Is this really as absurd as it appears?

[CTU]

What's odd about your situation is that the child support agencies normally wait about six months before releasing the money to the custodial parent, just to make sure that something like this does not happen.

However, I am going to disagree a bit with the other posters. You are not paying back stepmom. You are paying back the child support agency. They have already paid back the IRS and the IRS has already paid back stepmom. The child support agency needs the money back from you, otherwise other people's child support won't reach them.

I am also surprised that they are asking for all of it back. Usually at least some small portion does not have to be repaid.

File in Jan, DD released in June/July, stepparent files immediately and the whole thing gets processed lickety-split because practically everyone else is all done and dusted re tax returns and ... bingo!

Or, this happened a wee while ago, Mom been trying to fight it and has finally realized that she's not actually owed that money.