting disability your child will get a percentage of that.
If the child is young I would file anyway, no matter what she has to pay just to make her pay something.

Answer 4

You have custody of the child, so what's the freakin problem. Do you have to be such a greedy couple to have to harass this woman for childsupport.

I mean even if she was working as a para-legal you'd only get about $200 a month more to your household. Which basically amounts to nothing. You'd only go out and run up more credit card debt. Using the childsupport to make the payments rather than pay for the childs needs.

Get off her back, you and your husband are so bored with your freakin lives, you have to start all this freakin drama with his ex so you can have something to gloat over. Get a freakin life and leave this woman alone.

She's more than likely disabled, just needs an attorney to handle her claim for her. Disability claims are being denied for years for people because of the policies in place to deny people their benefits.

Answer 5

Pennsylvania can be pretty hard nosed about child support, but sadly it tends to swing more toward the mothers rights. I know more than one father in our county that is paying close to 50% of his income in child support. When one told the judge that he wouldn't even have enough to live on the judge said "get another job". (Which he did - and his ex took him back to court for more support and GOT IT!)
My only suggestion - get on her and stay on her. There is no reason a mother cannot/should not be held just as responsible for child support as a father would.