Child maintenance excuses revealed...

Printer-friendly version

Forums: 

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

Clipped from today's Independent - a UK newspaper.

"A hardcore of parents are trying to avoid paying child maintenance using "ridiculous" excuses - including a footballer earning  £4,000 a week who said he could not pay off arrears because of the cost of keeping his Ferrari on the road, a government report revealed today.

The Child Support Agency released a list of the worst excuses, with some parents saying it was against their human rights to have pay deducted from their salaries.

One man said he had already bought his child some sweets so wasn't paying a penny more, hundreds blame dogs for eating CSA letters, while a father who had a sex change argued against paying because she was no longer the man who fathered the children."

Child maintenance excuses revealed...

Sounds a lot like any American trying to get out of paying the Income Tax to the IRS- Infernal Revenue Service.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine
    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

Stan...

Stan,

Far to many American men use similar excuses to get out of paying child support judgments. A few, have (perhaps) legitimate issues. But, the problem is rampant, and from what I've seen it's very hard to get the money owed, if he's not willing to pay it. :-(

Anne

that's true

Raff01's picture

I had a cousin who has one son. The cousin and his wife split up and she got custody, but the boy ended up living with my Uncle and cousin most of the time. I don't think my cousin ever paid support and when they were questioned by the county workers they let him stay out of prison because he was raising the child. In the 18 years of the childs life as a minor, he maybe spent a total of 1 year at his mothers place, the rest of the time he was with his dad and Uncle.

Now here's the funny part. The mother kept pushing for child support and the first five years after the divorce she tired to claim him on the income taxes. So did my Uncle. So when they both got called into the IRS, my Uncle was able to show receipts for everything dealing with the boy from the time he was born. The kids mother had nothing and ended up paying major fines just to stay out of jail.

Not saying that all men shouldn't pay support, but sometimes I can see why they don't or don't want to.

How much did Heather Mills want weekly for the child that she and Paul McCartney had? $3.9 million a year for care and child support of the couple's three year-old daughter Beatrice? Really? When I was growing up my dad only had 1 job and mom couldn't work. we managed to make it on $13,000 for the year.

There should be a set standard across the board for everyone. What if Paul lost all his money an still had to pay 3.9 mill a year? Seems a tad unfair.

Oh yeah... Child support is

Oh yeah... Child support is beeing abused by fathers and mothers. If I'd be a father and beeing denied visitation rights by the mother I wouldn't want to pay either. If she thinks she owns the children she should pay for them alone.

About the McCartney thingy... I know of a case in germany where a guy was sentenced to prison because he wasn't able to get a 2500€/month job in recession to pay the allimony and survive on his own.

I wouldn't go around and judge anyone about this alimony stuff.

Beyogi

The only excuse

Angharad's picture

or mitigating circumstance can be lack of income - I had to pay it, including some arrears because they took so long to calculate how much I would pay.

However, there will always be people who try to cheat the system and they deserve all they get.

Angharad

Angharad

Really? That still works?

Raff01's picture

, hundreds blame dogs for eating CSA letters,

My dog ate it? I couldn't get a teacher to believe that in the fifth grade. Dear God people will try anything.

That is one thing I am happy about. I never had children. I am not a fan of anyone under the age of 25. I just dont have it in me to deal with kids for long

I have little sympathy for them...

Andrea Lena's picture

...I have a niece who looked forward to having time with her Daddy only for him to break his promises over and over, and while he had a difficult time making minimal payments to my sister-in-law, he had no problem driving a tricked out ride and getting remarried. His newer family never wanted for anything, but my niece got everything she needed by her mother's hard work. She actually started acting out by crying hysterically at every significant family event, fully expecting him to disappoint before the fact. And he held up his part of that 'arrangement' by failing to attend birthday parties and picnics and the like. Her cousin's father moved from state to state rather than pay child support. The boy grew up believing that like the movie title says, "Men leave." Hard to develop a committed relationship when the only example you have is one of disappointment and selfish behavior.

Obviously many parents take care of their children, even when separated or divorced, but the character that is defined by failed commitments and lost time is the same character that chooses in many cases to walk away from the financial responsibilities as well.


Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena

  

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

True.

Raff01's picture

But I have met several guys who pay their child support and get jerked around by their Ex's when it comes to visitation. It's not just the guys who can be asses. It just happenes more then women being jerks.

My brother had the custody of his two kids and his ex wife wouldn't pay. Hell, she split teh state and went into hiding from CPS in another state

You're quite right...

Andrea Lena's picture

...non-custodial parents who renege on their obligations come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and self-identified gender. I sit (no sleep last night - too tired to stand) corrected. My decidedly biased point of view comes from a sad understanding about just how irresponsible the men in my family and my wife's family have been over the years both by birth and by marriage; present company sadly included both for my birth gender and my behavior. *Sigh* It's called projection in psychology terms, something of which I am both totally and sadly all too familiar. Thanks for the heads up.


Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena

  

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

My Dad Paid $50 A Week

jengrl's picture

PICT0013_1_0.jpg for four kids until the judge raised it on him when I started my Senior year of high school when had to pay $104 a week. He played this game where he would quit jobs just before he went into a child support hearing so he could claim he didn't have the money. The County Attorney finally made him send the payment to their office and they would pass the check on to us. The case of the father claiming he couldn't pay support because of the cost of maintaining his Ferrari should be ordered to sell the car and pay the money he is owed or have the judge issue an order to garnishee the wages out of his paycheck before it is given to him. The Child Support Enforcement Cabinet in Kentucky do that for anyone who is flagrant in not paying support.

PICT0013_1_0.jpg

There are times...

When neither side want anything to do with the mess and the state still forces it on them.

Happened to my parents. Happened to more than one of my sisters and their SO's. Most of them hadn't ever married the guy who got them knocked up, and yet my parents say almost nothing about it, but they're constantly going off about transgenderism and anything to do with NOT choosing to procreate... *sigh* Eventually I'm going to have to face them about at least my non-genderism, even if I somehow manage to evade the asexualism bullet.

My parents are still together, but legally seperated, still married, but... yeah, it's a mess. And it's all state-enforced. My dad was sent to prison for something he did while sleepwalking, my parents at this time were forced to legally separate by state mandate - to protect the kids! Bah. And when dad got out, he was forced to pay, and mom was forced to accept, child support. The state mandates are finally gone now, so maybe things might return to normal there.

My dad should have been made to see a psychologist by state order. Not prison or the rest of it... Now he's got even more psychological wounds and he's even more resistant to seeing a psychologist. Sometimes the government can get a little too intrusive for their own good.

Abigail Drew.