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When/How do you stop CS?

lily11's picture

ss16 will graduate and turn 18 in less than 2 years now. I have read some terrible stories recently of people having a hard time stopping child support and continuing to pay for several months or even a year longer than they needed to.

When/how do you make sure CS will stop coming out of your paycheck asap? DH will not think to look into this. I have mentioned it to him and he seems to think it will automatically stop.

Should I tell him to look into this 6 months in advance? A year in advance? My gut feeling is that it will be a slow process and he should start thinking about this soon.

BM is living off child support while ss16 goes without. Even ss16 is well aware of it and tired of it. It's sad. DH is in the process of making sure everything is set up financially for ss16 to go to college and wants to start making sure his financial help will finally start going to ss16 - not to support BM who sits at home and does not work. He doesn't take me seriously when I try to warn him that he should investigate in advance to make sure the CS stops when it should.

Comments

Willow2010's picture

In Texas..it automatically stops.
About 2 months before the childs 18th birthday, the AG sends out a form to each parent and ask if the child will still be in HS after they turn 18. If you do not respond and you don’t have errors, it stops on the childs 18th birthday.

If you do respond that child is still in HS, they need a graduation date. Then it stops on that date.

herewegoagain's picture

In Texas it does NOT just automatically stop...read my post today. From what I read you need to get papers and file with the COURTS YOURSELF...DH didn't believe me...the aholes at the CSE office told him he didn't have to do ANYTHING...they lied!!! They stopped his garnishments and have started it up again without any freaking explanation...

lily11's picture

Yep, we will be dealing with the state of Texas. The court order says child support stops at 18 and high school graduation. No child support through college which I think is the most absurd thing I've ever heard of! People should never have to pay child support through college in my opinion.

I have personally never found dealing with a governmental agency to be a smooth process.

hereiam's picture

The first thing to do is to find out if he is responsible for CS through college.

If not, you will most likely need to file for termination of CS when he graduates HS. I would not bank on it just stopping.

If he does have to pay through college, I would find out if CS could be paid to the son instead of BM, especially if he is going away to college.

I found out everything I need to know on-line, including the forms to fill out for termination.

Willow2010's picture

In Texas it does NOT just automatically stop
+++++++++++++++++

Yes it does. You must have a strange situation. But EVERYONE I know...it stopped like I said. But there were no errors or questions if of if the obligation was paid in full or not. Or if skid graduated.

Unless there are errors or something else wrong. If it is a cut and dry case, then it will stop when child turns 18 or graduates HS.

Edit to add...I see your case is strange because they stopped it early. some numbers got crossed in your case. But like I said...if it is a cut and dry case...the AG stops it automatically.

lily11's picture

I just now looked at the Texas AG website under child support and there is nothing about when child support stops. There is a lot of information on that website but not one thing about making sure child support payments stop on time. I am going to send them an email and see what happens.

I really should leave this to DH and I know I shouldn't meddle. I have seen DH leave too many things to the last minute and then they turn into a big drama.

hereiam's picture

Yes, you should meddle because it will save you a big headache in the long run!!
Yes, DH should handle it but.......

herewegoagain's picture

The ONLY strange situation we have is that DH now gets paid bi-weekly vs. monthly or bi-mohthly...that means that CS for one month is X amount, but some months they get 3 equal payments of the same amount and some only 2...in months they get two, they might get behind, but in other months, they are way ahead...it is up to these morons to figure that out...NOT UP TO US to pay arrears for numbers that they have made up!

brutallyhonest's picture

I'm in UT not TX, but ours also stated 18 or normal and expected HS graduation. I started preparing a year in advance by asking questions and making sure I would have the right info for DH because otherwise he would have been passive about the process. One important thing I learned that you might want to check on in your state is whether there is a cut off for CS increase or decrease petitions. In UT, the CS amount is locked in stone 6 months before the 18th birthday. It can't go up or down because there might not be time for appeals or adjustments to play out before 18. This was a relief because we knew BM couldn't try to milk us for anymore to build a cushion at the end. DH has his CS deducted automatically from his paycheck. SD turned 18 in May and the normal graduation would have been June. Not sure how your state might handle it, but our CS was handled by the ORS office and and had a case worker assigned to it. I had DH call in May and talk with the agent to advise that SD was turning 18 and did he need to file any paper work. The answer was no paperwork, but with the HS graduation thing, he would also have to pay for June because the graduation was like June 6th (although SD didn't graduate which is another story...). July 1 CS was deducted so another call to the agent. Yes CS was over, but the paperwork to process turning it off was slow......3 additional months of CS deductions and calls and it was finally turned off and we received the 3 months of over-payments back.
Apparently those 3 months never went to BM, but just accumulated in an account at ORS.

I think if you don't dog it, you'll find that it doesn't automatically happen. State departments are badly understaffed since the recession and are not generally pro-dads in my experience. Also, we did get a few panicked calls from BM and SD in the last month of CS wanting to know if DH would keep SD on health insurance and would he also help with other expenses. He kept her on the health insurance, but as she didn't graduation from HS, is now living with her BF, and basically smoking a ton of pot there is no more money for anything. DH isn't going to keep her on his health insurance after Jan. 1 because she will be almost 20 and doesn't' seem to care about getting a job, getting a GED or having any communication with DH.

lily11's picture

Thanks BrutallyHonest.

You didn't have to pay after SD didn't graduate? DH has been worried ss16 wouldn't graduate and then would have to keep paying. He has been on ss16's case to graduate and to be thinking about college, which DH has already arranged to have paid for. He doesn't want to waste any more money on BM when he can finally do something that will directly help ss16. BM has already made little insinuations and jokes that ss16 might not graduate and she would get an extra year of money.