Does Receiving SSDisability for children relieve other parent?

[Share]

My fiance is on Social Security disability. He is legally blind. He has complete legal and physical custody of his three children. DFS took them away from their alcoholic mother two years ago. She see them once a week for one hour supervised visits. He receives a total of $758 dollars for his three children from Social Security. She has a full time job as a nurse. She pays NO child support nor does she provide any medical insurance. Currently they are on medicaid. We were told this is because the Social Security Benefits take the place of her obligation. This does not seem right to us. We love these kids and are glad that they are now in a safe environment. We are making it month to month, but it does not seem right that she does have to not contribute a dime to their welfare. We take them to the courthouse every week for their visit with their mother, and are not even compensated for travel and parking expenses. We live in Missouri.

[Edited by Share on 07-14-2001 at 03:20 PM]

 

[whatever]

Who told you HIS ss benefits take the place of her obligation? I think it's time to take that woman to court !!

 

[Share]

This has been a very long drawn out, expensive, process. The kids were first given to mom, even though she had already been up on several charges of neglect(never convicted) and in rehab 3 or 4 times unsuccessfully. I believe the courts were prejudiced against dad because of his disability (legally blind). Finally after she drove them to school, then showed up at work drunk and was fired, DFS stepped in and took the kids and placed them with dad. They put her in rehab again. Two days after she got out she showed up to pick up the kids stumbling drunk. We had to call the police and have her arrested because she would not leave. Finally after 1 1/2 years of similar occurances, the court finally gave dad full custody both legal and physical. All of this in and out of court forced him to have to file bankruptcy. He did not include the attorney that finally helped him to get the kids, but still oowes him a few thousand dollars. This was the attorney that came out with the papers for him to sign that finally gave custody of the kids. In the deal was that she would forgive him any back child support(of course he did not pay her because he had the children during this time) and she would not be paying him any child support. The reason the attorney gave us is that dad was receiving ss benefits for the children. But the benefits, as we see it, are HIS contribution. What about mom's? We cannot seem to find any similar cases and because he still owes his attorney (he is paying what he can each month $100-200) no phone calls are returned.

 

[morning_angel]

SS benefits take up the difference between what the actual support obligation is, and what the parents pay. It is possible that it may reduce the support amount owed by the mother, but if she is a professional, I fail to see that her support obligation would be nothing. However, since he signed the papers agreeing to her not paying any support, he may not be able to receive any due to that, having nothing to do with the SS benefits. Has he contacted the court about filing for child support? They should be able to give him some answers as to whether or not the kids should receive support from their mother.

Has he had a parting of the ways with his attorney (fired him or been notified that the attorney will no longer represent him?) Even if he owes the guy money, unless the attorney has been fired, I can't imagine why the calls aren't being returned, especially if he's paying the guy in a consistant manner. If I were him, I'd want an answer to THAT question.

Good Luck!