In New York, parents are obligated to pay child support for their children until the child reaches the age of 21. If the parent fails to do so, then they may be facing various penalties. There are federal and state acts and laws that penalize parents who do not pay child support. One of the acts is called the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act of 1998, which this makes not paying child support a felony.
Nonpaying parents are not tolerated and there will be consequences until they start paying the child support that they owe. The amount they must pay varies on the amount of children that they have and their income. If you are experiencing an ex-spouse who is refusing to pay child support there are several resolutions:
- Wage Order Assignment: When the employer of your ex-spouse is ordered by the Child Support Division of your state to hold part of the ex's wages for child support payments that will go to the parent with custody.
- Contempt of Court Action: If the ex-spouse does not have just cause for not paying child support, he or she may be sentences to 180 days in jail.
- Tax Intercept: Withholding a part of the parent's tax refunds for child support payments
- Driver's License/ Business License Suspension: The Child Support Division can suspend the ex's licenses until payments are received.
- Property Liens: The custodial parent can give a notice that tells the world that the ex has claims against him or her for money owed
Federal Government Measures
On top of these options, there are many more solutions to collecting child support from an ex-spouse who is not willingly paying. Even if the ex tries to run or hide from the other parent in order to avoid paying child support, there are measures the federal government has made to ensure that this problem does not happen.
There is a program called the Parent Locator Service and this allows the government to use its resources to find the nonpaying parent. They use the Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service to track down the parent's employer and after they find him or her, they will enforce the order for child support and collect all past payments owed.
Is Visitation Linked to Child Support?
New York does not tolerate parents who refuse to pay child support, but do not take matters into your own hands. There are parents who think that because their ex-spouse is not following the child support order that they can refuse visitation to them. This is incorrect; visitation and child support are two detached issues.
If the custody order has a visitation schedule, then do not violate that order because the ex-spouse is not paying their child support. Contact a Staten Island divorce attorney who can represent you in your case for child support without you violating your visitation court order.
While there are federal government measures taken in an attempt to ensure the collection of child support, there is a large problem still existing today regarding parents who never make their payments. The Association for Children for the Enforcement of Support found that 16 million children in the United States were owed as much as $18 billion in child support and 50% of those families were impoverished. Parents legally must support their children. Even if they are not present for emotional support, they have to financially support them.
Here at The Law Offices of Adelola Sheralynn Dow, we fight for the justice of children and we are experienced in child support cases. If you need help enforcing a child support order, contact a Staten Island child support lawyer from our firm today to schedule a consultation and seek to receive the best opportunity of recovering child support for your children.