Another Child Support Issue

[Anonymous]

I've already gone down to the county circuit clerks office and had them print out all the payments that I've made so that I could use that in an argument, but that was even wrong.  The lady that was helping me said that she was going to call another department to see what they had, and it was the same amount that appears on my credit report.  Interestingly though, my credit report states that the $7k amount is what I was delinquent on with a balance of $1098, which is in my opinion is the remaining balance of the $3k child support sent me during the beginning of last year.  Serenity now!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Of course, yes.  It's part of the same court order.  There's a huge mistake being made somewhere, and it's killing me to get down to where the problem is, because as you all know child support is NEVER wrong.  I was getting updates from them when I paid my arreage down like clockwork; 12,000, 8,000, and finally 3,000.  After that, all the problems began to happen and the snowball (dungball really) is getting bigger and bigger.

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True.  Sad.  Scary.  Unfortunately.

That is pretty much the attitude that most CS agencies take.

[Anonymous]

Another thing to check is if the amount  showing owed is money owed to her by you, or money owed to the state that they gave to her via TANF or FoodStamps and that you have to pay back because of delinquent child support.

[Anonymous]

As far as I know, she's not on stamps and she doesn't have or use their medical card.  I provide medical/dental/optical coverage, and they actually have 2x the dental coverage.  While unemployed, she had no need for any of that stuff because my family stepped in and provided whatever my kids needed.  Tomorrow I just have to put together the paperwork that they've sent to me showing that my balances had gone down, some other stuff showing they were reporting a balance going down ($1895 - $1098) since July/August, and make some calls to the capital to see if I can find some answers.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Another thing to check is if the amount  showing owed is money owed to her by you, or money owed to the state that they gave to her via TANF or FoodStamps and that you have to pay back because of delinquent child support.

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It should make no difference.

No matter what type of public assistance the custodial parent may be on, the fact is that the child support order reads X dollars per week and that does not increase / decrease absent court order, which is not determined on benefits received.

Also, child support payments are paid directly to the state in most cases these days on newer child support orders.  If the individual is on PA, then the child support collection unit passes on the first $50 (approximately) to the parent and keeps the rest.  If no PA is involved, the parent gets the full amount except in those states which charge a processing fee -- usually something like $10 per year. 

Now, if one pays the child support directly to the other parent, just about anything can happen.

[Anonymous]

$35 here and as you can tell by my posts that, it's obviously not put to good use.  On a couple of occassions I have paid my ex directly so that she was not stressed out and I wanted to do the best that I could for my kids.  I wouldn't recommend doing that, because she has never stated in front of a judge or her lawyer that I have done so.  In the end it was for my children.  At least that's what I have to tell myself.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

$35 here and as you can tell by my posts that, it's obviously not put to good use.  On a couple of occassions I have paid my ex directly so that she was not stressed out and I wanted to do the best that I could for my kids.  I wouldn't recommend doing that, because she has never stated in front of a judge or her lawyer that I have done so.  In the end it was for my children.  At least that's what I have to tell myself.

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Unfortunately many who pay child support get messed over by paying the other spouse directly.  It's sad, really, but better never -- ever -- to pay the other parent directly unless by check ... and even then.   

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

$35 here and as you can tell by my posts that, it's obviously not put to good use.  On a couple of occassions I have paid my ex directly so that she was not stressed out and I wanted to do the best that I could for my kids.  I wouldn't recommend doing that, because she has never stated in front of a judge or her lawyer that I have done so.  In the end it was for my children.  At least that's what I have to tell myself.

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Another thought--

In your calculations of how much you should still owe vs. what the state says you owe, are you also figuring in the interest that you would have owed, and continue to owe due to the delinquency?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

$35 here and as you can tell by my posts that, it's obviously not put to good use.  On a couple of occassions I have paid my ex directly so that she was not stressed out and I wanted to do the best that I could for my kids.  I wouldn't recommend doing that, because she has never stated in front of a judge or her lawyer that I have done so.  In the end it was for my children.  At least that's what I have to tell myself.

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Another thought--

In your calculations of how much you should still owe vs. what the state says you owe, are you also figuring in the interest that you would have owed, and continue to owe due to the delinquency?

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A lot of states are adding interest now.  Generally it is about 10% simple interest.

[Anonymous]

Ok, let me explain the way that I'm looking at it.  As of 01/09/2010 I received paperwork from child support that stated I owed $3,379.03, which did not include the interest.  Interest in my state is 9% and I'm assuming that it's calculated at a monthly rate because it equals out to $7, 028.38.  My Experian credit report states an amount of $7,196.00 past due with a balance of $1,098.00, which is still wrong because child support only applied $51.00 to the arrearage from Sept. to Oct. of last year.  Last week when I went to the county clerk's office, their figures were all wrong according to a printout of all my payments.  The lady that helped me made a call to another division and they were wrong as well, because they said that I still owed the $7k.  I have a monitoring service that I subscribe to that has been reporting the amount down from $1,634, which has been reported by someone in the child support division.  I'm losing my mind fighting with these idiots!  I'm already overpaying my ex by 12% according to the child support division because two of my children are over 18, and our divorce decree didn't include college.