SPARC Forums

My DH pays CS directly withheld from his paychecks.  We even got all caught up w/ our CS payments last year.  (He owed almost $2500 in CS right away since the judge made the order retro.)  So now things are current and never late.  I was recently told that we can ask for an abatement in the CS for whenever my SS's stay w/ us for 7 consecutive days.  For instance, during the summer months my 2 ss's live with us for almost 2 whole months.  However, during that same time period my DH still pays CS through the state to BM.  I was told that we could get an abatement for 50% of what we pay her.  The reason I ask about this is because 2 summers ago we were so broke from paying CS and supporting them during the summer months.  Then last year, my DH had to work major over-time prior to them coming to live w/ us just so we could afford the CS and to support them.  So, now I'm wanting to find out about this before summer gets here.  Has anyone ever done this or heard of it?  Like I said, DH pays through the state (Oregon).  If we cannot get an abatement, could we in the alternative, get an order to pay more through the other 10 months and not pay at all during the summer months?

just out of curriousness why was the order Retro? Most of not all retroactive orders are illegal, unless there was a pending modification.

By the time the judge finally ordered the CS, a large part due to BM trying to "milk" the system by lying about her child care costs, it was September and he ordered it from April of that same year, which was when he awarded BM full custody.

I'm not sure if that is true or not.  I know that formerly I had joint physical and legal custody of my son and he was with me 60% of the time.  I still had to pay the same amount of child support every week.  My son was living with me for at least 12 weeks in the summer and I still had to pay every week.  The child support agency said that the custodial parent still had to "maintain the home" as if the child was there.  

Now I have had temporary custody of my son since Oct '06.  I still paid child support up until Dec '06.  BM  has not given  me a dime.  We go to court to determine custody next month.