Child Support- good grief

[williaer]

Ohio
I have a child support order for $295.07 for my youngest daughter. I am completely current and have been for months. I recently lost my job to downsizing and went on unemployment. I immediately notified child support- so that an order could be sent to garnish the unemployment as soon as the checks started coming. As it turned out- there was no lag in payments and there was no accumulation of arrears. There was a proper amount of child support taken out of the very first unemployment check.

At my old employer, they decided to pay my severance according to their payroll, so I have been recieving "regular" paychecks from them. Today I recieved a check with the child support still taken out. My case worker had already sent an order to unemployment  (which I received a copy of), so I didn't understand why they continued to take money out from my former employer.

As it turns out- not only are they getting money from both sources, but my order has been overpaid by $367, just since July 14th. I called my former employer to ask if they had ever recieved a termination notice, and they hadn't. My caseworker simply sent them a new order without arrears payment included- which is not what he sent to unemployment.

What this boils down to is the worker:
1. Never terminated the wage witholding to my former employer
2. Sent unemployment a wage witholding that included payment on arrears that I don't owe
3. Has lied to me repeatedly about taking care of these things, and as a result, overpaid my order by nearly $400, just in the last 2 weeks. This will only continue, since I receive unemployment every week and it will automatically come out until he stops it.

What can I do to recoup this money- or is it just a lost cause?

Will they just consider it an overpayment and I will always be ahead, or do they return overpayments to obligors when they are this far ahead?

Are there any legal remedies that will "encourage" this case worker to do his job?

Can you tell I'm frustrated? I mean I don't mind the child support coming out and going towards the care and maintenance of my child, I feel like her mother does spend most of it on her...but this is insane.

Thanks Soc

[jenjen]

not soc
Sorry soc
excuse me, dont mean to pry but it has been my experiance to get a court order for everything, and not work with those case workers cause they will and do lie and you'll just end up in court eventually anyways. forget about getting the money back, maybe you should make sure you get credited for the over payment. your case worker should be able to contact your employer and make some type of adjustment. Always remember that the case worker has an interest in collecting the most money they can for the state. just my opinion

[williaer]

In this case I don't know what kind of court order there would be- except gross negligence of the case worker in doing his job. That would be a lost cause, though...a judge is not going to hear a case about a child support worker collecting too much money!

It's just frustrating becuase there is no sense of urgency when it is the obligor getting the short end of the stick...but last December- when I owed less than one months support- and the month wasn't even over, I was getting threatening letters from them about my arrears...are you kidding me- there weren't arrears- the month wasn't over!
Sigh.

[socrateaser]

>What can I do to recoup this money- or is it just a lost
>cause?

File a motion in COURT, requesting an order terminating payment from your old employer and directing that support be taken out of unemployment, or alternatively that support only be taken from your old employer and not from unemployment; and that you be given credit for any overpayments already made to the other parent.

>Will they just consider it an overpayment and I will always be
>ahead, or do they return overpayments to obligors when they
>are this far ahead?

Hard to say what a child support agency will do. Usually, my experience is that they will rip you off if they can, not intentionally, but merely because they're not in the biz of giving support obligors their money back, so there's no easy process for them to volutarily comply.

>
>Are there any legal remedies that will "encourage" this case
>worker to do his job?

Only a judge can order the agency to fix its books.