Child Support Hell -

[JIMJO]

Please help, we live in NYS. DH's child support payment is more than our mortgage for one child. We have a new baby. I am the sole caregiver and don't wish to put him in daycare. I work part-time, and am terrrified of picking up more hours because she will go after the money I make too. We are not able to make ends meet. Last year we entered a year long court battle because she was withholding visitation of his daughter. We had to borrow money from my father to pay the lawyer bills. Now the daughter doesn't come over at all and we had to go back to court to enforce it , my husband is representing himself in this matter. No money. He has never missed a payment for support but we owe arrears of over 1200$ in the above matter which we cannot pay. Her lawyer sent us a letter threatening conttempt. We don't want him to go to jail, have his wages garnished or worse. We want to start making payments but we can't pay the whole thing . Would this look favorable?

She owes my husband 450$ from extra maintenance she was not entitled to in 2002. She concealed her marriage so that she would recieve the money, he was afraid she would withhold visitation if he asked for the money. Can we do any thing about this or is it too late?

Most importantly is the birth of our son a qualifying event that would decrease child support? How can I get this info in NYS?  

[ocean]

I am in NY too. First, in NY, it does not matter what you make they can not ask for your salary to be included. If they ever ask for taxes that you filed jointly, make a copy and white out all your information, including final numbers. NY is based on 17% of your gross for one child. They are pretty strict with that number and it really does not matter what the CP makes. Of course you can always agree to something else. If he is paying more than that, he can go down and file a modification. As for the arrears, is it through the state now? If it is through CSE he can go to their office (walk in) and ask them to set up a schedule to pay it off. It could be as little as $5 a week and the letters will stop. If he is paying her directly then just add what you can afford to each payment and keep track of it. If you go to court, you can say for the last X weeks you have been slowly paying it off and will continue to do so. Your new baby does not affect Child support in NY. This is from my experience only...hope that helped! Good luck!

[kittencaboodle]

http://www.divorcenet.com/states/new_york/nyfaq01

An FAQ on NY CS Guidelines

http://www.nyc.gov/html/hra/html/serv_ocse_ocsecalc.html

A Caluclator to figure how much you shoiuld be paying.  

To be honest, ask your husband how he can support his daughter when he's with her if you guys can barely support yourselves now.  He needs to do this.