Custodial Parent homeless?

[gam]

Actually, there is a date set to modify child support this September. And yes, I am repaying the state. She gets around $30 a month. The judge, during our court battle to just get me visitation, told her not to count on child support increasing unless she showed initiative and got herself a job. She got her first job ever this past March and by June she had quit. She is not working on getting her act together. She has been on assistance since before my son was born. She has chosen to move from place to place during the last year, providing no stability for our son. She has difficulty keeping him in school. (It's head start, someone told me it doesn't matter, but since my son is generally behind developmentally, I think it matter quite a bit.) She has admitted in text that her only reason for taking my son to the shelter is because she would not qualify for free housing without him. She refuses to work and works the system to get free ****.

I don't believe a Judge said that. Child support is very simple in Mi, and a Judge must order what the STATE CHILD SUPPORT FORMULA IS, unless they state on record why they are deviating from it. A Judge could not deviate from it for the reason your stating. The court does not have the power to make someone work, not a mom, nor a dad, even parents who pay child support, can't be forced to get a job.

It does not matter on school, your child is not required to attend school in Mi until he/she is 6 years old. She has a legitimate reason to not work, she has the child full time, as you live across the state. According to the Mi Child Support Formula, in order for mom to be imputed with minimum wage she would actually have to be able to work the 40 hours they impute her by. Since mom has the child full time, in order for her to work, she then would have to have the child in full time care and guess who would have to pay a percentage of that?

Your child support is going up, even if you don't want to believe that. You make more money, so you should be paying more. If you were paying what your actual salary is, then we the taxpayers of Mi would not have to fork over so much for the care of your child. You should be ashamed of yourself, but yet your painting mom as the only bad parent here. Stop cheating your child and stop cheating the Mi taxpayers.

I guess I don't see how being in a school like child care center is worse than not having a place to go during the day. She's stated that she will be "walking the streets of baycity for 11 hours" until the shelter opens its doors to her again at 5 pm.
They will be amending my child support in Sept.

Bay City is not Detroit, so it's not a big deal, lots for mom and the child to do around town and be perfectly safe. Bay City has food banks, soup kitchens and often the shelter hands out vouchers for places to eat to. Even if it was Detroit, unlikely it would matter. I work in mental health, I have mental patients and I have substance abuse patients, that have custody, are homeless and roam the streets of Detroit with their children in tow. As long as the child has a roof over their head at night, food, clothing, they are considered to be taken care of. It's not the dead of winter, it's summer. The state and the homeless shelter(along with tons of charities out there)will be helping mom get on her feet, it's a temp situation. Child is covered, you got nothing.

 

[CSO286]

I don't believe a Judge said that. Child support is very simple in Mi, and a Judge must order what the STATE CHILD SUPPORT FORMULA IS, unless they state on record why they are deviating from it. A Judge could not deviate from it for the reason your stating. The court does not have the power to make someone work, not a mom, nor a dad, even parents who pay child support, can't be forced to get a job.

OP, just so you understand the bolded. The reason the court cannot order a parent to work is that the court cannot order an employer to hire the other parent.
Courts can and often do issue "Seek work" orders, but they cannot compel a parent to work. What if he or she is completely unemployable? (no marketable skills, significant criminal record, etc.)

 

[stealth2]

gam - I have likely given you a hard time in the past, so I wanted to say how impressed I am with the advice you have given lately. Well done!

 

[trnoon]

OP, jsut so understand the bolded. The reason the court cannot order a parent to work is that the court cannot order an employer to hire the other parent.
Courts can and often do issue "Seek work" orders, but the ycannot compel a parent to work. What hie or she is completely unemployable? (no marketable skills, significant criminal record, etc.)

I don't think the judge meant it in a way as to order her to work. But he did say he wouldn't review child support until she was showing initiative. She is perfectly capable of being employed. In fact, she had a job at a fast food place just about a month ago. She worked there for 6 weeks and quit because they told her to stop talking "ghetto" (her words, not mine). She has an assault of an officer on her juvenile record. But as far as I know, it is not available to any employer and only the court system can view that information. The only thing that could be holding her back is her lack of education. She has gone back to school (since originally dropping out when she was pregnant) 3 times and has dropped out again each time. Once because she didn't want to wake up at 6 am to catch the bus to the college where he class was held at, once because they had uniforms and she didn't want to wear "those ugly pants" and another time just a few months ago for some other reason. So I really do believe she does not intend to work towards bettering her life, or my sons, and she will continue to struggle and try to get free **** from the government.

I used the Michigan child support calculator. If they went by my current income her monthly support would be $343.98. The amount that would go into her pocket is roughly 30% of that. That is just over $100 a month. How can you raise a child on that? Yeah, she gets a couple hundred in food stamps as well. But $100 to cover all of his AND her needs? (he has a lot of allergies and needs special creams and lotions, his bath wash is $15 for a 12oz bottle alone) She doesn't get cash assistance anymore because Michigan put a 4 year limit on it. She lost that months ago. She started selling my sons things on the Bay City online yard sale. That's not income. If I had custody of him, I wouldn't even have to file for child support.

I would like to add, that I provide all of his special needed lotions, creams and other medication, at my home. Sometimes she will send him with other medicine and I will give it to him the way it is written and give whats left of it back to her when he goes back to her, or her mom. If I have something that I send with him from my home, like his lotion for instance, (its $19 a tube!) She will keep it and I have to purchase a new one. Yes, I can afford to take care of my sons needs, but I cannot afford to provide solely for two households. She needs to do her part as well.