Is Anyone Aware That States Get Federal Incentives To Collect Child Support?!
BM is taking us back to court to try and get child support from DH...our court date is in just a few weeks. DH has 50/50 custody and child support was never exchanged because he and BM had approximately equal income and visitation. She now remarried a man and had two additional children with him that he wants her to stay home and care for. She quit her job and now wants DH to pay her to be a stay at home mother.
We hired an attorney but were pretty much told that we would have to pay her even though she chooses not to work. This got me researching the child support system where I discovered that individual states get federal funds for collecting child support. The more they collect the more federal funds they get. Does anyone have any thoughts/experience with this? I am sure that this is a good system in some situations but I cannot help but think that the "greed factor" taints the courts, at least in some way.
- CrystalRE's blog
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Some states automatically
Some states automatically impute AT LEAST minimum wage full time for parents not working. Or more, at the discretion of the judge. At least that's what it says on my state's CS website.
And yup, knew that states get an incentive. The only place where highway robbery is legal.
My state will impute an
My state will impute an income based on her earning potential. Or at least there supposed to since she became voluntarily unemployed.
We live in the wrong state
We live in the wrong state apparently
It says right in the guidelines for our state that "earning capacity" should not be considered and anyone can go through child support recovery in our state even if the parent pays on time every time.
Can your dh quit his job to
Can your dh quit his job to be a stay at home dad right before the court hearing? Then perhaps they will rehire him after the hearing?
Our state (NY) imputes as
Our state (NY) imputes as well so if biodad gets laid off, the court will impute the amount he *could* be making. Lots of times the spouse of biodad will be examined for potential income for CS purposes.
There is no recognizing of 50/50 either. It's custodial (99.9% of the time BM) and non custodial (99.9% of the time biodad) so there is no incentive for biodad to seek more time with his children other than EOWE b/c he still has to clothe, feed, entertain and house them while paying the BM to do so.
And yes; collecting fed funds as incentive to collect higher CS amounts is a definite conflict of interest and should be abolished.
i've heard that you can
i've heard that you can "dispute" by saying "party is CAPABLE of earning x funds" i'm sure your bm would dispute that way if your dh lost his job and wanted a cs decrease. yet all states are different.....just a suggestion.....i had a few x bf's that lost their cases based on that dispute
i'm sure states do get profits for going after cs, why else would they care if x person is x $ behind on cs? wouldn't it be a personal problem otherwise? they have to pay the representative and case workers SOME how eh?
Thanks for all of your input!
Thanks for all of your input! I just think its absolutely ridiculous that the courts can expect him to pay to raise the kids in two households. If we were wealthy and she was flat broke and on state aid I could see him helping her out but we raise three kids on a lower middle class wages and have no extra money. That is besides the fact that DH's children get no benefit out of her being a stay at home Mom because they are older, in school all day and wouldn't require daycare if they weren't. And to find out that the state makes money for collecting child support payments just makes me think that the laws are the way the are to benefit the state, not the children.