NJ Child Support shows disregard for supporting parents for 14 years

[luckystepmom]

My husband has not recieved his payment booklet for child support since March 2003.  I wrote 13 letters to the probation office along with the checks I sent in.  Around the 6th letter I recieved a general response for the Probation officer stating the booklets were automated on a quarterly cycle.  I continued writing letters stating had he looked into the matter or done the math he would see that we had missed more than one cycle.  After leaving a message for his supervisor, I recieved a return phonecall.  First he told me the probation office in question was new (he's been there more than 4 months).  Then he proceeded to tell me they've had the system since 1989 and have always had problems with it.  He stated that the system had "a mind of its own" and there was not much he could do.  When he looked up the actually case, it had the wrong employer and address.  My husband has owned his own business for more than a year before the child support order was in place.  When I asked him how the orignal information had been changed, he told me that their system pulls info off other systems and they had no control over it.  He informed me we were not the only ones who don't recieve our booklets and quite frankly the stubs were thrown out once they reached the office anyway.  I said the booklets were promised to us when we were told to start paying support and regardless of what they did with them once they hit the office, they are materials to help the parent paying support ensure he was up to date with his payments and by not sending them, they were showing no interest in the supporter other than tossing them in jail if they did miss payments.  We corrected the information and he told me there was still a good chance that the booklets would not get to us.  He also said it was possible that in 6mos., a year, or 6 years they would just start back up.  As far as I can tell this means for 14 years they've employed a system that they know doesn't work with no effort to remedy the situation.  I haven't heard of any C.P.'s not recieving their checks on time, the problem only affects the parents paying support and nothing has been done about it.  Is there something I can do, or someone I can call to have this system reconsidered?  Is there anything in the legislation that guarentees the supporter help from these people or does the law only protect the C.P.'s?

[charm910]

My husband has been paying support through the NJ system since 1990 and we have been payees (for our granddaughter) since 2000. We have encountered problems with them before (such as payment booklets), but this is such a minor problem.

Do you know how to access your account over the internet? and do you use it? This is so accurate, it's tremendous.  We know that a payment has been processed earlier than when it is posted to our bank account.

And, again, as with anything else, you are responsible for a payment, whether or not you get your coupon booklet.

If you are unfamiliar with the system it is //www.njchildsupport.org it is easy to use once you've registered. It also contains new laws and other important information.

[luckystepmom]

After I posted on this board, my computer finally gave up on us.  I'm now on a "happy" computer that doesn't get fried in cyber space.  Thank you for your reply and yes I do use the online system.  But to be perfectly honest I don't feel I should have to.  We recently had our CS "modified" to almost double what it was.  What happens?  We finally start recieving our payment coupons FOR THE INCORRECT AMOUNT (the lower amount we were originally ordered)  These people have the ability to send my husband to jail if I screw up the support payments.  With that much power THEY should have to double check their information.  If I call NJ Family Support with a question, the tell me to call the probation office.  When I call them they tell me they don't have an answer for me.  I can't get ANY information unless I send our $250/hr lawyer to get it.  I want to fire him (he's horrible) but we owe him so much and we can't get info until we send a lawyer to do it.  Every week I feel more convinced that these people would rather see my husband not pay and be sent to jail.