Child Support Nazis or, I Am Not A Deadbeat Dad! (Long)

The BBQ Pit
1

Me: Hi, my name is Vince. I am refinancing my house. My title company called you earlier and they are under the assumption that I am in arrears. I checked your computerized phone system and it says that I am not in arrears. Can you verify this for me before I ask them to call you again to confirm this?

Her(Family Support Division Case Worker): What?

Me: [Reapeating above.]

Her: I never talked to a title company today!

Me: Your name is ***** ******, right?

Her: Yes.

Me: Oh, well John Smith, from yadda yadda Title Company said he spoke with you just a few hours ago about my account.

Her: [Shuffling paperwork] Oh, yes, I did.

Me: He was under the impression, after speaking with you, that I was in arrears on my child support.

Her: No, you’re not.

Me: Ok, thanks, that’s what I thought. I’ll have him call you to confirm. There’s one other issue I’d like to resolve. The phone system says I only owe $292.60 this month, when my regular payment is $593.00. I don’t understand why that would be. Can you explain this?

Her: I don’t know!

Me: Oh… Hmm…

Her: It looks like $300 was credited to your account.

Me: Hmm, that’s interesting. Does it say why?

Her: How should I know???

Me: Well, are there any comments next to the credit?

Her: It looks like it was from an overpayment…three years ago.

Me: Hmm, three years ago huh? And it’s just now showing up on my statement?

Her: Yes.

Me: Ok, thank you.

<click>
This is just one example of our friendly, neighborhood Child Support Nazi Institution. Another one is when there was a system-wide glitch that sent out notices to most Sonoma County child support payers that their accounts were months in arrears. This resulted in them garnishing my paycheck for the rest of the time I worked at that particular job AND garnishing my income tax return, even though I have ALWAYS been current in my payments.

When my child support order was first placed, it was for about $300 more than I was making, minus current obligations. Did I complain? No. I went right out and got a second job and paid it, like a good dad. I was out of work for five months, looking for a job after I got out of the army. Did I stop paying? No, I knew my kids needed the money, so I just paid it out of savings and, at the end, using a credit card.

I have never been late with a payment in the four years I’ve been paying child support. As a matter of fact, I started paying support even before any order was established. And yet, my wages have been garnished, I’ve recieved threatening letters that I would be taken to court if I didn’t pay up, I’ve dealt with the rudest of people at the Family Support office and I’ve been financially crippled, in the sense that my credit report reflects that the child support division basically has a lien on my LIFE unless otherwise noted. Every major loan that I get has to be cleared with them. They can revoke not only my driver’s license and my passport, but my professional licenses as well, on a whim or a glitch.

Now I realize there are plenty of deadbeat dads out there but, christ, I am not one.

Fucking Child Support Nazis…

2

things aren’t any better on the recieving end ya know (not that it helps much, right?). My ex has had his c/s payments withheld from his paycheck since the dawn of time. He gets paid every two weeks. According to the law the employer has five days to forward the amount on to FotC. I know this 'cause I’m an employer, too.

Rarely does this happen. One month, they (the employer) held onto the payments for over a month. By the time they started again, he was 6 weeks in arrears, through no fault of his own. I contacted my caseworker who said “why don’t you write them a letter?” Well, 'cause it’s your fuckin job, that’s why. Plus, they blew me off (after all I’m only the exspouse of one of their employees), if they got a letter from the County making statements like “you’re in violation of a court order and can be held in contempt of court” (true by the way, the employer is under the same court order if there’s an order to withhold payments from the checks), maybe they’d have cut the check sooner.

grrrrrrrrrrrr. But I digress.

I’m sorry for your situation.

3

Last fall, my husband started teaching guitar at a music store. This is the first day gig he’s held since the mid-80’s (strictly playing music all those years in-between). He arranged with FOTC to take his child support out of his check. His employer was lazy about getting those payments in, and after four weeks, his ex was a shrieking harpy, blaming him for the fact that she wasn’t getting her money.

FOTC was slightly more on the stick for once, though. They sent (chuckle, snort) the POLICE to my husband’s place of business, to have a talk with his boss. The cops said “hey look–you HAVE to send those payments in. It’s a court order. Quit fooling around.” His employer hasn’t been late since.

Demo, I’m sorry that you’re geting yanked like that. Most dads really are decent guys that want to do right by their kids, but FOTC can really make you guys look bad sometimes, even though we know it’s not your fault.

4

I, too, have never been late on a payment. They’re always automatically deducted from my paycheck. Yet, I still receive a notice each month advising me that I’m late because the first payment only covers half of the amount. (Twice per year I’m caught up. Ahead, actually. Then it starts all over again.)

Every person in my country (which covers Minneapolis and suburbs) that pays CS via payroll deduction receives the same letter. The letter also states that if the support is paid by payroll deduction that you can ignore the letter.

Nice.

The country literally spends thousands of dollars each month to say, “Never mind.”

I’ve complained about it. I’ve written to the local news channels. It seems that there’s no interest in trying to stop this waste.

Fucking morons.