My husband pays child support for his daughter, he is not behind and never late, the payment is taken automatically from his weekly paycheck. He received a bonus at work and they incorrectly took a child support payment from this bonus check. His employer has admitted their mistake, the extra payment show up on the child services website, we would like this money refunded to us. How do we go about doing this? The county is telling us that they can keep the extra payment just in case. Any help would be appreciated. Oh we live in New York State.

I don't quite understand your question - in NY it's 17% of income for one child. 17% of ALL income. It would appear that child support should have been deducted from the paycheck unless the Order states something different.

I don't understand the "just in case" comment by the Child Support Unit and I also don't understand why - if there's never been a problem - it's a payroll deduction. Very unusual in NY with a clean record, no problems.

Yes we do pay the 17% a weekly amount of $147, comes out of every paycheck. He received a bonus check (an extra check) and our employer took the $147 out of that also, which they had no right to do unless he was in the arrears. Which he has never been. Child support has the extra payment and our account even shows -$147. When we called to ask that this money be sent back they are telling us that they can legally keep one extra payment JUST IN CASE. I do not understand this he pays every week, never been late and it was our employee who screwed up and now they are telling us they can keep the payment?

Yes we do pay the 17% a weekly amount of $147, comes out of every paycheck. He received a bonus check (an extra check) and our employer took the $147 out of that also, which they had no right to do unless he was in the arrears. Which he has never been. Child support has the extra payment and our account even shows -$147. When we called to ask that this money be sent back they are telling us that they can legally keep one extra payment JUST IN CASE. I do not understand this he pays every week, never been late and it was our employee who screwed up and now they are telling us they can keep the payment?


I don't think you understood what I said - I'm in NY. The Court Orders I've seen required that 17% of ALL income be paid as child support. That includes bonuses and the like. Therefore, it do not see this as an "extra" payment. I see this as 17% of his income for child support, as ordered by the Court.

Who told you that he does NOT have to pay child support on bonus checks? An Attorney?

Arrearages have nothing to do with this and I think the support collection unit is confused on the issue.

Why is the money deducted from his paycheck instead of having him make direct payments to the mother of the child? That is very unusual in my area unless there's a history of no payments.