I just discovered I may be the father of a 22 year old. Am I liable for back child support?
Without knowing what has happened to cause you to ask this question as well as having no idea where you live, anyone would be ill advised to offer very much advise as this will probably be a legal matter and no one here is qualified to answer truly legal questions.
That said; if you are in the US and you have received some sort of legal notice that you owe back child support you should take all papers to an attorney who deals in family matters. You should be able to ask for a free consultation to see where you stand and also what the attorney will charge for their services. Legal services will be very expensive.
If you cannot afford regular legal services you should contact family services help center in your city (Google family services with your zip code) and explain what is happening and they may be able to help you find legal services free or at a very reduced rate.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I received back SSDI from 3 yrs ago and will continue to get it for my child till age 18. What about my back child support from 3 yrs ago? Do I still get it? And does it continue until my child is 18?
By cherry
Why wouldn't you still get it, the absent parent still is responsible for part of the support for a child.
The people who can best answer your question is SSDI. Why not ask them?
I still receive back paid child support. Although, if the other party has family issues you may see a decline in payments due to the fact that the payee is allowed to make special arrangements to fit his/her own lifestyle. Good luck with that. I have had no luck. My payee is negligent, and often makes special payment plans that leave me with no money for months at a time!
Go back to court and have the child support taken directly from the parent's paycheck. Some states put the person in jail if they don't pay. The reason some people don't get the money is because they do not take the appropreate avenues to get it.
Your state may have a Support Enforcement Unit, normally a division of Family Services. If you do not receive welfare, you may not be aware of them. I used to work for the Welfare Office in our state so I knew about our Support Enforcement Unit. They do try to help people who are not receiving child support, though their main focus is on families who are on welfare. However, they (along with the Social Security office) can set up a repayment option.
If your ex owes back child support and files taxes, you should get that money. If your ex is old enough to file for Social Security, they can garnish that. My husband still pays $51/month on a child support order he owed from about 20 years or more ago. That money comes out of his Social Security check. Hubby didn't file to receive support from the "mother" when he got custody.
Just like JustPlainJo, I get back child support and my son just turned 30. When he started receiving Social Security (not sure if it was "disability" or not) we had his Social Security garnished. He pays $200 a month still and will be paid up in 2012. He was over $30,000 behind in payments. Do not feel guilty about getting any garnishment.
Can my ex wife ask the courts to withdraw my back child support if my daughter is 21 years old now and they are not needing it? Also, because I am going thru some health and financial issues?
By Michael
My son is still having money taken from his check to cover accrued interest for times when he was unemployed. His son is 26 and has a toddler. Once you get on their rolls it seems you never get off.
The debt never seems to go down. They don't send statements any more so he has no idea how much he owes or how much the state of Texas intends to take. If you can afford it see a lawyer or write to your state senator and representative.
I imagine your "ex" could do that if she wanted to. But then on the other hand when you got behind, no matter the reason, don't you think maybe your "ex" and daughter might have some unpaid expenses from the times you weren't paying support. My opinion is that the absent parent owes support and therefore it should be paid. There is no reason for any absent parent to not be paying child support.
If you lose a job, get a job flipping burgers, or something. I have a former son-in-law that likes to hop jobs, because it something like the grass being greener on the other side of the fence, and the jobs never work out. Due to the job changes, pay periods change, and some payjments get missed. He also knows how to play the system, he lets it go for awhile and then starts paying before it reaches the limit that the state of SD would go to the expense to bring him back from Texas. He and his third wife live in a $500,000 house and she is unemployed. Their 14 year old daughter has clothes to die for, and takes horse riding lessons, and dance lessons, etc., while his four kids here go without.
Divorce laws vary in every state. What works in one doesn't apply in another for the most part. I would contact an divorce attorney in your state and get the matter cleared up.
Child support is not based on "need". It is based on the principal that if you bring a child into this world you are obligated to support it. If you did not always pay then someone else did it for you and you need to pay it back. It is not your call to say if it is needed or not. Pay up.
The problem with back child support is it gathers interest and it is owed no matter what the age of your child. My daughter works in an office where a man is paying back child support on a 32 year old son. My grandson's dad will probably die owing child support on his 5 kids from 4 different women and he is only 30 something. How sad. Step up to the plate, be a dad and pay what you owe.
Just because your child is 21 at this point or that you're having health or financial issues is no excuse to not pay your former spouse back who had to foot all the childcare bills by herself while you were getting behind paying! You both made that baby! Even if you can only repay her 100.00 a month for the rest of your life, just put your big boy pants on and do the right thing! And, yes, she most likely can have the courts withdraw/garnish your money so why not take care of the debt before more court recorded judgements are slapped against you.
P.S. And I don't care whether it be a man or a woman who owes support. If it's owed, it's owed.
Is your ex-wife in agreement with forgiving the back child support? If that's the case, it might be that the simplest thing is to issue her a check, have it go through the books at the courthouse, but then have her return it to you, un-cashed.
I realize you haven't shared any details of the circumstances, so it is unclear of the reason you got behind, but if this is something you both feel okay with, then that's great. If it's just a matter of you wanting to get out of it, regardless of your ex's circumstances now, and the fact that your daughter is 21, then with careful budgeting. Hopefully you will get the debt paid off.
Whatever you did not pay while your ex was raising your daughter, had to be made up by her. Just because she is in a better position at this point doesn't mean it wasn't a hard road getting there, nor does it negate the fact that it is a debt owed. Hope you can work it out.
I am afraid you are not going to get much sympathy here for owing back child support. You should have paid it when your daughter was young. A debt is a debt. If you still owe it, you should pay it. How much hardship did your daughter have to undergo because you failed to pay on time?
My son's father and I have a child support case for our now adult son where I pay a back support debt even though my son is in his 20s now. Well his father passed last month and I'm wondering does his wife get the support now even if she is not named in our case. I hope someone can answer this.
Thank you.
Can a student loan refund be garnished for child support?
By liz from TX
You might want to check with your states domestic relations office. The website might be www.childsupport.state.tx.us
Yep. Any kind of refund can be attached. Depending on how far in arrears someone is, their licenses can also be held - driver's license, any professional license (Realtor, doctor, dentist, etc.).
I find it interesting that, although my husband's Social Security is garnished and the CSEA took his 2008 and 2009 stimulus checks to apply to an ancient child support claim (the child turns 27 this August,) my husband's student loan refund (through the Dept of Ed) reached us intact. Hmm...
If you are trying to figure out if you can garnish for back money you are owed then I would call a local attorney and ask if they do not know they will point you in the right direction for free.
If you are trying to advoid paying child support then I have a little advice-Support your child by paying your child support. If the custodial parent does not spend the money on the child you can always look your child in the face when they are grown and say I paid child support I can't help it if you did not get what you needed. It is sad but some non custodial parents are so hell bent not making the custodial parents lives any better they would rather not pay child support thus making their own childrent do with out.
As far as the person's huband that is still paying child support and his child is now 27 if he had supplied necessaties (by paying child support) for his child when it was growing up he would not owe the mom for pulling his side of the load. As his wife it is your responsibilty to see this wrong is righted even if you have to step in there and do it.
By the way, no I have never been divorced nor have I ever owed child support but my mother was a single mom that never received child support.
I might blog about this a little further as this is something I feel very strongly about having lived it.
You guys are morons. Bunch of women answering questions on something they have no idea what they are talking about. The loan refund can not be intercepted by the child support because it is not considered income. It is a student loan! Used for educational expenses and paid back after graduating from college.
My husband and I opened a checking account last month, so that my 7 year old's SSI check could be direct deposited. Well last week we received a phone call from the bank stating that the account had been frozen by child support. Can they freeze that account? The only thing that account is used for is my son's SSI check and that is the only account we have.
By TINA from Chouteau, OK
I would assume they are working within the law. I'm sure that SSI check doesn't get used strictly for your child. I know people that put that into the "kitty" with all the other income and when all the necessities are paid, anything left over is used for miscellaneous. Who owes the child support, you or your husband? If it is your husband, you should have opened the account in your and your child's name. However, I would check with Social Security.
Why not call the child support people who froze the account and ask why it was frozen and what needs to be done to unfreeze the account. Then I would search for what my alternatives would be to correct the situation if the child support people aren't forthcoming. It appears there is more to this story involving child support than you have written.
It is against the law in Oklahoma and elsewhere to freeze an SSI account or to sue against an SSI check. But you have to have the account name entered properly. If this account is for your son's benefits only, the account should read in the representative payees name for the recipient. For example: John or Mary Smith for James Smith.
The bank should be able to tell you too cause they could not do it without an legal court order.
If child support is owed, they will freeze assets until it's caught up.
Call the bank and Social Security. Legally there was some kind of notice given that freezing of assets would occur because of back support delinquency and the notice was ignored. :-( I agree with another poster that the whole story has not been given here.
I got a lot of responses from people on my question. And the answer to my question is no they could not take my son's SSI check. And for there being more to this story. Well there is. The child support office didn't do there job right. They tried to take money on a child support case that had closed back in 2003. If we wouldn't of filled out the paperwork that needed to be filled out. My husband would be paying it again. Now we have our son's account open again. With just my name and my son's name on it only.
I have recently been awarded SSD. Thankfully with help I have been able to pay child support during the time I was disabled. Once my children receive their back pay (which is greater than my child support obligation), is my ex-husband responsible to repay me the $20,000 I have paid from loans?
Or am I out that money completely? I have so many people to reimburse and really need that money back. Please help!I am dating a man whose license got suspended due to back child support. He is now caught up, but his ex-wife says if she releases his license that it will cancel out her child support totally. Can that be true?
By K Paul
I was incarcerated a few years ago and my mother had applied for welfare for my children when I was locked up. I just started going to school and applied for some extra money through my student loans. I don't have a problem paying my back pay child support, but at the same time I'm not working due to my felony and I really can use the money to pay some bills and so on. So can Colorado garnish me for child support through student loans? Please some one help me with this question.
By Michelle
I have started an application for SSI and want to know what bearing does that play on the interest on child support. Will this put a stop to the interest accruing annually?
If you owe back child support and you can settle for a lump sum, should I pay it or see if there are more options? It is a large lump sum.
By Mike
My partner has a 5 year old daughter, her mother has always contemplated letting my partner see his daughter. However for 4 months on-off he sees her each weekend. Then all of a sudden she stops coming down/speaking to him.
My partner calls his daughter daily, and at the moment he is off work. So he asked his daughter to stay for some time as she is off school, however her mother just keeps saying no. Wednesday she rang my partner up and told him he needed to pay child support. However she has never asked for this before because when he sees his daughter he takes her out shopping, playing, and out for tea/breakfast, etc.
However his ex partner has just had a baby with somebody else, her partner is not registered as living with her. She also worked part time, but still received her full benefits and house paid for, along with luxury pets and furniture.
My partner works full time, I work full time and we live in a one bedroom place. His ex partner told him she would ring the police on him, call child support, and social services on him because he refuses to pay the money. Considering it is now a month since seeing his daughter. I do understand that she is 5 and with a new baby in the household she could feel jealous over attention.
To the point, will his ex's benefits stop, should we tell the authority that she and her partner both work cash in hand and still receive all benefits full?
Also what happens to my partner, he does not want all his wages going to his ex when he doesn't even see his daughter?
Thanks.
By AMB
I was married to a man in 2006. He passed away in 2010 and I am now getting Social Security checks for myself and my 3 children who were his stepchildren. Their biological father is filing his tax return and wants to claim our 2 children because he is $52,000 behind on his child support payments. He is aware that he won't get the money himself when he files his taxes because he is so far behind.
He wants it to go to me so it'll be taken off the back child support. So my question is can I give him permission to claim the 2 children that are ours on his tax return and not get into trouble with the Social Security Administration?By Jewels
How do I (father) find out how much child support I owe?
By BM
I have a friend that receives SSDI and for the past 7 years has had his benifits garnished because of non payment of child support. The question I have is can that really be legal if the children are not yours but your wife's? Now they are divorced and he still is being garnished and he still is paying her debt.
The children were never legally adopted by the step father. Can he get some sort of reimbursement for the money he has had to pay out for the ex-wife's children? They are all grown now and he has paid over 6000 dollars and still owes 6000.My ex had custody and was receiving foodstamps and a medical card from jobs and Family Services. My license was taken away for not being able to pay back child support. Unfortunately he passed away 2 weeks ago and the 2 children are living with me. I called the child support office and they are closing his case. My questions are, will they let me get my driver's license reinstated so I can take the children to school and my 2nd question is, even though they're closing the case will I still owe the state for them being on foodstamps and receiving medical cards?
I am low income myself and on SSI and have custody of my 4 yr old autistic grandson who also is disabled and receiving SSI for his disability. We are poor people and I need my license back more than ever, I have no idea how I am going to support all of us and have to pay back child support to the state even though the father has passed.
