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Removing child support obligation after child is legally adopted...

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LdiJ

Senior Member
Oh boy. I got behind Sorry. Very busy.

Real quick for now from what I know.

The money does not come out of her social security payments. She has to take it to an office and pay it herself. I think it's SSI. I'll find out for sure.

She's only looking to be relieved from payments going forward.
If she is on SSI then she is uncollectable as no one can garnish SSI payments for anything. Therefore it would be safe for her to stop paying while she goes through the formalities to officially stop the child support. If she is on SSDI then that may be another story.
 


Tiribulus

Member
I don't know what's going on with this forum software. A couple of my comments have disappeared.

She gets SSI and it is Children's Benefits as it turns out.

She is not garnished and has to pay it at an office.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Oh boy. I got behind Sorry. Very busy.

Real quick for now from what I know.

The money does not come out of her social security payments. She has to take it to an office and pay it herself. I think it's SSI. I'll find out for sure.

She's only looking to be relieved from payments going forward.
She will need a court order to stop the child support payments. In Michigan, parental rights are terminated by adoption but child support can continue until the court orders the payments to stop.
 

Tiribulus

Member
She will need a court order to stop the child support payments. In Michigan, parental rights are terminated by adoption but child support can continue until the court orders the payments to stop.
What is the difference between CS and CB?
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
I don't know what's going on with this forum software. A couple of my comments have disappeared.

She gets SSI and it is Children's Benefits as it turns out.

She is not garnished and has to pay it at an office.
There are no children's benefits with SSI. There are only children's benefits with SSDI. She really needs to be posting herself because I don't think that you understand what she is saying and what we are saying so it makes for you not being a very good go-between. However, I will explain a couple of things that may be helpful.

SSDI (Social Security Disability Income) is for people with a decent work history. Not only does the disabled person collect a benefit from from the SSA but their children also collect a separate benefit. The parent's benefit can be garnished for child support and government debt, but nothing else.

SSI (Supplement Security Income) is for people who don't have enough work history to either receive SSDI or receive enough to meet the poverty level. There are no children's benefit with SSI and if someone is supposed to pay child support, and they do not, then the state has no method to collect from them.

If someone's child is adopted, child support should stop. In fact, it should have been part of the adoption paperwork. However, she should take the adoption papers to the local child support agency to prove that the child is no longer her child.
 

Just Blue

Senior Member
There are no children's benefits with SSI. There are only children's benefits with SSDI. She really needs to be posting herself because I don't think that you understand what she is saying and what we are saying so it makes for you not being a very good go-between. However, I will explain a couple of things that may be helpful.

SSDI (Social Security Disability Income) is for people with a decent work history. Not only does the disabled person collect a benefit from from the SSA but their children also collect a separate benefit. The parent's benefit can be garnished for child support and government debt, but nothing else.

SSI (Supplement Security Income) is for people who don't have enough work history to either receive SSDI or receive enough to meet the poverty level. There are no children's benefit with SSI and if someone is supposed to pay child support, and they do not, then the state has no method to collect from them.

If someone's child is adopted, child support should stop. In fact, it should have been part of the adoption paperwork. However, she should take the adoption papers to the local child support agency to prove that the child is no longer her child.
I agree with the ^ but will clarify one point: Even though SSI can't be garnished, if you don't pay your child support you can still be held in contempt of could.
 

Tiribulus

Member
She really needs to be posting herself because I don't think that you understand what she is saying
I do not want this to sound as if I'm being derogatory to her, but I'm not sure she understands any of these distinctions herself. A large part of my involvement is due to her never having been well situated to grasp things like this. Think of cases some of you very helpful folks may have handled wherein your client is not a dummy, yet needs to be walked step by step through these types of legal processes.

It seems to me that the next step is to go over the paper related to this situation. I feel confident that I can decipher it and provide more useful information. The trouble is, she's not sure she still has it. Which would mean obtaining copies which would then further mean several more hoops on the way to a resolution.

I can't tell you all how grateful I am for all your help so far. I'd like to think I'm a passably intelligent guy and I've been through some stuff in my 55 years, but I have very little experience that would be helpful in a situation like this.
 

t74

Member
It sounds like she has developmental disabilities. Some cities have social service agencies that have access to attorneys (or lists of ones who provide services at low or no cost) to the disabled. Your best way to assist her is to help locate an attorney; I'd start with the one who provided legal assistance to her during the adoption.
 

commentator

Senior Member
If your friend is on SSI, not Disability Social Security, she would have a caseworker locally who is responsible for recertification of her case regularly. This is an income based program, and they require regular verification of all expenses and sources of income in each case. And they are used to working with people who are somewhat limited in their ability to understand exactly what is happening.

It may turn out when you get more deeply involved that what your friend is being required to "go to the office and make regular payments" on isn't exactly what she believed it was. Could it be that there are some sort of sanctions, that she may be repaying some sort of overpayment or something? If her children were adopted by someone else, I wonder if she had an attorney at all in this process. Social services should be a first source of information but then, of course, the legal aid program works with social services clients frequently.

I'd begin by having her call her case manager and ask exactly what she is receiving, exactly what this payment she makes is, etc. Ask her to write down the information they give her. Sometimes when one gets involved, we find that the descriptions and explanations that people have of their economic situations are clearer than they first sound.
 

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