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Anybody have a lot of experience with income withholding for child support?

stepmama2one's picture

BM has paid on and off for the last 3 years. Keeps a job for a few months then quits. Judge tells her to get with it and she gets a job for a few months again and then quits again. Anyway the first time she started paying she was getting paid 2 times a month. After we got the letter that the state had made a claim against the noncustodial parents wages, it took approx a month to get something. However a week of waiting on that was because they had to send my DH a card because he had never gotten support before, so he had to wait to get it to activate it. The 2nd time she started paying, and this was with a new job, she was getting paid every other week and it only took a few weeks to start paying. This time however is taking a bit of time and I was just wondering if somebody might have a clue.

About 60 days ago we got another letter in the mail saying BM's wages have had a claim filed against them for child support, of course from yet another new job. Well since then, we haven't heard anything else and haven't received a payment.That seems a little long to get a child support payment but I don't know much about withholdings. Does it sound like she maybe quit her job again and that's why we haven't received anything? I thought that once she is hired, child support finds out and puts a withholding on her check. From the time it takes them to actually withhold anything she could of gotten a check, and could of quit her job. But even if she quit her job and got a few hours work, you would think we would of at least received something.

Just wondering if anyone has went through this before. The only reason why I am curious is because she has a court appearance at the end of the month for nonsupport. She keeps getting away with not paying her support because everytime the judge asks why she isn't paying support she tells him that it isn't her fault, she just got a job and the withholding hasn't taken effect yet.

It irritates me because if that were my DH having to pay support and he gave the judge that same line of bullshit she always gives him, the judge would tell my DH that it is DH's responsibility to make sure something is paid on time while waiting for the income withholding to take effect. I know the judge would say that for a fact because when my DH was paying support for my SD, the first payment was late because he had to set up bank account with child support and it took a little time to get the bank account verified. When we told the judge, because the judge was going to order an income withholding, that it takes time for the process to get set up for the first time, the judge stated to my DH," I don't care how long it takes. It's your responsibility to pay ON TIME. Pay by check or if the month ends before it's paid you will be in arrears." When we told the judge that was bullshit because we weren't going to send her two monthly child support checks in one month (one that the bank was set up to send, and a check from us), he said that it wasn't his problem to pay on time. We just told the judge to send the withholding to his employer and DH would be only be in arrears until the next month.

Comments

stepmama2one's picture

That makes sense. She is being prosecuted for failure to pay child support, so you would think she would want a job that the money would actually go to the support. The only reason she gets off her lazy ass and works is because she doesn't want her charges to change to a felony, because she is far enough behind to have that happen.

stepmama2one's picture

In my state a felony is her being behind $5000 or 12 monthly payments, which would be $2580. Right now she is over both of those amounts put together lol. She has been going to court for over 2 years now for this same crime and has only paid $1000 toward current and past support. Once she starts paying and starts to decrease her balance she quits her job for several months at a time so it builds up again. Judge has bought her sob story over and over again and still only charges her with a Misdemeanor, even though he has the power, as long as the state agrees, to amend her charge to a felony. I'm just hoping maybe one day he will get tired of hearing it. However, if he isn't tired of hearing it after the last 2 years he probably won't ever get fed up.

stepmama2one's picture

Lol. Yeah the state didn't wait for her to turn in her income information. Missouri goes with a New Hire Reporting, so that things like child support enforcement doesn't have to rely on deadbeats to tell them they are now working. Child support enforcement found out she was working and filed a claim against her wages. After they did that, they sent us a letter stating that's what they did. I was just curious because they sent that letter a long time ago and we haven't heard anything else.

stepmama2one's picture

Yeah the last time DH got anything from her was in June of this year. She paid $75 in May (it was actually short by half) that is when I THOUGHT she quit her job. However, in June DH was paid $15, which was probably from the last week she had her job and they are only allowed to take 55% of her disposable income, and then nothing has happened since then.

So my guess is she quit her job at the beginning of May and since they pay in intervals it took until the first of June to pay out.. Her last court appearance was in August, and we received the letter stating they had filed an income withholding in the middle of August. So yeah it's been awhile, about 2 months.

Sunflower1's picture

It also depends on the state. Some have a minium amount the person has to make before the state will garnish wages at all. So if she's working as say a server, good luck getting anything.

stepmama2one's picture

Doesn't really matter if she doesn't pay. Not to us anyway. I'm to the point where we don't care about the little bit of money she is forced to pay for my SD, hell she doesn't pay it but a couple of times a year anyway. However, because she is being prosecuted, she won't just be able to skid by and not pay anything. Even if it's money she has to pay on her own instead of through a withholding. I understand what your saying though.

I think right now, and I know I shouldn't think badly, but I think I would rather her not pay anything and wait to see what happens to her. Hell she hasn't seen my SD in almost 2 years and my SD wants nothing to do with her so really I just want her to get what's coming to her. I wish she wouldn't pay and then maybe her shitty ways would catch up to her. But it will never happen because she has a vagina.....

Amber Miller's picture

I am going through the same thing and it is FRUSTRATING! I have 3 teenage boys. Their father sees them on average 4 times a year for a few hours at a time. He never has them overnight. He didn't show up for court to establish visitation. The judge was pissed and ordered that visitation is granted on agreement as I see fit (it's worded differently but that's the jist of it). He was ordered to pay $442 a month for 3 kids in April 2012. He is currently $6700 in arrears. On average he has 10 different jobs a year; this has been going on for years. CS and the court will not hold him in contempt as he has been paying around $53 a month. He has gone a few months without paying but because it's not 6 months in a row without paying , they won't hold him in contempt. I call every few months and they refuse to do anything. All I get is the same BS, "we've suspended his license ". Big fucking deal. He doesn't care! He drives anyway and gets away with it!
We hired a lawyer and gave a $2000 retainer. The lawyer looked into it and said that he is a low life bottom feeder and he is ok with living the lifestyle he lives. He has no assets , no savings; there's nothing to take. He said that you can't get blood out of a turnip and warned us that he was concerned to move forward with the case as we would spend more in legal fees than we would get. He said that due to his inability to pay the $442 that it was risky to take him to court as he could show that he's unable to earn more and that the support amount could be reduced. He kept $100, returned the $1900 and told us that he didn't feel right keeping our money. I understood. The court based the $442 on part time minimum wage; he currently has 3 jobs. Whenever CS catches up with him, he quits his job, doesn't tell CS and it takes a few months before they are able to attach his wages.
He lives for free at his sisters house. He has lived there for years. She pays for his car, gas and food. He pays for his weed (I have nothing against people who smoke weed). I do have a problem with people who buy weed and don't help pay for their kids to eat!
I am so frustrated. I had to go to court 4 times to establish support. He finally showed up at the last court date. I was told by the attorney for CS that it was also my responsibility to support my kids. Hello???? That's why we are here! My DH and I are the only ones supporting the kids. We are here asking for the court to impose on exH that he help too.
In the divorce agreement, my exH agreed to pay 50% of all uncovered medical, dental and therapy costs. He was ordered to provide insurance for the kids. He never did. DH has them insured and we have presented several thousands of dollars of uncovered medical expenses but he ignores our bills that we send. DCSS said they need me to provide them with documentation of at least $1000 of bills that we've paid and then they will have us go to court and attach his wages. I have to pay the bills within 30 days of receiving them and provide proof that they are paid in order to ask the court to enforce a court order. Unbelievable! I have all these conditions I have to follow and all he had to do is not show up and it "goes away".
I don't know what to do. Do I fight this? Do I get another attorney? I'm sick and exhausted. I fell ill with a rare auto- immune disease and it's serious. I undergo infusions 5 days a week every month for 5 hours a day. Child support services are worthless. I read all these stories on here of non- custodial parents getting screwed and I can't even get $442 a month. Besides having kids with a loser, what did I do? My DH raised his kids. He's now paying for mine. He's an angel and has given me a gift. I am grateful. All I want is exH to help to the time if approximately $5 a day per kid.
It's amazing how unfair this all is.