The Child Support System is a Joke!
- My child is now 6 years old. I filed for child support 2.5 years ago after I gave her father many chances to start helping. We live in two different states. He is in the National Guard and working. When I filed in 2008 it took them 1 year of messing around to say they couldn't find him and dropped my case. Mind you, I have his home address, his work address, and he's in the army! So after they threw my case out I re-filed and waited and waited. Finally, 6 months later, I got a check from the agency for a whopping $25! I received $25 for three months. Then, after the court date (which was 3 months ago), I received $58. So I'm thinking $58 a week is great. It will help tremendously! I'm a full time nursing student so I need all the help I can get. So since the court date I received $58, $33, $50, and $8 (yes, $8.00). That repeated for 2 months. Now I get nothing! No one has any information, and I still have no copies of the court documents! the other agency won't give me information, and mine isn't doing anything! It's a joke.
- —Guest pissed off!
They Reported the Wrong Income Amount
- NC Guilford County Child Support was given my paycheck stubs, yet they knowingly reported a much higher income to the judge and no one wants to help. The sad thing is I could provide a much better home for my child than the mother, who is unemployeed so she can milk the government for aid and collect child support to raise my son in the ghetto. What a joke and they ALL know it.
- —Guest Lyle Williamsn
My Ex's Employer is Holding the Money
- My son's father and I get along very well. We agreed upon a lower amount for child support - something he could easily manage that would cover half the costs of what I typically pay per month for our son's expenses. He pays his employer a set amount weekly, but his employer seems to be holding onto the money and not sending it to the state within the 5 days they're supposed to. The state is doing nothing about it. I am not even getting the full amount per month from the child support agency that I should be getting, yet when I check the balances on the website, the total amount I am owed is going down! It's not going up as it should be. Both of us are bewildered and agitated with both his employer and the child support agency. We've both tried to get help from the state, but no one seems to be taking our case seriously. If the money his employer is taking out isn't going to me for our son, where is it going? That's all we want to know.
- —Guest WI Mom
Mother paid cash & hiding money
- I have to start off by saying that I have never missed a child support payment or been late paying. I am always 1 to 2 weeks ahead in payments. My ex has a work history of working for the schools in NJ as a teacher. She refuses to get a job on the books. Instead, she is working for her brother, being paid cash, and is collecting welfare. When this was brought to the judge's attention and she was questioned under oath, she lied and the judge believed her with no proof. After, I hired a private investigator and provided the audio, video, and written report to the court. The judge just brushed it under the table and refused to hold her for lying under oath. So why does a court believe a female with no supporting documents? In addition, the judge made a sexist remark to me, implying that I have no legal right with respect to my children. I hear that the same judge has done this to a number of men, too. Why do the courts allow a judge to make rulings with such biases? He treats good fathers like they're bad fathers. Why?
- —Guest carring father
No Justice
- The child support agency has been stonewalling me. One of the fathers' attorneys knows my attorney. Child support even said one of the fathers was deceased! Then I hired a detective. He said he wasn't. Then I hired a laywer. One of the fathers owns two succesful construction companies and is an engineerer in Prospect, Kentucky. The other father was an excuetive consultant of a major tobacco firm that moved to North Carolina. They even made a movie about the tobacco company. I love my sons very much. I feel that there should be justice for the poor.
- —no.jusstice
No Justice in Shelby County, TN
- There is no justice in TN as far as child support. I have 3 children. I pay $600 per month for my 16 & 17 year olds from my previous marriage. I pay $973.00 per month for my 6 year old. I only make approximately $38,000 per year. I paid $1,300 to file the appeal to Jackson, TN Appeals Court and $3,500 in attorney fees for nothing. My child's mother was found guilty of submitting fictitious income information. She reported for the last 4 years that she makes $24,000 per year, my attorney reported that she makes $40,000 per year, which affects how much I pay. In addition, I made $50,000 with overtime the year my child was born. Child support keeps using that income to determine my amount and they refuse to give me credit for my other two children, even though I have provided documentation. In Appeals court they sided with the mother after all of this because they said I had no transcript from the prior court. Shelby county had destroyed the transcript before the 1 year time limit. Its all a setu
- —MemphisDad
Child Support Protects Deadbeat Fathers
- I have a son that is 15 years of age. His father been in prison two times, for half of my son's life. The state tells me that they can't help because he's locked up. He's never taken care of my son. He hasn't even seen him since he was born. And he write my son to tell him that he is his father! I'm sorry, but it takes a real man to be a father. He tells my son he has a lot to tell him. What is that about? He has been a drug dealer all his life. That's all he knows. He has about ten other kids from different woman, and he doesn't take of any of them. My son is his frist born. And his mother is not any better. She doesn't even know me, but she talks about me all the time. His mother knows that he doesn't take care of his kids, and she don't say anything. I have a little girl, too. She is 10. My ex-husband doesn't want anything to do with her. He gets an SSI check every month. Once again I'm told that the state can't help me. All he would have to do would be to go to the SS office and give them my daughter's information, and she would get a check, too. But if he did, it would cut his money. That's why.
- —Guest From Titusville FLa
Here is My Child Support Story
- Well, here's my story. I have five children that I support through child support, medical/life/dental, and other basic things. I love my children, so I've taken it all, but recently I am a little hurt by the system. I was placed in jail for 4 days for failing to appear to court in WV. I was picked up the same day I recieved the notice of the appearance. In other news, even though I pay the support, I rarely get to see my children and it seems as though I'm just wanted for money and that's it. My youngest two live with their grandparents in Bunkerhill, WV, and they took me to court for child support. Where is the mother? Not with my children. She is in Hagerstown, MD, sponging off the system and not paying child support. She's not even trying to work, she's with a known drug dealer, and she is allowed to see the kids anytime she wants, but I can't even get a call in.
- —Guest Darrish
Why I am Not a Deadbeat Dad!
- I need to tell my story to someone, so here I go... I have been beaten down by my kids' mother in court & by the kids too! I have paid child support ever since my little girl was born 3/31/89. We did live together for some time when the kids were little and I was paying her mother for us to live there & was still paying child support when she got a wild hair up her butt & thought it was okay to cheat on me. I found out and moved out. Well that wasn't good enough for her, so I moved to Flordia & gave up on everything I have ever known or loved to start a new life... Well, again, that wasn't good enough as she beat me down to my kids, & when I would call she would call me every name in the book in the background. Okay forward this to 2009 & the kids hate me and are told lies about what kind of person I am and who I became. In 2007 I lost my job and used all my 401k money to pay child support & had to find a meaningless job for them to take half of my part-time pay & not give me my driver's licence back!
- —Guest Tom
Mother Not Paying Child Support
- I just went to court today trying to get my daughter's mother to pay child support. I have her over 85% of the time. I went to trial last year because my ex was growing dope in her basement with her husband. I really don't get how a mother can just go right up to a judge and get an "At-a-boy!" for not even taking care of their part! Then on top of it they think that they should just get their children back when they can't even take care of the child. Now I guess that's Jackson County's way of making sure that children are taken care of--not. Anyways, I take care of my daughter and her mother just thinks it is cool to not support your child. Then on top of that, she clogs up the court system because she dosen't want to pay child support. Missouri needs reform on child support laws so deadbeat mothers can't run around and not bother to pay child support.
- —Guest Jason L. Olathe ,Ks
Military Officer & Worthless Father
- I am an American living in Germany. My ex-husband lives in TX and was a Lieutenant during the marriage. Now he is a US Army Colonel. He stopped paying the child support agreed to in our separation papers when our son was 6. He is now 21 years old. Because I could not afford a lawyer to handle an international case, this man has never taken any responsibility for his son. He still does not get it: leaving a spouse does not free you of your obligation to take care of your child.
- —Guest disappointed
They Took Everything
- In 1997 my wife and I separated. In 1999 I took custody of my children. Child support has continued to enforce on me in three counties for the same two kids. They have taken bank accounts, tax returns, my passport, drivers license, workers comp settlement, and my life insurance will not carry me. I lost my job, too. I am trying to put the kids through college. They keep telling me they're going to fix this, but I'm on my third case worker call weekly, but get no help. I need to get life back. This is so unfair to my kids, plus all of my money has been taken and my wife never got any of it with the exception of $100.
- —Guest matthew hanna
Children Deserve Both Parents
- If Equal Shared Parenting was the rule, many of the mothers on here would have been obligated to find employment, and provide some means of support for themselves. I work full time, have my kids 53% of each week and I still have to pay $1500 a month in child support and another $1000 in spousal support. Why should I have to pay her at all? If I am a responsible father, who respects that we are both the children's parents, and willing to parent the children as much of the time as possible, why would the expectation be solely on me to provide for the children? Women need to step up, and take responsibility for themselves and the children equally. The only way to make the system fair is to eliminate financial support, and implement a universal presumption of equal shared parenting (with the only exception being if a parent is incapable of caring for their children).
- —Guest Ryan
Can You See it Coming?
- I was in a custody dispute with my ex, and I planned ahead a little, saving money until I decided to make my move after my son reached school-age. All I wanted was half custody at first, until she abandoned him and the cops brought him to me. During the wait for the trial my ex let our son be late or miss school 35 times, She never attended the class at the courthouse and tried to disqualify the physician (who was on my side). In the end we shared custody and I saw that if it was the other way around, I would've failed badly and been a weekend daddy. But what was strange was what happened next. I was making $3 an hour less with 50 percent custody. She quit her job, got a court hearing and actually got the judge to take 1 percent custody from me so she could still get child support from me. She had more income and she should have had to pay me! The judge threatened me when I showed him that the court paper said 50/50. It's a true story!
- —Guest Steve M
The Child Support System is Very Broken
- I was married for 12 years to a man who was never faithful. We had 2 kids. As an electrician, he worked under the table a lot and was ordered to pay $60 a week for both kids. I didn't have a career at the time. Ten years later I went after him for non-payment. By then he had two homes, cars, motorcycles, & ski mobiles, but he never produced a financial in court. I had an attorney who told them he was divorcing his 2nd wife & everybody missed it. He signed every asset he had over to her & divorced her so when I finally got the judgment for $142 per week, he had nothing. He & his ex walked out of MA to NH with everything, and she covered for him. Having 2 kids of her own from a previous marriage, she covered for him! I have received nothing. He currently owes us $40K. There is no paper trail on him at all. I lost money to lawyers and the whole system is broken. I will never see a dime. He states, "I am not your father. I don't owe you a living." My kids did without, but have love--ME!
- —MAMom31
