Is wage assignment this difficult in other states?

[Amy_in_MA]

I'm in MA. My son's father and I have had a support order with wage assignment in place since paternity was established back in 2001. For the most part, it's worked fairly well until a few years ago when he was laid off. Sometimes he sends payments in, sometimes he doesn't, and it's rarely for the full amount when it's sent in, so he is about $2500 in arrears. He's also way over due on his portion of uninsured medical expenses ($600), but those don't go through CSE.

Many months ago I called and asked DOR (our CSE agency locally) why the wage assignment wasn't being used if they had his employer on file. They basically said that because he was sending payments in (didn't matter if it was the right amount as long as he sent in something), they wouldn't change the way it was done. I reiterated to the agent that we have a court order that says it is supposed to be through wage assignment. So he tells me they will send out a packet to the employer, who then has 30 days to respond. Several months go by and no wage assignment, sporadic payments. I call again. They tell me they never heard back from the employer.Ok, fine. Then they should be able to make a follow-up phone call to find out. They told me it had been too long since they sent out the packet for them to do that, and they would have to send a whole new packet to the employer, wait another 30 days, etc. etc. Apparently, it was my job to flag them when 30 days had gone by with no wage assignment happening. Eventually they heard back from the employer that he's no longer employed there.

So, a couple of months ago I found out the name of his employer (wouldn't it be easier if he would just notify DOR/CSE himself?). I provided CSE that information. They replied that they had another employer named on file, it had come up in a SSN scan, and they were sending a packet out to THAT employer. Ok, so now we're into waiting 30 days again. I wait 45 days, just for good measure, and I ask the status. They tell me they haven't heard anything, they will make a note to have a follow-up call made, it should be made within a week or two. I wait two weeks, ask again. They tell me to be patient, the call hasn't been made yet. Now, they can't send out a wage assignment packet to the employer I gave them until they get a response from THIS employer...by the time they get this all wrapped up, he won't be employed there anymore. I wait another two weeks. Yesterday, I call. The woman I spoke to put me on hold. She came back and told me that she had bumped it up in priority to a supervisor because 1) CSE still had not made a follow-up phone call (60+ days after sending out the wage assignment package to the employer), and 2) since he hasn't been sending any support in, they've decided they really need to trake action with this. All they really needed to do was look at the history over the past 4 years and they could see what's been going on. She assured me that within a few days a call will have been made to the employer they mailed the packet to in the beginning of February. And if they got "he's not employed there", they would send a packet out to the employer I gave them info on back in early February.

Is it really this difficult to get a court order followed in other states to?????

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Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

     ~ James Allen

[Giggles]

In a word...YES!!  It really sucks!!!

I haven't received any CS from YD's father since Oct 06 and the time before that was in April of 05.  

I keep calling CSE and they are totally clueless.  I gave them his employers address and they said that he wasn't working there.  I gave them his new home address 3 times before it actually got into the record.

I called yesterday to see what they were doing, they said they can't get him served for contempt.  I pulled up the court records and told them that he has a court date at such and such time...GET HIM SERVED!!  UGH!!!

OH...YD's father is $18,000 in arears...sigh

[ocean]

Yes, I dealt with the wait 30 days thing too. I found it better (and faster) to go down to my CSE office. Here, you can just walk in and wait to see someone except on Wednesdays. Could you go and get a face to face appointment? Our 1800 # is a joke....I never get a straight answer out of them...

[4honor]

DH has a support order. He has been current and keeps current by  looking online and finding out what each employer has taken outand then sending in the rest.

The problem is that if he sends in more than the ordered amount (rather than crediting it as paid early, they return the amount to him (which they spend $$ to go send this to him and we spend 39 cents to send it back to them after the first.)

DH has been working temporary jobs and has been off and on unemployment since he was laid off in June of last year. He is doing the best he can with no education and when there is extra $$ in the budget, we would like to pay ahead (for those times there is no work), but WA won't let im pay ahead even for 4 days. It is a never ending battle.

We keep them aprised of where he is working and when. We let them know everything and they couldn't get it right (with all the correct info from the NCP even) if their lives depended on it.
 I feel your frustration.

[Amy_in_MA]

I've gone to see them in person once...and just once. And that was to provide them with my Excep spreadsheet that showed all of the payments and amounts my son's dad had made...because they hadn't tracked them properly and were showing him in arrears. I took 3 hours off from work to get this done...gave them the spreadsheets, signed an affidavit. And he can't just simply call them to give them his employer's contact info when he changes jobs? It's irritating.

But, going down in person for this gets me no different answers then I get on the phone. I have the wage assignment order. I've had it for years. They just don't seem compelled to enforce it if he is paying ANY amount of his ordered support "voluntarily". It's only when he pays nothing, like right now, for weeks that they seem to push to go ahead and enforce wage assignment by trying to track down his employer. And it shouldn't be that way. It's a court order. :(

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Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

     ~ James Allen

[gemini3]

Good on your DH!  :D  Give him a pat on the back for doing things right and being an example of the fact that not all dad's are deadbeats.