Division of child support?

[usound76]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky

Hello again!

I have a question about how child support works with 2 different custodial parents. My ex has divorced the psycho step-mom and he has a second child support case open now. The second case has not been set up for wage assignment as of yet. The child support I receive has been coming out of his check for many years. I noticed that the amount I received yesterday was much lower than usual. I contacted the child support office this morning and was told that the amount they took from his paycheck was divided between his two cases. I thought that his second case would have no bearing on the case I have with him.

The CS worker also told me that this practice would continue until his employer got his wage assignment paperwork turned into the CS office. I know that when our CS was first ordered, he had to pay me directly and I had to keep track of the payments until the wage assignment took over. Why would it be different in this case?

She also told me that once the assignment is in place, they would take all the money received and we each would receive a percentage of the total amount. I thought that since each case has a set monthly obligation, they would just be kept separate. I know that all 3 of his children need to be supported and I'm not trying to take food out of his other childrens' mouths, but I'm just trying to figure all this out. This sounds really strange to me, can anyone help me?

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

There are a variety of factors that could be in play. Are both orders in Kentucky?

 

[usound76]

Yes, both orders are in Kentucky, same county now as well. I had moved to a different county and they also relocated up here a couple months ago. His company is headquartered in Cincinnati.

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

When I did payroll, I had a similar situation in which the amount coming out of the check was insufficient to cover both child support orders, hence I took the maximum allowed by law and split it percentage wise based on the amount of each order. The payer is supposed to make up the difference on their own which rarely happens.

 

[usound76]

Their divorce was just final 2 weeks ago. His payroll department has not filed the necessary paperwork to begin withholding the support for the second order. The amount that currently is being withheld is the amount from our order, nothing more. When we divorced, it took almost 3 months to start the wage assignment. I can imagine things are any quicker now.

His payroll department is incredibly slow. When they withhold from his check, it isn't even sent to the CS office for almost 10 days. I seems odd to me that they can just sit on the paperwork until whenever they want.

Their CS order is none of my business, but when the support that is supposed to go to our daughter is being sent elsewhere, I would like to know why.

 

[CSO286]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky

Hello again!

I have a question about how child support works with 2 different custodial parents. My ex has divorced the psycho step-mom and he has a second child support case open now. The second case has not been set up for wage assignment as of yet. The child support I receive has been coming out of his check for many years. I noticed that the amount I received yesterday was much lower than usual. I contacted the child support office this morning and was told that the amount they took from his paycheck was divided between his two cases. I thought that his second case would have no bearing on the case I have with him.

The CS worker also told me that this practice would continue until his employer got his wage assignment paperwork turned into the CS office. I know that when our CS was first ordered, he had to pay me directly and I had to keep track of the payments until the wage assignment took over. Why would it be different in this case?

She also told me that once the assignment is in place, they would take all the money received and we each would receive a percentage of the total amount. I thought that since each case has a set monthly obligation, they would just be kept separate. I know that all 3 of his children need to be supported and I'm not trying to take food out of his other childrens' mouths, but I'm just trying to figure all this out. This sounds really strange to me, can anyone help me?

Their divorce was just final 2 weeks ago. His payroll department has not filed the necessary paperwork to begin withholding the support for the second order. The amount that currently is being withheld is the amount from our order, nothing more. When we divorced, it took almost 3 months to start the wage assignment. I can imagine things are any quicker now.

His payroll department is incredibly slow. When they withhold from his check, it isn't even sent to the CS office for almost 10 days. I seems odd to me that they can just sit on the paperwork until whenever they want.

Their CS order is none of my business, but when the support that is supposed to go to our daughter is being sent elsewhere, I would like to know why.

Ok, I can explain how and why this happened.

Works like this:
You have support order A--Let's say your order is for $600 per month.
The other CP has support order B--let's say this one is for $400 per month.

Regular income withholding payments have been coming in for support order A, but now the new order has been issued. The CSO on the case gets the new order and enters it. This means that any future payments will be prorated between the two cases.

The CSO mails out the income withholding for support order B. While waiting for the employer to receive and implement the new IWO, the employer would still be mailing out the payments based on the info for order A.

So the way the breakdown occurs is like so:

We add order A ($600) to order B ($400)= $1000
Support order A is 60% of $1000
Support order B is 40% of $1000

So, until the employer gets the new income withholding order in place, every payment they send in will be prorated out on that basis:
Support order A gets 60% of every payment
Support order B gets 40% of every payment

Because support order B is now in the system, regardless of whether or not the employer has yet received/implemented the new order for income withholding.

Once the employer gets the new IW in place the payments should start coming at the previous amounts unless the NCP doesn't make enough money to do the full withholding.

Make sense?

And TinkrBelleLuvr--just an aside: In almost every state (I actually can't think of any exceptions, but I'm positive there's one or two), the employer doesn't have to do the prorated split--the clearinghouse will do it for you. An ex: If you have three NCPs with five cases, all you'd have to do is withhold either the total amount ordered or the maximum allowed if you could not withhold as ordered and mail in one check with a list indicating how much was withheld for each NCP. The state would then prorate it out to each case as appropriate. (You wouldn't have to mail in five different payments.)

Of course, if you did send in five different payments for the three NCPs the payments that were for NCPs with multiple cases would simply prorate out based on the formula above.

 

[CSO286]

Their divorce was just final 2 weeks ago. His payroll department has not filed the necessary paperwork to begin withholding the support for the second order. The amount that currently is being withheld is the amount from our order, nothing more. When we divorced, it took almost 3 months to start the wage assignment. I can imagine things are any quicker now.

His payroll department is incredibly slow. When they withhold from his check, it isn't even sent to the CS office for almost 10 days. I seems odd to me that they can just sit on the paperwork until whenever they want.

Their CS order is none of my business, but when the support that is supposed to go to our daughter is being sent elsewhere, I would like to know why.

The divorce was final two weeks ago??? Then this isn't happening "incredibly slow"ly.

The employer has 21 days from the date they get the order to implement the income withholding.

Then employer is required to mail in payments within 7 days of the employee's pay date. Sometimes, employers need to be reminded of this.

 

[usound76]

Thank you CSO. The way you explained it makes sense. As far as when I said "incredibly slow", I was referring to the time it takes for the employer to send the payments to the CS office. He & I get paid on the same Friday and sometimes the payment doesn't reach the CS office until the next payday (2 weeks later). I have online access to the CS account so I see when the payments are received.

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

Ok, I can explain how and why this happened.

Works like this:
You have support order A--Let's say your order is for $600 per month.
The other CP has support order B--let's say this one is for $400 per month.

Regular income withholding payments have been coming in for support order A, but now the new order has been issued. The CSO on the case gets the new order and enters it. This means that any future payments will be prorated between the two cases.

The CSO mails out the income withholding for support order B. While waiting for the employer to receive and implement the new IWO, the employer would still be mailing out the payments based on the info for order A.

So the way the breakdown occurs is like so:

We add order A ($600) to order B ($400)= $1000
Support order A is 60% of $1000
Support order B is 40% of $1000

So, until the employer gets the new income withholding order in place, every payment they send in will be prorated out on that basis:
Support order A gets 60% of every payment
Support order B gets 40% of every payment

Because support order B is now in the system, regardless of whether or not the employer has yet received/implemented the new order for income withholding.

Once the employer gets the new IW in place the payments should start coming at the previous amounts unless the NCP doesn't make enough money to do the full withholding.

Make sense?

And TinkrBelleLuvr--just an aside: In almost every state (I actually can't think of any exceptions, but I'm positive there's one or two), the employer doesn't have to do the prorated split--the clearinghouse will do it for you. An ex: If you have three NCPs with five cases, all you'd have to do is withhold either the total amount ordered or the maximum allowed if you could not withhold as ordered and mail in one check with a list indicating how much was withheld for each NCP. The state would then prorate it out to each case as appropriate. (You wouldn't have to mail in five different payments.)

Of course, if you did send in five different payments for the three NCPs the payments that were for NCPs with multiple cases would simply prorate out based on the formula above.

I had to because I sent money to California and to Ohio.

 

[CSO286]

I had to because I sent money to California and to Ohio.

Gotcha!!
(ten char min)

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

Gotcha!!
(ten char min)

My life would have been easier if they had domesticated the case to Florida but it was never done. Therefore, I set up a spreadsheet to calculate it for me. And yes, I was one of those standup payroll offices that sent the child support orders on the same day as payroll ran.

 

[CSO286]

My life would have been easier if they had domesticated the case to Florida but it was never done. Therefore, I set up a spreadsheet to calculate it for me. And yes, I was one of those standup payroll offices that sent the child support orders on the same day as payroll ran.

In that case, you're my Friend of the Day!!!