Another Child Support Horror Story

by suellen
(13905)

In April 2008 my fiance filed for a decrease in child support. It was denied. Out of pure spite his x then filed for an increase in June. By the time it came to court in December and was increased (from the date of filing) it put him in Arrears over $7,000 because it had been based on his 2007 tax information.

The court had Lost his current pay stub that he had been told to bring in. He then filed an Objection because the court lost the pay stub, which was denied because "the pay stub could not be found in the file"! When he tried to Appeal as a poor person it was denied because his gross income was to high, although his net income was only 39% of his gross, because of the excess support he was already paying. He could not afford a lawyer, so had to file for another modification in February 2009.

He has been forced into excessive overtime to pay his own bills while waiting for the issue to come to court and was recently diagnosed with diabetes. He fell asleep while working the night shift in June and was fired for it (It had happend before in September and he had been spoken to, and as punishment he could no longer work Any Overtime, although he was still paying child support with overtime calculated in) He found another full time job on July 13 and his Modification finally came to court July 23. He had not yet received his paycheck from his new job and was told to bring it in when he was paid, which he did the follwing day and the court clerk stamped it "Received July 24, 2009 at 2:35" pm. He was told that he would receive a decision in two weeks. Eight weeks later he finally received the decision and the support was based on "A Projected Income for the job he was fired from"!!! (which paid $30,000 more a year) because the Order said AGAIN that he had not provided his current paystub!!! Although this time we had the copy stamped received because we already went through that the first time. Currently his weekly Gross income is $1,000. Between 2 child support obligations and taxes the total is $1,093. Of course child support can only take 65% of his check, so the amount they cannot take is being added on arrears. We filed an Objection and are now waiting...to be able to pay our electric bill and buy toilet paper. :(
P.S.- I am writing to my congressman about lobbying to change the current child support laws.