Child Support Collection Tips
Collection Tips Tagged child support, child support enforcement, Collection Tips January 9th, 2009Trouble Shooting Your Child Support Case
Getting Started
1. Do you have a legal child support order from a court or an administrative hearing at a government child support agency?
Yes go to # 2 for next step,
No:
If you were married when the children were born, you need to establish a child support order as part of a divorce or separation. You can obtain help to establish an order at the state government child support agencies. See How to Collect Child Support, 3rd Edition, Getting a Support Order
If you were not married when the child( ren) were born, See How to Collect Child Support, 3rd Edition, Establishing Paternity
2. What is the amount of your support order? _______
How much is owed in back support?______
If you do not know, if payments were ordered to be made through a government agency or Clerk of Courts, contact them and ask for a copy of your payment records.
Ways to Enforce - Collect Payments
3. Do you know where the nonpaying parent works?
Do they receive a regular paycheck?
No, See How to Collect Child Support, 3rd Edition, Finding Nonpaying Parents
Yes: Name, address and phone number of employer: _____________
Ask the government child support agency to call employer to verify employment, and to initiate income-withholding order (payroll deduction)for current support and back support payments.
Or process your own income-withholding notice. Income-withholding form see See How to Collect Child Support, 3rd Edition, See How to Collect Child Support, 3rd Edition, Ways to Collect Support Without Going to Court
4. Self employed Nonpaying Parent?
Possible solutions include: Contempt of Court or criminal non-support charges, place the company in receivership, till- tap of a company cash register. See How to Collect Child Support, 3rd Edition, Court Enforcement: Civil and Criminal Enforcement
5. For help with the following enforcement issues see How to Collect Child Support, 3rd Edition, Effective Enforcement Methods:
Get the IRS to Help Collect Payments. IRS Full Collection Service if arrears are more than $750,(collects child support same way back taxes are collected- case referred from state government child support agency to IRS; attach federal and state income tax refunds.
Attach nonpaying parent assets: bank accounts,rental Income, royalties, stocks, bonds? IRA’s,Worker’s Compensation?
Nonpaying parent unemployed? Initiate attachment of unemployment compensation, and/or obtain an order for the non-payor to seek work or be part of job training program
Nonpaying parent receives Veterans benefits? Initiate voluntary allotment and a contempt of court action if need to collect full payments and back support
Nonpaying parent receives Social Security Benefits? Initiate attachment of Social Security Disability checks, sign up for your child to receive dependent benefits. If Benefit is SSI, Social Security Supplemental, it is not attachable for child support and the child does not receive a dependents check.
Nonpaying parent receives military retirement? Initiate attachment of retirement benefits
Nonpaying parent in Military? Initiate involuntary allotment; this is just like a wage attachment.
Nonpaying parent receives retirement benefits? Initiate income-withholding to attach retirement
Nonpaying parent receives Unemployment compensation? notify state government child support agency to attachment benefits for child support payments.
Nonpaying parent receives bonuses and commissions? Initiate attachment with income-withholding order
Nonpaying parent pays only when taken to court? Ask court to automatically review the case every 60 days
Nonpaying parent has placed all assets in someone else’s name? Find out if you case qualifies for collection under fraudulent conveyance laws.
6. Visitation/ Access
To obtain visitation with your child, you must have a court order from a divorce, dissolution, paternity decree, or other type of order.
A specific timetable is the best type of court order to have if you are encountering problems obtaining visitation, because it specifically lists when you have the rights to visit the child.
If you do not have a specific visitation court order and you are being denied visitation, you can change (modify) your order so that it lists your specific rights. This can be done by filing a motion with the court in the county where the original order was issued or in the county where the child lives. If you have an interstate case, take action in the state where the child lives.
To change a visitation order, you can file the papers yourself. You can contact the courts for assistance.
Where there are severe problems, including a requirement for an itinerary in the order for where the child will be during visitation can alleviate some problems. If you already have a specific schedule outlined in your visitation order and you are being denied visitation, you can file contempt charges against the non-compliant parent. You will have to prove that the parent willfully stopped you from visiting the child.
To Prove that you have been repeatedly denied visitation through witnesses (best if these are not relatives: a clergyman or community social worker is best), through written evidence that you have attempted to visit the child.
lf vou have not seen the child in a long time, show the court that you are willing to gradually re-establish your relationship with the child.. Re~establishing a relationship can take time and energy, but it is well worth the trouble.
7. If you received welfare benefits, part of the back child support due may be owed to the state:
The state cannot take more than the amount they gave you in cash benefits ( medicaid, food stamps, etc . Do not count)) or the amount of the child support that went unpaid while you were on assistance, whichever is less
Unless
You were on assistance before 1998 in some states or 2000 in other states (Ask your state if they are a plan A state = 1998 or a plan B state= 2000) .
If on welfare, before the date listed above, the state can then legally confiscate some of the arrearage you were owed when you went on welfare so that they can recoup the amount of welfare cash benefits you were given - this is called pre-assistance arrearage.
Ask for an audit if you are not sure the state has calculated the amount owed to the state to pay back welfare correctly and to make sure they are not taking money they are not entitled to take.
Since 2000, in all states, any money collected to pay back support goes to pay back support
a. owed to the family first ( from before you went on welfare and since you got off welfare)
b. before it goes to pay back support owed to the state to pay back welfare rom the time period you were on welfare.
Current support due each month goes to the family once you get off welfare
Exception to all rules : Money collected form IRS offset (attachment of federal income tax refunds) goes to pay off amount owed to the state to pay back welfare first. We are trying to change- Write your U.S. Representative and Senators and ask them to give this money to families first in all cases.
Parents have right to ask for an administrative hearing (grievance hearing) to resolve any issues with the state keeping incorrect records, taking the wrong amount to pay back welfare, etc . Contact the government child support agency to get directions about how to file for a hearing.
June 27th, 2009 at 2:17 am
My son is now six, however when he was 1 month old we had DNA testing and his father was requested to pay me 60.00 a month. He receives SSI and has never worked. He paid it on and off for five years like 1 or 2 payments to avoid jail. For the first year of his life he paid nothing. When I went to the child support office they issued a warrent and he was required to pay all of his arrearages to be released. During this time I drew ktap. After my son was one I went back to work full time and was still a full time student. I worked for over a year and lost my job. I went back to ktap to help me until I was able to find something else. Through a program at the college I was able to work part time as long as I stayed on ktap. During this whole time he was still required to pay his support. As soon as I graduated and went to work I received a letter telling me he no longer was reqiured to pay me support and all of his arrearages were deleated. How can they do this if they made him pay the last five years. It is not about the money it is about the responsibility. 60.00 doesn’t buy my son’s anything. The goverment took away his part of being a responsible parent. Is there not anything that can be done?
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
It is illegal to wipe out arrears, so they could not legally do that.
However while you were on public assistance you “assigned” the arrears due during that time period to the state in exchange for public assistance.
You would be owed arrears form before the time you went on public assistance and since you have been off
If a new court order was put in place stating he no longer owes support, you would have been legally notified so that you could attend and state you side.
Set up a meeting with the child support agency and find out exactly what happened.