HELP...two states involved

[scorpdream]

My husband has a case in PA.  He has worked overtime from Nov 03 to March 04.  He is now back to his regular 40 hour work week.  Overtime is never guaranteed, only 40 hours.  Sometimes they have it for runs of time like that and sometimes it can be a year or two in-between times they have overtime.  We gave them his W2's for the last two years and it seems they are only going by the last six months (we did not have all the pay stubs..but a pretty good few).  His net income during a 40 hour week is about $485 - $515.  This is gross only minus taxes.  He also pays health insurance on her (from the beginning) and has had dental for at least 2 years now and has union dues (Do they count those if they are not mandatory?).  They are saying his weekly net is almost $620-650.
 
We have appealed it because there is no way for us to live having to pay 158 a week to CS (they also dated the order back to when she filed so there are automatic arrears that we have to pay)
 
How do we make them understand the nature of his work and the fact that he is currently working a 40 hour week.  Even if you do it by last years W2 it is not that much and that is 12 months worth of pay of all kinds.  Not only do they get overtime every once in a while, but they also get laid off from 2 days to 2 weeks when boats are being moved around or there is a lack of work, they have strikes occasionally, they have 4 days unpaid at Christmas, and they have rainouts (cancel work due to rain or other weather-quite regularly)
 
At worst...In 6 months can he file for an amendment due to the change in his income?  Can we legally ask for their calculations..how they determined the amount?

[c_alexander]

It is my understanding that you can file to ammend the child support at anytime. I had a situation where the I owned a small business and the courts took the net income of my company and used it to calculate my Child support. Upon review of Indiana Child support guidelines however I discovered that what they had done was illegal and filed to modify. Although it took almost 5 years to get it straightened out and my child support adjusted (this is not typical...I was filing for bankruptcy with my business, and had some major financial problems). The courts however did not make the change retroactive...even though they had broken their own child support laws, which puts me behind almost 5 years in Child support and coming very close to a class c felony due to the amount of the child support the courts originally ordered me to pay.

My advice is to find and review in detail the child support guidelines for your state and what they say in regards to your situation and file to modify ASAP. It is almost unheard of for a court to make any changes to child support retroactive unless it is an increase, and the longer you wait the bigger and bigger that arrears is going to get. Trust me I found out the hardway.

[rini]

hello

first off get a letter from his employer stating that his overtime is not
guaranteed and that it is sporadic in nature to say the least.

secondly demand that they use deductions for his union dues and the medical paid.

if you wish me to look over their calculations i can certainly be able to show you what they missed and what to call their attention to.

how many kids is he paying support for?

my dh is in pa and his cs is 190 a week for 2 kids.  

rini in PA