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Sunday, March 29, 2009
Court - "Fighting Over Child Support After the Pink Slip Arrives"
Julie Bosman reports today in a story on the front page of the Sunday NY Times. Some quotes from the lengthy story:
The same story echoed a dozen times through Room E8 of Manhattan Family Court in a single day: fathers, pinched by the recession, pleading for a reduction in child support.A salesman at Saks Fifth Avenue who is estranged from his teenage daughter said he feared he would be included in the next round of layoffs expected at his store.
A man who had been laid off from a factory said he managed to find work at Mets games, but for less pay, $9 an hour. Another man, on the verge of eviction, begged for a break from his $315 monthly payments.
“Last week was my child’s birthday, and I couldn’t get him a present,” he said, burying his head in his hands. “This is killing me.”
Since January, Family Court in New York has been filled with urgent requests like these, alarming judges and overwhelming calendars with what are known as modification cases.
Similar patterns are unfolding across the country: In Clark County, Nev., which includes Las Vegas, the district attorney’s family support division has received an unusually high number of calls from parents who previously paid diligently but are now having trouble.
The child-support office in Milwaukee saw a 20 percent spike in the number of custodial parents seeking enforcement of support orders last year, with most of the increase coming in the fall as the unemployment rate there began to creep upward.
To explain why they can no longer pay as much per month, the parents, typically fathers, cite layoffs, cutbacks in work hours and the loss of homes to foreclosure. Presented with documentation of falling incomes and rising expenses, judges often have little choice but to grant the downward adjustments, even in the face of protests from mothers struggling to support children. * * *
The amount of child support varies based on individual family circumstances, but New York State begins with these guidelines: A noncustodial parent generally pays 17 percent of gross income for one child, 25 percent for two children and up to 35 percent for five or more children, as well as a share of child care, medical and education expenses. * * *
Lisa J. Marks, the director of Child Support Enforcement in Milwaukee, said her office has seen an influx of noncustodial fathers who have lost jobs in sales, construction and the service industry.
“We have seen individuals who have had fairly good income, and it’s not there any more,” she said.
“It’s really a teetering issue for child support offices,” Ms. Marks said. “You have one party who is really desperate because they’re not getting the full amount of support. And their expenses have increased, and their hours are probably decreasing.”
On the flip side are the fathers, and “they don’t have a job at all anymore,” she said. “You try to maintain fairness.”
The court will typically order fathers to pay a portion of their unemployment benefits in child support. But if their unemployment runs out, and they have no income, the court will temporarily resort to what is called “open support,” Ms. Marks said. What that means, she explained, is “you don’t have to pay any child support.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 29, 2009 08:20 AM
Posted to Courts in general