Disability and child support payments??

[suesinfl]

Just a brief question. How does qualifying for disability affect child support and back payments? From what I hear, XH is having health problems (no surprise to me) and may try to apply for disability. CS for one child will end in May, but the other child is only 13.

He is about $20,000 behind in CS, although he was court ordered to pay an extra $100 a month to make that up amount. There is also about $5,000 in medical bills that he is supposed to pay, but I haven’t even gone there. He has also defaulted on SL of about $20,000 that he incurred before we met and I was not made aware of that until after we divorced. Note to self…do background checks and credit checks before becoming involved.

So, how will disability payments affect his ability to pay, will the courts just tell me so sad, too bad, or will he still be responsible for making the payments?

Ok, so that wasn’t so brief. I may not be able to answer any questions until tomorrow after 9 p.m., sorry.

[justme]

I believe if a parents goes on disability their minor children get support. So you'd need make sure that goes to you and not him.

No idea on back payments. You'd have to see if you can garnish disability payments for back payments.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Ugh. I haven't had the disability situation happen before. I'd make sure to keep everything documented with your state's CS services. 

[marvholly]

Is the disability via a private policy (his or via employer) or via social security. If social security child/you will also get a payment (amount ?) until 18. Late DH was collectiong soc disability before DD2 turned 18/graduated high school.   No clue regarding arrears.

[andi9899]

He can ask that the support amount be revised to fit his new income. The court have an option to do it or not if it has been less than 3 years since it has last been reviewed. Arrearages never go away. His social security check will get garnished long after the kid is an adult if that's what it takes to get you paid back.

[suesinfl]

Feb 4, 2016 7:13:44 GMT -5 marvholly said:

Is the disability via a private policy (his or via employer) or via social security. If social security child/you will also get a payment (amount ?) until 18. Late DH was collectiong soc disability before DD2 turned 18/graduated high school.   No clue regarding arrears.

Disability would be via SS. I'm also just wondering how long it will take for disability to be approved.

[suesinfl]

Feb 4, 2016 7:40:39 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

He can ask that the support amount be revised to fit his new income. The court have an option to do it or not if it has been less than 3 years since it has last been reviewed. Arrearages never go away. His social security check will get garnished long after the kid is an adult if that's what it takes to get you paid back.

He did try to get the court to revise his payments, but because his loss of income was due to his own stupidity (2 DUIs, jail time, loss of jobs, amount of arrearages, etc.) the court said no. Although he can possibly try again in the next year or so. It's good to know that there is some hope.

Thanks for the insight everyone!

[973beachbum]

I know someone who works very part time because they don't want to pay CS.  They even made the claim that CS should stop totally if someone is disabled.  I really should put disabled in quotes as for him it is more a case of he doesn't want to work but on to my real issue. 

If the kid lived with him and he was disabled would he just tell the kid "sorry no food for you I'm disabled"?!?!

Seriously, this is beyond maddening that people think like this.

[Deleted]

Feb 4, 2016 21:44:02 GMT -5 suesinfl said:

Disability would be via SS. I'm also just wondering how long it will take for disability to be approved.

It takes a long time and is so involved that I've seen commercials from lawyers who specialize in helping people navigate through the system. A friend in her 50s who had a stroke a year ago just got approved for SS disability.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Feb 4, 2016 22:32:52 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Feb 4, 2016 21:44:02 GMT -5 suesinfl said:

Disability would be via SS. I'm also just wondering how long it will take for disability to be approved.

It takes a long time and is so involved that I've seen commercials from lawyers who specialize in helping people navigate through the system. A friend in her 50s who had a stroke a year ago just got approved for SS disability.

It took me 5 weeks to get approved for SSDI.  It is fairly comprehensive, but I had copies of all my medical records in front of me and worked from them.

But I was disabled for 6 months before I applied.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Feb 4, 2016 22:02:46 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

I know someone who works very part time because they don't want to pay CS.  They even made the claim that CS should stop totally if someone is disabled.  I really should put disabled in quotes as for him it is more a case of he doesn't want to work but on to my real issue. 

If the kid lived with him and he was disabled would he just tell the kid "sorry no food for you I'm disabled"?!?!

Seriously, this is beyond maddening that people think like this.

Interesting. In my state, the state has decided that every parent is held accountable for full time at minimum wage paychecks--regardless of whether or not the person is actually employed. 

[marvholly]

Feb 4, 2016 21:44:02 GMT -5 suesinfl said:

Feb 4, 2016 7:13:44 GMT -5 marvholly said:

Is the disability via a private policy (his or via employer) or via social security. If social security child/you will also get a payment (amount ?) until 18. Late DH was collectiong soc disability before DD2 turned 18/graduated high school.   No clue regarding arrears.

Disability would be via SS. I'm also just wondering how long it will take for disability to be approved.

I can only tell you how it worked in our situation (NOTE: there were EXTREME reports of people being turned down and/or applications filed in the circular file cabinet at the time) in 1996 or 1997.

DH had 2 years of hospital records copied (cost about $100). Pile was about 18 inches high.  He went to a nearby soc office applied in person & left the records as proof of claim.  We were approved in about a month & first check was depositied within 1 month of approval.

Your DH will need to say he has a child to support & probably have paperwork to back it up.  If you clain the dependent chile in Fed taxes child will get zip.  If alternate or shared tax claim don't know. 

Back then DH got about $1550/month.  DD2 got about $280.

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2016 0:51:37 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Feb 4, 2016 22:02:46 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

I know someone who works very part time because they don't want to pay CS.  They even made the claim that CS should stop totally if someone is disabled.  I really should put disabled in quotes as for him it is more a case of he doesn't want to work but on to my real issue. 

If the kid lived with him and he was disabled would he just tell the kid "sorry no food for you I'm disabled"?!?!

Seriously, this is beyond maddening that people think like this.

Interesting. In my state, the state has decided that every parent is held accountable for full time at minimum wage paychecks--regardless of whether or not the person is actually employed. 

From recent experience, it's not like that in our state.  Unemployed means no CS order. 

[973beachbum]

I'm not sure they don't get an order just that there is only so much they are allowed to take.  I don't remember any numbers but they said there is an amount that they make that can not be garnished.  Then the amount above can be taken up to some percent.  After whatever that amount is then their entire net above that can go to garnishments up to whatever they owe. 

This person would keep their pay right at the amount that couldn't be garnished.  I think it ended up going into to arrears for everything they didn't pay.  But I will say I seriously doubt this person will ever pay much of it even if they live to a hundred.

How much SS could you possibly get, so it could be garnished, when you made sure never to make above the min poverty level?  

[Peace77]

Child support does get taken out of SSDI.  I know one guy who's around age 60 will probably be paying on the arrears the rest of his life for the past due support on his 12 children.

 

[Chocolate Lover]

Feb 5, 2016 8:35:06 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Feb 5, 2016 0:51:37 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Interesting. In my state, the state has decided that every parent is held accountable for full time at minimum wage paychecks--regardless of whether or not the person is actually employed. 

From recent experience, it's not like that in our state.  Unemployed means no CS order. 

Where my oldest's was done (not where I live now) they worked of min wage if they were unemployed. BUT, when XH had been working fairly steadily for a bit I asked for a review (min wage was $5.15 when CS started) and because he wasn't working then, they wouldn't change anything. He hasn't worked since 2005. So, he's ages behind but he was only required to pay something dumb like $176 a MONTH in the first place. 

I look forward to him figuring out they'll stick it to him at SS time though if that's really true.

[kittensaver]

In my state, back CS never dies.

A number of years back, we had a man in his 60's join our program (an intensive, community-based case management support and wrap-around program for chronically mentally ill folks, most of whom are homeless and/or have multiple diagnoses and clinical vulnerabilities). After his meds started to work, he decided to join the employment portion of the program because he wanted something to do. Even though he was in a sheltered workshop program, his wages were reported quarterly to the state (required by law here). As a direct result of that quarterly filing, guess what landed in our office? : a wage order for back CS.

His kids were in their 40's, but since the state paid for their upbringing (via welfare checks to the mother), it had an order on file to garnish any wages that were reported. When we showed him the order, he rolled his eyes and quit. Such is life. He actually passed away a few years later, but the point is that at least here, CS never goes away.

[NastyWoman]

Feb 5, 2016 10:18:27 GMT -5 Peace77 said:

Child support does get taken out of SSDI.  I know one guy who's around age 60 will probably be paying on the arrears the rest of his life for the past due support on his 12 children.

 

12 children? Well there is a guy who should have pro-actively disabled a certain part of his body. 12 children... really, you can't feel sorry for someone like him.