Custody & child support issues please help

[tcnc]

My fiance has been drug through the dirt by his x & the court system for the past 6 yrs now. First thing is he hasn't seen his 2 kids by her in 4 years. Second is child support enforcement has not been going by the guidelines in setting the support he pays her & we have no money for a lawyer. When it was 1st set he was only making $7 an hr they ordered him to pay $598 a month. Now we took it back to court about a month ago to add our daughter hoping we could get them to actually make it the correct amount which now by his income should only be about $420. She somehow got them to raise it to $978 a month which just left him w/ about $200 on his check which he gets paid every 2 wks. How can they possibly legally do this to someone. They expect someone that is supporting a 5 person household to live off of a little over $400 a month. I have just been completely discusted w/ this whole court system. It is Montgomery county va & she hasn't even lived in that county since several years before they split up but they won't transfer it. I will give more details if anyone is interest in knowing the whole story. Please help

[gemini3]

Here is a link to the VA child support worksheet:  http://www.courts.state.va.us/forms/district/dc637.pdf (http://www.courts.state.va.us/forms/district/dc637.pdf)

Plug in the numbers and see if you get the same result.  The support/wages table can be found here:  http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+20-108.2 (http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+20-108.2)

If you come up with a different number I can give you more help. 

[tcnc]

I'm having problems w/ the math.When it comes to dividing the combined gross & each individual gross. If you can run these or I can get help later trying to do it again. Her gross from the very first court order was 2728 his was 1212 their combined was 3940 says monthly child support obligation was 850 health care coverage says 36,child care expenses says 1039,total support obligation 1925. Then when it comes to the percent each has to pay it doesn't show hers, says 31% for him then says the amount of support he owed was $597. The court case that was recent we didn't see any of the calculations they went on. I know her income is over $3000 not sure what she gave them though so I have just been basing $3000 & his income of $2800 he also has $375 that is paid to children from another relationship & a child w/ me that they said they included into the amount. Not sure how all that is figured up either. When I have done these calculation on the dcse website for the first order I am coming up w/ his support being only $146 a month but that is including the support he pays for his other children then w/out adding them I still come up w/ $224. They said they couldn't include the support that he paid his other children the 1st time b/cause they were just done through court & not dcse. When putting the numbers now of his income & only adding that he has 1 dependant & the amount of his child support I am coming up w/ 421. I have heard from a friend recently that her x has actually been able to include children living in the home that are not his as dependants. He is supporting my other 2 children too. Is it true that they can be a deduction also or would he have to adopt them? Anyway the amount they appointed him to pay in this most recent case was 978 a month. By the 3000 2800 their are 2 children the support is for then him having 1 dependant that I know living w/ him he can count & pays the 375 in other support. Do you come up w/ him paying that much? Let me know if he can maybe call dsce to find out the exact stuff they went on or if that is private. Oh, & when deciding the amount didn't even look at his pay stubs just asked what he made an hr, didn't ask how many hours worked or any of that. We had actually tried to bring in a base amount from the time support was appointed to now of what his income was in hopes that they would even fix the arrearages. They wouldn't look at any of it.

[gemini3]

If he has another child, there should be an amount entered on line 3 for support of other children.  He can't count your children from other people as his dependents, only his biological children.  Do you pay daycare for any of his biological children?

His arrearages are based on the previous support order, not what his previous income was.  If the order changes, then it isn't backdated.  It starts when they new order goes into place, but isn't applicable to previous amounts owed.  Which, in your case, is a good thing since support went up.

It seems that the reason his support is so high is because of the child care costs.  In VA, they add child care costs to the total support obligation.  So his support obligation essentially doubled because of child care.

You should appeal this case with DCSE because your husband's income is less than 150% of the federal poverty guidelines.  In those cases, the obligation should be recalculated.  He can also request verification of the daycare expenses.  The numbers they used for the calculation are not sealed, and he should be able to see the file if he requests it.

[tcnc]

Thank you so much for your help in this. I really appreciate it. At the moment we don't pay any daycare for them. The children he pays the $375 for are homeschooled & our child isn't in daycare b/cause it's not in our best interest for me to work right now b/cause we have 3 children in the household & would be paying more for child care than I would be bringing home. His x that all this is about was actually under investigation for fraud over checks she was getting I believe from the government to pay for individual daycare for her children due to the daughter having a liver transplant when she was a baby. The 1st yr & a 1/2 child support was appointed she had told him that if he would watch them full time for her she would drop it but of course she didn't. Shortly after that is when she stopped letting him see them due to him getting a job also & not being able to do it all the time & w/ the little girl having a transplant had the backing by doctors to stop visitation. She is enrolled in school for next yr so the germ thing is no long an issue. We think that part will be easy, but w/ her nothing is. From my research on all this I knew that they weren't suposed to include my children from a previous relationship but didn't understand why they do in some cases. Over the arrearages I had read when taking it back for review that if they were done in error they would recalculate them. That's why I was bringing that up. How do we find out how much they are suposed to deduct for our daughter? And how does he go about getting them to send him a print out of the child support worksheet they went on. Does he just need to call or ask for it in writing like a lot of stuff has to be. Again thanks so much for your help. He actually should have ended up w/ custody in the beginning. There were several things she did putting the children in jeapordy that he was told by the guardien ad litem he couldn't bring up.

[tcnc]

I forgot to add he has now lost his job & in search for a new one due to not having the money to get him to work. they did give him the choice to quit knowing our situation so he would be able to be rehired at some point. How will this weigh out in taking it back to court? He thinks he needs to find  another job before going back to court but I told him the longer he waits the longer he is going to build this arrearage amount up. Also, in my child support issues w/ my x child support enforcement has always told me it couldn't be taken back to court until he was 3 months w/ no payment at all. Is that going to be the same w/ my fiance. As long as he is making some sort of payment to her can she not take him back for nonsupport?

[gemini3]

Since he voluntarily left his job, it's unlikely that he will be able to get a modification for reduced income.  The state expects parents to support their children. 

She can take him back for non-payment if he's paying less than the ordered amount.

[tcnc]

Understandably he didn't lose his job because he wanted to he lost it because she became too greedy. She is actually doing all of these things to be spiteful & if he had a lawyer we could prove it. Before they appointed the 978 when he was paying her the 670 he could barely support our household & I couldn't work due to having 3 children in our household that w/ the amount he brought home after paying her support wasn't enough to pay our basic bills. We are on foodstamps & were before he lost his job b/cause they were able to count the fact the he was paying out that much money. We could not even afford food then & now if we were to lose that we would starve. We are being ready to be evicted b/cause we were already behind on rent again due to support amount paid out. Before court he took his 401 k out to  halfway get us caught up. The custodial parent goes to spas frequently, has her dog in daycare,3 vehicles ,oh, did I mention ours was repossesed & I was w/ out a car for 2 years w/ 3 kids, also she is able to go to the beach & on frequent long vacations,puts the kids in dance,soccer etc, has a boat a four wheeler. My mother has to buy all my childrens clothes including my daughters I have w/ him. We have to ask for money for diapers. I think the way the court systems do this needs to be rexamined. It is totally unfair to the non custodial parent when they have a new family they are trying to support.He in no way is one of those dads that doesn't want to pay it he honestly thinks that he should just a fair amount, keep in mind he only pays his other 2 children only 375 a month. How is this fair to them?
The point we are at now I am advising him since he has been w/out work for 2 months & I have been offered the job I had before our baby was born in my other childrens school cafeteria. I would like for me to work & him to stay home w/ our daughter & him do side jobs here & there since we cannot afford daycare & for him to take it back to court w/ a lawyer & explain to them the whole situation which is way more than what I have disclosed & have them base his support on that & completely redo both his cases & split it fairly. Anyway, are there situations you have seen like this & are our chances good? Oh, & do you know the branches I go through to complain about the way this stuff is done? Thanks so much for your help