Ask Me Help Desk - I owe child support and need help

I got 5 months behind on my payments and my drivers license is suspended. I can not get it back until I pay my arrearages. Now 5 years later, as I have struggled to work with out a car ( people get tired of giving rides ), and paying 60% of a part time 8.00 hourly wage, trying to pay the people I live with for room and food, working for people that don't pay after I worked, and now owing more than 30,000.00). My ex-husband is asking for me to be put in jail ( again )- he has been hurt in his life to the point that he just wants to hurt me. I have a court order to visit my children every other weekend and their father has denied me visitation for more than 6 years. But because I can not work and pay, I am a bad mom. My children no longer want to see me. There is no help or hope for someone in my situation. I want to work more than anything! How can I get my drivers license? A miracle from God of 30,000.00 I don't see this happening.
Pat

You cannot get your license back until the suspension is lifted - and the State allows it.

Is that your question?

Have you gone back to Court to get the support lowered? It won't help with arrearages, of course.

What you do is go back to court and request that the suspension be lifted for the purpose of work. In affect what the courts can do is grant you a restricted license. Only for going to and from work. As far as visitation you should go back to court to have it enforced.

Did u ever go back to court for child support payment to be lowered due to your lack of income and situation? Sometimes they can work with you.

"I got 5 months behind on my payments and my drivers license is suspended. I can not get it back until I pay my arrearages. Now 5 years later, as I have struggled to work with out a car ( people get tired of giving rides ), and paying 60% of a part time 8.00 hourly wage, trying to pay the people I live with for room and food, working for people that don't pay after I worked, and now owing more than 30,000.00). My ex-husband is asking for me to be put in jail ( again )- he has been hurt in his life to the point that he just wants to hurt me. I have a court order to visit my children every other weekend and their father has denied me visitation for more than 6 years. But because I can not work and pay, I am a bad mom. My children no longer want to see me. There is no help or hope for someone in my situation. I want to work more than anything! How can I get my drivers license? A miracle from God of 30,000.00 I don't see this happening."

I just reread this - $30,000 in arrears in 6 months? Six years of not seeing the children?

I don't know that the father is trying to hurt the mother OR is trying to support the children with no help and is simply frustrated. If a man posted this I think people would jump all over him.

If OP isn't working the Court is likely to agree to jail time - no income will be lost.

Without knowing the State it's hard to say.

Are alcohol/drugs involved - I note the father has custody - or are there other problems?

Child support and visitation are not linked. The fact that OP is not allowed to see the children has no bearing on her duty to pay child support.

Observation: the laws in many parts of the county which allow for suspension of driving privileges if child support is not current are seriously ill-considered. It seem that the legislators are blind to the fact that it is next to impossible to obtain or keep a job without a drovers license.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AK lawyer

Observation: the laws in many parts of the county which allow for suspension of driving privileges if child support is not current are seriously ill-considered. It seem that the legislators are blind to the fact that it is next to impossible to obtain or keep a job without a drovers license.

They do it to punish the walking wallets. That is why when they make child support putative and then charge interest if you do get behind it starts to snowball fast. In today's economy many people have lost their job without it being something they created and yet are being punished for it over and over by the courts.

It needs to change and also return to being tax deductable by the payer. It would provide incentive to pay it in the first place as well as track the money as it should be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdad

t needs to change and also return to being tax deductable by the payer. It would provide incentive to pay it in the first place as well as track the money as it should be.

I don't know that it was ever deductible. My wife, my children, and I all live together, and we are not allowed to deduct what we spend on them. Why should it be any different for divorced parents? In fact to do so would actually encourage divorce. Is that what society wants now?

Here's an interesting tidbit:

"... 76% of the $14.4 billion in child support arrears in California was by parents who lacked the ability to pay. The "deadbeat" parents had a median annual income of $6,349, arrears of $9,447 and an ongoing support of $300 per month because 71% of the orders were set by default" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_s...adbeat_parents

Quote:

Originally Posted by AK lawyer

I don't know that it was ever deductible. My wife, my children, and I all live together, and we are not allowed to deduct what we spend on them. Why should it be any different for divorced parents? In fact to do so would actually encourage divorce. Is that what society wants now?

Here's an interesting tidbit:

"... 76% of the $14.4 billion in child support arrears in California was by parents who lacked the ability to pay. The "deadbeat" parents had a median annual income of $6,349, arrears of $9,447 and an ongoing support of $300 per month because 71% of the orders were set by default" Child support in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It was deductable at one time. What your not thinking about is that the amount for taxation goes to the parent that receives it. After all they are the ones getting the money in the frst place after taxes have been removed. So a woman that has 3 children from different fathers and if each pays $2,000 per month gets $72,000 per year tax free. So when you add the taxation bracket its even more money being paid out by the NCP.