Paying or Receiving Child Support Outside the System?
Wednesday / June 06, 2007
When you pay outside the system, proving payment or
receipt is more difficult.
In a recent post called "Things I Screwed Up During
my Divorce," Kathy at brokenhomeschool.com makes an
important point about the payment of child
support:
I would have read the judge’s orders more closely. The judge set up the child support payments to be paid directly to me. MAJOR mistake. In Florida, they don’t keep track of payments if paid directly to the wife. So what happens if he doesn’t pay? Nada. Nothing. My ex is currently $12,000+ behind (at only $513/month for three kids!)and hasn’t made a payment for months. I’m having to go back to court again to have the whole thing put through the State system. It’s taking forever and money around here is extremely tight.
To expand: Often, people getting divorced will agree that child-support payments can be made outside the official payment system. The parent paying child support believes it will be easier - especially if the payment system requires money orders or other cash equivalent instead of a personal check - while the parent receiving child support sometimes receives payments quicker when they are made directly instead of through the system.
As Kathy learned, this is a mistake for the parent receiving child support because it can be much more difficult to document how much child support was received and when it was received when payments are made outside the system.
But the paying parent benefits by paying through the system, too, even if the parent must go to the trouble of getting a money order. Why? Because there is an independent, third-party record of exactly how much that parent paid and when he paid it. This protects the parent who pays.
So if given the choice of paying through the child support payment system, or paying directly outside of it, the best thing to do is use the system. That's why it's there.
I would have read the judge’s orders more closely. The judge set up the child support payments to be paid directly to me. MAJOR mistake. In Florida, they don’t keep track of payments if paid directly to the wife. So what happens if he doesn’t pay? Nada. Nothing. My ex is currently $12,000+ behind (at only $513/month for three kids!)and hasn’t made a payment for months. I’m having to go back to court again to have the whole thing put through the State system. It’s taking forever and money around here is extremely tight.
To expand: Often, people getting divorced will agree that child-support payments can be made outside the official payment system. The parent paying child support believes it will be easier - especially if the payment system requires money orders or other cash equivalent instead of a personal check - while the parent receiving child support sometimes receives payments quicker when they are made directly instead of through the system.
As Kathy learned, this is a mistake for the parent receiving child support because it can be much more difficult to document how much child support was received and when it was received when payments are made outside the system.
But the paying parent benefits by paying through the system, too, even if the parent must go to the trouble of getting a money order. Why? Because there is an independent, third-party record of exactly how much that parent paid and when he paid it. This protects the parent who pays.
So if given the choice of paying through the child support payment system, or paying directly outside of it, the best thing to do is use the system. That's why it's there.
|
