Employer Child Support Submission Error - Credit Report

[Anonymous]

I’m a first time poster, and I’m having an incredibly hard time finding guidance online for our particular problem -

My husband has a child support withholding order, and has always had money withheld from
his bi-monthly payroll checks for child support. However, there were two instances in the past year where his employer didn’t submit payment to the child support agency: Once in Nov ‘16 and once in April ‘17. This error went undetected since we didn’t receive any notices from the court. Then, in August ‘17, the employer presumably detected the error and submitted two additional payments for a total of 4 that month. My husband wasn’t notified of anything amiss; in fact the first indication hat something might be wrong was that we had a small amount withheld from our tax refund, presumably interest that had accumulated for the past due. And then we noted the issue when checking his credit report last week.

His credit report shows a series of late payments beginning in November until August, 30, 60, 90, 120, etc. obviously this has severely damaged his score.

He contacted the child support agency and explained the error, but he child support agaency says they cannot correct the credit report, even though the error is clearly not his fault. His withholdings for that time period easily show the proper amounts being deducted.

Are there any legal remedies to this? His credit score today isn’t *terrible* at 703 but we were planning on buying a home and want to qualify for the best rates. Of course, the lender will also look at that trade line and assume he’s a deadbeat dad, which he is not.

I’m really upset that no one clued him in on this. Not his employer, not the courts, and not even his ex. 😡

Update: His employer contracts payroll to a third party, so the plot thickens...

[gdale6]

File a CFPB complaint on the one reporting the lates.

[SOGGIE]

If he has not already done so, it may be best to notify his employer's HR department IN WRITING, informing them of the matter and the subsequent related damages (adverse entry consumer report affecting credit score) prior to contacting CFPB. It is important to include the name of the HR contractor in the notice.

This example is one of many reasons why I oppose child support or spousal support activity being reported to CRAs. Family court cases are not necessarily public records per se--many states seal domestic law dockets and other documentation relating to these cases. Good luck!

[LunaBuna]

This maybe a case in which you wish to concult with an Attorney.   With the tank on the credit report and the failure to correct, the third party payroll service and or employer would be on the hook for damages.  Most child support payments are through the DA, you should call them directly.   

[Anonymous]

Update on this - when we first saw this series of lates on his credit report, he immediately disputed it through the credit bureaus saying that he had always had proper amounts withheld, etc. We just got notice about the results of the investigation - all the lates were removed! He also received a notice in the mail from the child support office that they had received a dispute inquiry, and they had removed the offending entries. Yet, when my husband had contacted that office directly, they had outright refused to even consider investigating or updating the credit bureau reporting.

A third party company handles payroll (ADP), and we are still awaiting a full accounting of amounts withheld and payment dates to the child support office. I told my husband that if continues to drag his feet on this, then I’d take it upon myself to start contacting people. Now that the credit report is corrected, I’m a little more relaxed about it, but at the very least they owe us a refund on the interest that accumulated for 9 months on the past due amounts. I have an attorney lined up if it comes to it, but it looks like most of the damage has been remedied. 👍🏼

For the record, his score jumped over 70 points after the removal. !!!

[RobertEG]

You clearly did the right thing by first filing a dispute rather than jumping to civil litigation directly upon reporting of inaccurate information to a CRA.

A consumer has no right to bring civil action against a furnisher for damages incurred due to inaccurate reporting on their part.

They must first file a dispute with the CRA, which requires the CRA to forward the dispute to the furnisher, and the furnisher to conduct a reasonable investigation and respond back to the CRA.

Right to civil action then occurs if the furnisher verifies the accuracy.  The cause of action then becomes the lack of a reasonable investigation under FCRA 611 rather than the reporting per se of inaccurate information.

See FCRA 623(c).

Furnishers thus have the ability to correct or delete inaccurate reporting before they become liable for civil damages.