how does garnishment work

[Deleted]

Apr 22, 2016 8:37:54 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

Apr 22, 2016 7:59:42 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

In MN you get a support order for X amount of dollars/month and it's multiplied by 12 and then divided by your pay periods, so it's the same deducted every paycheck.  You don't get more taken out for working more.  My ex says if he works Saturday and a couple extra hours during the week it works out to be like not having to pay any child support.

They all do that.  But it only works out when the person's income can afford to pay it and still have enough income to not be below the poverty line.  I have known a couple of people whose child support order totaled over $500 a week.  For someone with a decent income that works.  These people didn't even make $500 a week.

That is when the weird complicated charts come into play taking each CS order in some order and percents of pay and percents of how much is given to each child again in some order.

I do know it has to do with which CS order was put in place first not order of birth.  I know a woman who has a child with a man who had 5 other kids with various other women.  Her son is maybe number 2 but she filed after the mothers of number 3 and 4 so is last to be paid.

In MN you can't end up having to pay more than you make because there are max percents and income held back as "unavailable" as it's assumed it's needed to live.   It's also based on both parents income.  They add my income to his and say this is how much combined you two would be expected to contribute to raising said child.   Then if parent A is making 60% of the income, they pay 60% of the support.  For childcare and insurance the actual numbers are used.  If I pay $300/month for health insurance for DS he has to reimburse me $180 of that.

[973beachbum]

MN you obviously can't pay more than you make, but I have seen people who were obligated to pay more than they made.  In their case it was because they had 7 kids by 6 different mothers.    Short of making really high income they were going to end up having more CS than income once that min was subtracted for them to live on.  The unpaid amount ends up going into arrears. 

There is actually one man at the GS who is still paying child support and he is in his 70's.  And I'm pretty sure he didn't have his kids late in life.  Nothing like getting a PT job for a little more than min wage to pay off your old child support debt so they don't garnish your social security.

[milee]

Hm, as a business owner who has so far been fortunate enough not to have to deal with garnishments of her employees' wages, I'm thinking this will be a new thing that I discriminate on when hiring. Why the hell would I want to waste multiple hours per month dealing with both the state and employee for something that has absolutely nothing to do with my business? I'm totally adding that question to the interview list - Do you have any outstanding debts which would cause your wages to be garnished?    If yes... I'm thinking I move on to the next resume/application in the stack.

[Deleted]

Apr 22, 2016 9:16:26 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

MN you obviously can't pay more than you make, but I have seen people who were obligated to pay more than they made.  In their case it was because they had 7 kids by 6 different mothers.    Short of making really high income they were going to end up having more CS than income once that min was subtracted for them to live on.  The unpaid amount ends up going into arrears. 

There is actually one man at the GS who is still paying child support and he is in his 70's.  And I'm pretty sure he didn't have his kids late in life.  Nothing like getting a PT job for a little more than min wage to pay off your old child support debt so they don't garnish your social security.

I meant the obligation can't be more than you make, even with multiple kids.  At least not in my state with the maximum percents.  If you're dumb enough to have a child with a guy already paying out the ears for 5 other kids you could very well end up with no support for yours. The other orders are not modified due to a subsequent filing.  It's not considered arrears either.  It would be just like having a child with a guy with no income or in prison.  You're SOL. 

[973beachbum]

The law sets the maximum amount that may be garnished in any workweek or pay period, regardless of the
number of garnishment orders received by the employer.  For ordinary garnishments (i.e., those not for support, bankruptcy, or any state or federal tax), the weekly amount may not exceed the lesser of two figures: 25 percent of the employee's disposable earnings, or the amount by which an employee's disposable earnings are greater than 30 times the federal minimum wage (currently $7.25 an hour)...

Specific restrictions apply to court orders for child support or alimony. The garnishment law allows up to 50
percent of a worker's disposable earnings to be garnished for these purposes if the worker is supporting another spouse or child, or up to 60 percent if the worker is not. An additional 5 percent may be garnished for support payments more than 12 weeks in arrears.

www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs30.pdf

This is part of the fed law on the max allowed to be garnished.  It has examples but the more kids a person has the more the math starts to make even a decently earning person feel poor.

[973beachbum]

Apr 22, 2016 9:28:05 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Apr 22, 2016 9:16:26 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

MN you obviously can't pay more than you make, but I have seen people who were obligated to pay more than they made.  In their case it was because they had 7 kids by 6 different mothers.    Short of making really high income they were going to end up having more CS than income once that min was subtracted for them to live on.  The unpaid amount ends up going into arrears. 

There is actually one man at the GS who is still paying child support and he is in his 70's.  And I'm pretty sure he didn't have his kids late in life.  Nothing like getting a PT job for a little more than min wage to pay off your old child support debt so they don't garnish your social security.

I meant the obligation can't be more than you make, even with multiple kids.  At least not in my state with the maximum percents.  If you're dumb enough to have a child with a guy already paying out the ears for 5 other kids you could very well end up with no support for yours. The other orders are not modified due to a subsequent filing.  It's not considered arrears either.  It would be just like having a child with a guy with no income or in prison.  You're SOL. 

That would suck! So what happens when the parent of the SOL child applies for food stamps type of thing?  I know around here they have to prove they are getting CS to get approved for any benefits.

I guess I get the reasoning but it still leaves a child out there without the support it needs.

[Deleted]

Apr 22, 2016 9:39:57 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

Apr 22, 2016 9:28:05 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

I meant the obligation can't be more than you make, even with multiple kids.  At least not in my state with the maximum percents.  If you're dumb enough to have a child with a guy already paying out the ears for 5 other kids you could very well end up with no support for yours. The other orders are not modified due to a subsequent filing.  It's not considered arrears either.  It would be just like having a child with a guy with no income or in prison.  You're SOL. 

That would suck! So what happens when the parent of the SOL child applies for food stamps type of thing?  I know around here they have to prove they are getting CS to get approved for any benefits.

I guess I get the reasoning but it still leaves a child out there without the support it needs.

They would still get state benefits.  There would still be a CS order, but it would be for $0 or something crazy small like $50/month.    But, as older kids dropped off the amount would change because there would then be more available income to base the order off of.

[Tennesseer]

Apr 22, 2016 9:18:48 GMT -5 milee said:

Hm, as a business owner who has so far been fortunate enough not to have to deal with garnishments of her employees' wages, I'm thinking this will be a new thing that I discriminate on when hiring. Why the hell would I want to waste multiple hours per month dealing with both the state and employee for something that has absolutely nothing to do with my business? I'm totally adding that question to the interview list - Do you have any outstanding debts which would cause your wages to be garnished?    If yes... I'm thinking I move on to the next resume/application in the stack.

You might want to check your state law on that. The link below is a quick reference.

State Laws on Wage Garnishments

[ohmomto2boys]

There was an employee who paid child support and it was a fixed amount per pay deducted from his pay and then we had to send a check to the CS agency.  Any time he received a bonus (once a year) we had to send a letter to the agency letting them know of the potential bonus asking if any CS had to be withheld.  We never had to withhold any CS from his bonus.  I think he told me that if he received raise of either 10 or 15% he had to report that himself.  It was never an issue since raises are usually 2 - 3% per year.

[NoNamePerson]

Apr 22, 2016 10:21:15 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Apr 22, 2016 9:18:48 GMT -5 milee said:

Hm, as a business owner who has so far been fortunate enough not to have to deal with garnishments of her employees' wages, I'm thinking this will be a new thing that I discriminate on when hiring. Why the hell would I want to waste multiple hours per month dealing with both the state and employee for something that has absolutely nothing to do with my business? I'm totally adding that question to the interview list - Do you have any outstanding debts which would cause your wages to be garnished?    If yes... I'm thinking I move on to the next resume/application in the stack.

You might want to check your state law on that. The link below is a quick reference.

State Laws on Wage Garnishments

Thanks for finding that. I was going to suggest she think a bit before asking that question. As for time spent doing the garnishment - just plug the figures into payroll program and have at it. I had as many as 4 garnishments at some point (construction employer ) and it was just no big deal. The set up was the most time consuming and that didn't amount to diddly in the long run.

[beergut]

In Texas, it is actually better to let them garnish your child support, because it creates a paper trail proving that the money was taken out of your check and sent. It does not reflect on the character of the individual being garnished, more on their distrust of their ex.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Apr 23, 2016 19:03:40 GMT -5 beergut said:

In Texas, it is actually better to let them garnish your child support, because it creates a paper trail proving that the money was taken out of your check and sent. It does not reflect on the character of the individual being garnished, more on their distrust of their ex.

in some states, it's a requirement that all C's be garnished. If you pay cash or even personal check direct to the ex, it won't count towards cs, even if both parties acknowledge it as cs. I'm told that it takes a few months to get the actual cs order running so a lot of people just pay their ex directly. Or at least that's how it used to be in Wisconsin.

[NoNamePerson]

Back in my day I think you had the option of receiving direct from EX or paid into the court. I opted for paid into court - think they sent it out once a month.