I think I am getting to much child support from exs unemployment

In My Humble Opinion
1

I bet you did a double take on that thread title huh? No that is not a typo and I can’t believe it myself.

Okay let me see if you fine people think this as well. I hope I covered everything.

My ex lost his job on April 27th, 2007. I got two child support payments after that at the normal order of $77.43 a week.

From 5/8/2007 until 6/17/2007 I got no support at all. That made him $387.15 in arrears.

I had been in contact with him and he said he had mailed a payment and he got his information from unemployment.
I also asked him how much they were talking out for child support and he told me $30.00. Well hell that sucks but there is nothing I can do at least I am getting something.

So on 6/18/2007 I got $30 which is the money my ex mailed in himself as he said he had. I also know now why it was only $30 as he of course is not going to pay more than unemployment says he can afford.

Anyway…

On 6/21/2007 I get a deposit from child support for $91.00. I assumed this must be the payment from unemployment and since they only pay every two weeks then I must be getting $45.50 a week and the ex read the paper work wrong, no surprise there.

All sounds nifty a this point.

Then on 6/29/2007 I get $182.00 deposited from child support. I was surprised but I thought well maybe they set it up and you get a monthly payment. Sounds strange but I have never gotten child support sent through unemployment. I have always gotten it through his job.

Then today 7/13/2007 I get another $182.00. Okay now I am confused. If I am getting $182.00 every two weeks then that is $91.00 a week which is more than the current child support order.

It may be possible they are taking out more to cover the arrears but I would be very surprised if they were doing that. He was in arrears before and a special order was set up with child support to take out a small amount more from his check to get caught up. If I was really only getting $30.00 a week or even $45.50 then getting $91 a week is way over the top.

I believe if this is an error than it is unemployment making the error. I think child support would pass through whatever is sent and since he is in the arrears they would not even blink at the fact that the monies being sent are more than the order.

If unemployment is making this error I am also wondering if they are actually deducting the “extra” from his check or are they making double payments by accident?

I also noticed today that they are showing up as two separate deposits of $91 each, not one deposit of $182.00.

I certainly don’t want to just keep this money if this is not what unemployment set up and a mistake is being made.

I am not sure if I should contact child support or unemployment.

My ex if very ill right now and in the hospital so I can’t just call him and ask. His sister is handling his finances and I will give her a call to see if he got his unemployment check but I am not sure she is just going to willing tell me what amount he is getting from unemployment and there is no possible way that he could be sending in extra monies.

I never thought in a million years that I would be getting more child support. I just spent November of 2006 until April of 2007 going through an assessment and then it going through the courts to get it raised from $33.24 to $77.43 just to have it ripped away after only two payments and now this. Strange!

So what would be my best course of action here? Call Child Support? Call Unemployment? Ignore it and keep the money since he is arrers anyway?

Any suggestions/comments?

2

How honest are you feeling today? I’d call him - if that is not an option, call child support. If they say nothing is wrong…then do nothing.

Are you spending the extra money?

How many children are we talking about? One?

Might the agency have gotten it wrong and are paying you twice for more kids?

3

Call unemployment and ask them to explain it. If it’s too much, they’ll fix it.

Good on ya to be up front about it.

4

Agreed here. Kalhoun and I seem to consistently concur on ethical matters of child support. :slight_smile:

5

Well I am not feeling honest but I also don’t want it to bite me in the rear later which it most certainly do down the road. Nothing in life is free.

Yes I am spending it. I live paycheck to paycheck and at this point I am actually only getting an extra $13.57 more a week than the actual support order.

One child, 16 years old.

The reason I got the assesment in November 2006 was to have my son removed from the order as he turned 18 and was out of school.

At that time it was $ 66.48 and removing him just cut in half to $33.24. I got an assement for it to be recalculated and it was raised to $77.48 and I pay medical.

I am wondering now after thinking about it more if somehow the child support agency gave unemployment the original support order information that was set up back in 1992. At than time the support order was $140.00 a week. That would make sense.

I thought it was all automated though. The new order of $77.48 was just set and I only got two new payments before he was fired.

6

If it is a mistake, it might not be legal to keep the money. If the extra is getting deducted from his unemployment checks, it’s a pretty good bet that he’ll notice once he gets out of the hospital, and it might get ugly. I would call unemployment and ask what’s going on, because it definitely seems like an error, especially because it’s two separate deposits each time.

Anyway, good luck. I hope everything turns out well for you.

7

Perhaps the Unemployment people haven’t been talking to the Child Support. If they are working with old data, you may be getting a payment for the inelligible 18-year-old.

8

Well that could be but then the order was even less. It was $66.48 with both kids. When I removed my son and had a reassesment done it was raised to the $77.48. An assesment had not been done in 11 years and I was paying medical.

After some more thinking I think my paper work that I got from child support in January 2007 said that the new order was to become effective January 1, 2007 but since it still had to go through the courts it did not get signed by a judge and changed until the middle of April.

That means he owed an additional $44.24 since January along with the $387.15 that was in arrears.

I called child support about a day or two before I got the first $91.00. I wanted to see if they could tell me what I was going to get from his unemployment.

I was told by child support that unemployment decides what they deduct for child support and that the order has nothing to do with what is deducted. He gets what he gets, I get what unemployment says I can get and then any remaining amounts go into arrears unless he contacts support and has them do a decrease order because he is unemployed. As far as I know he has not done that.

According to them he applies and unemployment determines what he is eligible for. Then they take a percent of the X amount of dollars and submit that to child support. I know they can not take more than 50% but with out knowing what his check is there is no way to do the math.

9

I think, if it were me, I’d try to put a part of the money in a savings account, just in case they come back in a month or so and tell you that you were getting too much. They could cut the payments until they recouped the difference and then you’d really be in a bind. Bureaucracies rarely admit their mistakes, they usually try to blame someone else. They might say that you should have known you were getting too much and contacted them from the start.

10

With that last line, you’ve covered your basis… its not affecting how much he gets, and unemployment isnt concerened with the orders… if you want to do the ‘honest’ thing, cut him a check back for the extra $15 (once the arrears are paid up) and keep a record… that covers everything.

I think.

Basically, you’ve verified that there is no ‘error’ that you (or possibly even your ex) can fix…

I am not a lawyer, but I am counting the days down till I am done paying…

11

…My biggest problem being that you didn’t father my child. :wink:

12

I agree with those who said call the unemployment office, and ask them how they are calculating your payment. Then you’ll know if it’s their mistake or if they are working with old/bad information about what you are due. It would be better if your ex called, but he may not be able to do that in his condition.

13

I don’t think they would tell me. I would not want some strange person calling and having the unemplyment office give out my information.

I think I will call child support again on Monday and see if they can verify that the $91.00 a week is a valid amount.

I think he owes it because of arrears but I don’t see how unemployment would know that. I think the only information he gave to them was the SETS number so they can apply payments to the correct case number.

And he makes less than I do so I have a hard time believing that he got enough unemployment to warrant $91.00 going to child support.

l mean child support does not think he makes enough to pay that per week and they based it on his full salary.

14

Yes, make sure. You don’t want to be in a situation where 2 years from now you get a bill for all the back overpayment, plus interest, plus penalties or somoething.

Here’s a little cautionary story: My mother filed her tax return in 1991, and was audited. She was an employee with no other income, making something like $9/hr. Her taxes were simple, and small. Anyway, she got a letter from Revenue Canada telling her that she owed something like $250 more. This didn’t seem right to her, so she called them. Over the phone, someone told her that the request to pay was in error, and she should ignore it. So she did. And never heard a thing about it again. She filed taxes for the next 12 years without the issue ever coming up again.

In 2003, she gets audited again (she was a small business owner at this time, running her own grocery store). The audit was fine, but in the course of it they discover this unpaid bill, which was still on her file. So she gets a bill from Revenue Canada for $3,000 - the original amount, plus penalties and interest accrued over 12 years. She took her story to her accountant, and after a few days he called her and said that he had talked to the tax people and straightened it all out. The original charge was in error, and they would remove it and all the subsequent penalties and interest charges. Great. She never heard from them again.

Until this year. She’s now retired, on a fixed income, and a small one at that. And she just got a bill from a collection agency for over $5,000. She’s been fighting like mad to get this fixed, but now Revenue Canada says everything is in order, the original charge was correct, all the penalties are correct, and she’d better pay up. They tried to take some of her income, but all she has is a pension and they can’t touch that. But they’re threatening to put a lien on her home and take her entire life savings (which won’t cover the bill). Once a tax bill has gone to a collection agency, it’s extremely hard to get it undone. I won’t let them take her property - I’ll cover the debt if I have to, but it’s a horrible situation for her to be in regardless. She’s scared to death of them now.

Never leave issues like this unresolved. Find out exactly what’s going on to your satisfaction. Make them explain the rules to you that lead to your getting the amount you’re getting. If you think it’s still strange, try to get an okay from them in writing if need be. You’ll sleep better knowing there are no skeletons in the closet waiting to leap out at you some time in the future.