Where Does My Child's Rights Come in?

[marisalimbo]

I am a new mom and the wife of a man who pays over half of his income in child support.  He got divorced in the lovely state of California and his support is set so high that he falls behind every month.  We moved to Texas where we could actually have hopes of buying a home and live a somewhat better life.  Now, one year later, after notifying Child Support Services that his income is 30% less than what it was in California, they have still done nothing BUT RAISE his amount due because of custody issues. He can not afford to see his kids.  We had them for a month and could not do anything with them.  They were so excited to go back home because "dad's house is boring" while mom and Dan (her new fiance) take them to Disney Land and Raging Waters.  Here is my confusion with the whole system.  We now have a newborn son and his support was supposed to get lowered $80.00.  Mind you, he is supposed to pay $2,000 a month in support, but can only pay $1600.00.  Child Support Services was able to garnish his check and make arrangements with his pay role within one weeks time.  They did not need anything on his part or his ex's.  When it came time to finally lower the amount because the birth of our son, two months later, nothing has been done.  He called CSS and they said it could take at least 90 days. Where does my son's rights come in to place?  They have already spoken for him?  Why does it take that long to lower his amount?  Why does his ex have to sign off on my child's rights as a U.S. citizen.  What is so sad is that my husband has a great job, but makes the amount that a McDonald's employee would bring in.  I have a college degree and I am writing letters to CSS asking for their sympathy and a sense of urgency so my son could have formula.  The cost of living has increased over 50% and they expect us to pay for gas, rent, food and see his children with a smile while he works 50 plus hours a week and listens to his children tell him how much fun there mom's new fiance is.  Of course he is so much fun!!! He does not have to pay for those children.  He gets to keep his paycheck and get more than half of my husbands as well.  She has not learned her lesson because she is getting her first husbands paycheck, my husbands (her second) her new husband and her own.  The best part is, she does not have to claim it on her taxes and because my husband is falling behind every month, SHE GETS HIS TAX RETURNS TOO!!!!! What is wrong with this system?!?! Who was the math genius that came up with the support calculator? It sickens me that we have to struggle and my son has to suffer because of the mistakes his dad made when he was young.  Is there any hope? Is there any way to get CSS to expedite the process on getting his support lowered? Someone please?!

A very frustrated wife of the 2nd family  

[ocean]

HI,
Have your husband's job change the amount of deducutions so he will have to pay a little to the IRS. This will give you more money every week and BM will never get the IRS money. (you can save some of the extra money yourself to pay the IRS if you need to).
You are very lucky that CA allows for your child to be in the child support formula. My state does not have this. This has been a big discussion on this board. Some states believe that you knew your DH's child support obligation and should have planned accordingly.
Once your child is in the system it should go back to the date of birth or when you filed so you will get that money credited from the arrears. There are child support calculators for each state. You can see if you are paying the correct amount. It is against the law to take more than 50% of the paycheck (65% is some cases with arrears). If you think that the what he is paying is way over the amount the calculators say, file for a modification. Child support is usually based on numbers so you need to prove that his income is different in TX and base it on last years taxes.
Good luck!