No Child Support?

nlg319

New Member
Ex husband stopped paying me child support for difficult child#1 who is in temporary foster care. Can he do that?
 

rejectedmom

New Member
I think he will have to pay the foster care system. He cannot just stop supporting his child. Get legal advice there are usually free attorneys to those who can't afford one on their own for things such as this. -RM
 

tracy551

New Member
Who ever has custody is the person he must pay support to. My difficult child is in Residential Treatment Center (RTC) put there thru the court system and I have to pay support to them.
 

busywend

Well-Known Member
He will have to pay CPS now. They may have made the change if it is taken right out of his check and sent to the state child support organization.
 

Ally

New Member
When my difficult child was in foster care they did income testing on both myself and her dad to see what we had to pay a month for her being there, as well as taking the child tax credit for her.
 

peg2

Member
I live in new jersey and had to pay support to Youth and Family Services while my son was in a residential. His dad was court ordered also and paid whenever they found him! It is very expensive to have a child in a program and one can't expect to reeive support for a child who isn't in your care.
 

neednewtechnique

New Member
Yes, as everyone else has said, if the child is in foster care, even if it is temporary, the Foster Care Association in your state, whatever it is called, will automatically re-route your child support payments to their account and you will not receive anything. The crappy part is, and they won't tell you this part, but if they choose, they can do an income analysis on you and start charging YOU child support too. The other thing, that is even worse, even though they have authority to automatically re-route it to themselves, they have NO WAY of putting it back where it belongs when your child is returned to you.

Here is a trick I learned, and you can use this, hopefully in your state as we have been able to in our state. Child support enforcement will tell you the only way to get your payments stopped and get his re-routed back to you is to hold a case review, which requires a custody statement from the court saying who the child lives with after they are returned home. When you request the review, they will continue taking the money every month, but will put it in a "held account" and once the review is complete and things go to the way they should, you will be refunded all the money in that "held account." While there is NO SHORTCUTS to getting your EX's child support re-routed back to you, you just have to follow their instructions and wait out the system (they are slow as HELL so be prepared for a six month wait), there IS a trick to getting yours stopped quicker than the review, if they decide to start taking child support from you. The first hearing you have after CPS sends the child back home (doesn't have to wait the six months until they step out, just when they put your child back in your home), make the judge at that hearing write up a "STOP ORDER" on your child support. They will do it if they are nice enough (ours was). Submit a copy to your employer and submit a copy to child support enforcement. Once your EMPLOYER has the STOP ORDER, they are no longer required to garnish your wages, and if Child Support Enforcement comes after them with fines for NOT garnishing you, they have a court order to protect them from getting into trouble.

We did not know if this would work or not, but we decided to try it, and my husband asked the judge at the hearing, not sure what he would say (we figured he would tell us what everyone else did, that we would just have to wait it out) but he told us exactly what I said above, about where to send the stop orders, and he signed off on it and made it all go away.

Like I said, I know every state is different, so hopefully it would work the same in your state as it does here in Illinois, but you can ALWAYS ASK the judge, he will tell you one way or the other whether he is willing to do it. Even here in Illinois, he didn't HAVE to do it, becuase he doesn't normally involve himself in those matters, but he did it to be nice, maybe you will get as lucky as we did!!!! (Of course, if you would get really lucky, they won't come after you for support, and CSE won't take long getting your EX's re-routed back to you).....GOOD LUCK!!!!
 

nlg319

New Member
Thanks for all the replies. The child suuport check does not go through any agency. Ex husband mails check directly to me and I deposit it into my checking account. He just decided on his own, without letting me know that he wasn't going to pay me the full amount, only for difficult child#2, my 12 yr. old son. I do not have money for a lawyer and it's easy for ex husband because his lawyer is his sister-in-law and she advised him to keep child suuport money in trust fund.
 

peg2

Member
I hate to say I disagree with anyone, but I work in the system as well as having had a child in placement myself twice and it is very expensive for the state to pay for their care. I was court ordered to pay support, with no questions asked. The hearing officer looked at my paystub and ordered me to pay $400.00 per month. No questions as to my expenses,etc. here in NJ they have a formula they use and all they look at is gross pay. No deductions,etc. Parents here have had to take their children out of programs because they can't afford to pay. I do beleive we should all pay because we pay when they live with us anyway, but it should be based on income and expenses. I was ordered to court 6 months after my child was placed, and he was there 16 months. My $400.00 was only my share, my ex-husband was ct. ordered to pay the other 1/2. Here, a Judge will not make any exceptions, if you don't pay, the sheriff's dept. will issue a bench warrant and pick you up!!!
 
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