Ex-Husband Withholding Child Support

[Diane Page]

Ex-Husband Deducting from Child Support

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

My daughter has court ordered child support. For the past several months her ex-husband has given her nothing saying she owes him money for various items that she is not responsible for anyway. He has given her itemized statements where he deducts such things as medical insurance payments (which he is responsible for) past due taxes, etc. They originally agreed that he would make payments directly to her, not through the court. Is he allowed to deduct anything from his child support payments? I thought these payments were for support of the children, nothing else. Even if she truly owed him anything I would not think he could withhold child support.

 

[VeronicaGia]

Is the support court ordered? If so, he's in trouble. Also, when the NCP covers the child with medical insurance, that amount is usually taken into consideration when ordering support. Therefore, his support will be lowered already from what he would pay if she was ordered to cover medical.

 

[Diane Page]

The support is court ordered. He was ordered to pay for medical and dental insurance and she is to pay half of co-pays and deductibles (which she has been). He is now deducting half of all insurance premiums from her child support. By the time he's finished deducting what he thinks are legitimate claims, she has received nothing for the past several months.

 

[VeronicaGia]

Then she needs to file contempt of court against him to get the order enforced. She will want to get his paychecks garnished for the proper amounts, since he cannot be trusted to pay the correct amount himself.

 

[Diane Page]

Thanks for your help. She has already filed papers with the court to have him pay through probation - not directly to her, but as usual they are not moving very fast. She mainly wanted to be sure that he is not allowed to deduct anything from his support payments.