Anne Ominous
Junior Member
New York State
My husband spent 5 years in prison. During that entire time, he was charged $50 a week in child support, that he was obviously unable to pay or do anything about because he was in prison. So now he has over $13,000 in arrears, and it seems like it's only getting worse and worse.
In the past year, my husband has lost over 5 jobs simply because he can not afford the gas to get to work after taxes and support and bills are all taken out of his paycheck... he is in the negative!
Leaving out all my personal opinions on how the child support system works, I will now list all the facts I believe are relevant.
First of all there is his oldest daughter. She has lived with HIS mother (HER mother fits the criteria of the 'dirtbag dad', who has had absolutely nothing to do with her what so ever) since he went into prison. His mother used all the welfare benefits possible, and is giving us a hard time about gaining custody of this daughter now because she's grown quite used to having the state pay all her bills. Meanwhile, when it comes to this daughter we have her every weekend, all summer long, and even if we have to go to court again she will be living with us at the end of the school year. However, I am constantly told that these arrears will still be an obligation, and I can understand why they would be. This first case is the one where he owes over $13,000 in arrears. But I have also been told that child support is based on the income. I believe he was making $7 every 2 weeks while he was in prison. Will somebody please tell me if there is any hope at all in having these arrears modified or changed in any way?!
He is also paying support for another daughter as well now. The problem is, between these two cases child support is taking 50% of his paycheck. I know that amount is wrong and we are in the very long process of having it modified but in the meantime I am afraid he will lose another job. The job he has now is really good, and I have a 4 month old son with him. We are constantly counting change just to buy diapers, and I have considered taking him to court for child support just to make sure we can keep some of that money.
I guess the only real question I have is what can we do about those outstanding arrears, being they were from a time when he was in prison and couldn't do anything about it? We can't afford a lawyer, but if a lawyer could help him clear his name of that outrageous debt than I may be able to find a way to borrow money from a family member. I would have no problem with paying a lawyer if they could get his name cleared of that debt so we can support our entire family.
My husband spent 5 years in prison. During that entire time, he was charged $50 a week in child support, that he was obviously unable to pay or do anything about because he was in prison. So now he has over $13,000 in arrears, and it seems like it's only getting worse and worse.
In the past year, my husband has lost over 5 jobs simply because he can not afford the gas to get to work after taxes and support and bills are all taken out of his paycheck... he is in the negative!
Leaving out all my personal opinions on how the child support system works, I will now list all the facts I believe are relevant.
First of all there is his oldest daughter. She has lived with HIS mother (HER mother fits the criteria of the 'dirtbag dad', who has had absolutely nothing to do with her what so ever) since he went into prison. His mother used all the welfare benefits possible, and is giving us a hard time about gaining custody of this daughter now because she's grown quite used to having the state pay all her bills. Meanwhile, when it comes to this daughter we have her every weekend, all summer long, and even if we have to go to court again she will be living with us at the end of the school year. However, I am constantly told that these arrears will still be an obligation, and I can understand why they would be. This first case is the one where he owes over $13,000 in arrears. But I have also been told that child support is based on the income. I believe he was making $7 every 2 weeks while he was in prison. Will somebody please tell me if there is any hope at all in having these arrears modified or changed in any way?!
He is also paying support for another daughter as well now. The problem is, between these two cases child support is taking 50% of his paycheck. I know that amount is wrong and we are in the very long process of having it modified but in the meantime I am afraid he will lose another job. The job he has now is really good, and I have a 4 month old son with him. We are constantly counting change just to buy diapers, and I have considered taking him to court for child support just to make sure we can keep some of that money.
I guess the only real question I have is what can we do about those outstanding arrears, being they were from a time when he was in prison and couldn't do anything about it? We can't afford a lawyer, but if a lawyer could help him clear his name of that outrageous debt than I may be able to find a way to borrow money from a family member. I would have no problem with paying a lawyer if they could get his name cleared of that debt so we can support our entire family.