Arrearage payment for child over 18

[mwulfe]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

My exhusband rarely paid his assigned child support of $450 a month. Now my son is 19 and there is an arrearage of over $84,000. Since he is over 18, the payment are now set at 25% of the court assigned amount. Based on a payment of $113 a month, it will take over 60 years to pay the arrearage. How does not paying child support for close to 15 years, allow the child support to drop to 25% after the child turns 18? I am a cancer survivor and my son is a fulltime college student. My son needs the support for his college expenses.

 

[Antigone*]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

My exhusband rarely paid his assigned child support of $450 a month. Now my son is 19 and there is an arrearage of over $84,000. Since he is over 18, the payment are now set at 25% of the court assigned amount. Based on a payment of $113 a month, it will take over 60 years to pay the arrearage. How does not paying child support for close to 15 years, allow the child support to drop to 25% after the child turns 18? I am a cancer survivor and my son is a fulltime college student. My son needs the support for his college expenses.

You son is going to need to pay his DUI fines so you better get yourself down to the courthouse and see about filing a contempt motion.

You also need to get your facts straight. In your first post your son is 18 and now he is 19. Did he get older in the last five minutes?

 

[Isis1]

You son is going to need to pay his DUI fines so you better get yourself down to the courthouse and see about filing a contempt motion.

You also need to get your facts straight. In your first post your son is 18 and now he is 19. Did he get older in the last five minutes?

in all fairness, she stated he was 18, at the time.

your son needs to get a job. really.

 

[Antigone*]

in all fairness, she stated he was 18, at the time.

your son needs to get a job. really.

my apologies to the OP.

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

My exhusband rarely paid his assigned child support of $450 a month. Now my son is 19 and there is an arrearage of over $84,000. Since he is over 18, the payment are now set at 25% of the court assigned amount. Based on a payment of $113 a month, it will take over 60 years to pay the arrearage. How does not paying child support for close to 15 years, allow the child support to drop to 25% after the child turns 18? I am a cancer survivor and my son is a fulltime college student. My son needs the support for his college expenses.

How many times did you file contempt motions? Are Dad's wages being attached?

(Yes, your son needs to be working - it's NOT smart to rely on his child support to get him through college)

 

[mwulfe]

I do not plan on paying for his college education with the child support. I started this thread to get advice, not to be critized. I have not done anything wrong. I know he needs to get a job. This wasn't about what he is doing, this was a question about child support arrearage.

San bernardino child support office has handled the case. I do not know where the father is or where he works. Periodically I would recieve payments through the county child support office. More often, no payments, that is why the arrearage is so high. I have not filed a contempt charge since my son was little. I just handled it on my own. However, I did not plan on taking a disability retirement. We are doing student loans to pay his tuition.

I know my son needs to handle his issues. However, he is in college 1000 miles away. His DUI issue is his. One really has nothing to do with the other. Again, I was asking about child support.

 

[Isis1]

I do not plan on paying for his college education with the child support. I started this thread to get advice, not to be critized. I have not done anything wrong. I know he needs to get a job. This wasn't about what he is doing, this was a question about child support arrearage.

San bernardino child support office has handled the case. I do not know where the father is or where he works. Periodically I would recieve payments through the county child support office. I have not filed a contempt charge since my son was little. I just handled it on my own. However, I did not plan on taking a disability retirement.

I know my son needs to handle his issues. However, he is in college 1000 miles away. His DUI issue is his. One really has nothing to do with the other. Again, I was asking about child support.

legally, dad doesn't have to pay anything more then court ordered. what should have been done since the first time he failed to pay, was have his wages garnished. then his taxes leined on, then his driver's license, then his bank accounts.

now that the "child" is over the age of 18, your resources have gotten smaller.

 

[Proserpina]

I do not plan on paying for his college education with the child support. I started this thread to get advice, not to be critized. I have not done anything wrong. I know he needs to get a job. This wasn't about what he is doing, this was a question about child support arrearage.

We can only go by what you have said - you said your son needed the support to pay for college expenses. Which part of the responses were wrong?

San bernardino child support office has handled the case. I do not know where the father is or where he works. Periodically I would recieve payments through the county child support office. I have not filed a contempt charge since my son was little. I just handled it on my own. However, I did not plan on taking a disability retirement.

Then realistically you've (unfortunately) kind of shot yourself in the foot - in not filing for contempt you've probably removed one of the more surefire ways of enforcing the child support order. What are they saying about it?

You DO still have quite some time to have the order enforced but you need to be proactive (actually California doesn't have a statute of limitations on collecting back support; the order is valid until the entire amount is paid off although it DOES have to be proactively enforced...in other words it won't be enforced automatically unless you or they push it). Find out what San Bernadino are saying about and then post back - that way we'll all have a better idea of what can be done next, k?

 

[mwulfe]

Messsage from the county DCSS

Thank you for your response. Thhis is the message that I recieved from the Department of Child and Social Services for the county:
The wage assignment for arrears is for $113/month which is 25% (federal policy) of what the orginal support order was. DCSS encourages the other parents to make additional payments if they're able to and to also file taxes if they haven't in order to pay the arrears of quicker.

I did not file contempt charges in the past because I could not afford it, monetarily or time off of work to go to court ( which he never showed up for). I figured if I got any support, I was lucky. Yes, his wages were attached and his income tax. Unfortunatly, he rarely files taxes and usually works under the table. The county enforses the support order for me. I was unaware that I could persue it further.