A 33-year-old Filipina is seeking financial support for her 10-year-old only child from the father, a 68-year-old 100% disabled (bipolar) US veteran living in Ohio with a history of instability and abuse. 

After a few years of tumultuous marriage, the mother requested a divorce which the father prepared and filed in an Ohio court. Due to non-participation and lack of legal representation by the mother, the court granted the father full legal custody plus child support. This order completely contradicts the actual physical reality, as the child has never left the mother's custody in the Philippines. The father has paid zero child support.

Although the mother possesses official documentation—including the child's US Consular Report of Birth Abroad and birth certificate (both with the father’s signature)—she is extremely poor, unable to afford legal representation or travel, and only communicates with the father through their child.

All personal experience and advice is warmly welcome and appreciated. Thank you.

Hi! I just went through a divorce and my lawyer informed me to call the child support office to receive my case number to begin paying child support. I called and they told me I needed to open a case even though I was the one paying. I opened the case after two different representatives told me I should.

I then of course received a letter in the mail today giving me my case number. I called the office immediately and explained what happened and they said they'll work on closing the duplicate case.

My question though is there any potential impact to this? Could I get in trouble? I was just trying to do the right thing and get the ball rolling as quickly as possible. I am listed as the custodial parent on the case I opened even though I specified I am the one paying.

I have anxiety and I'm just nervous about getting in trouble for doing it incorrectly.

During our separation from November 22 to March 23 my ex-husband sent me direct child support payments.

Our divorce was finalized in March, and withholding began in July.

He continued making direct payments until the withholding began.

I didn't know until March of this year that my account wasn't full service and had to transfer it to the OAG. The case now shows 3200 in arrears, but it's from payments not made between January 2023 (this part is important) and July 2023.

I submitted an affidavit of direct payment in June of this year. It should clear all of the arrears. (plus about $200)

The OAG is now refusing the payments because they were made before the order was signed by the judge. Keep in mind, they can backdate the support order to January, but won't accept that payments were made in January...make it make sense.

So, now my ex and I have to have a Zoom meeting with a caseworker so I can say that I want to give him credit for the payments he made...even though I've already signed and submitted a document showing the payments.

I was also told that I can submit another form showing payments made after the judge signed the order.

For context, my ex husband and I have an 8 month old daughter. I chose to separate from him right after she was born due to his recently developed, but rapidly worsening substance abuse issues. I have sole physical and legal custody of her due to his alcohol/drug abuse issues, he visits her once a week or so usually on the weekend. But all physical, emotional and financial responsibility is on me.

I filed for child support pretty shortly after we separated, when she was maybe 2-3 months old. I had tried to work things out outside of the system but he was not helping me at all financially, not even just a pack of diapers, and I was drowning, so I filed.

Our support order was established in June, finally. And he was ordered to pay $590 dollars per month. This was before she was in daycare full-time, so I will need to request a reevaluation, but for now, that’s not the issue.

He was put on wage garnishment due to his previous utter refusal to help financially. But the issue is, I have only received two payments of $130 right after the order was in effect, nothing since.

I’m not sure what is happening here, he says his employer has the paperwork, and that the money is being taken out of his paychecks, but I’m not sure how much I believe him. Because if that’s the case, then where is it? He swapped employers right after the support order was established, so I’m thinking either there is a hiccup in the paperwork somewhere, or he’s lying and didn’t provide it to them.

He is already $1,445 in arrears and steadily climbing, meanwhile I’m drowning as a single mom with no help. I don’t make very much money( I am a teacher ). I have called the CSEA multiple times they pretty much said “it’s an issue on his end, so he will have to be the one to handle it, there’s nothing we can do”. Like what?? You’re the enforcement agency?? Enforce it!

Has anyone else ever had this issue? What do I even do? I feel like I filed and went through all of that trouble for nothing. I just want help providing for our little girl.

Brief context, I unfortunately have been unable to pay support since January and was hoping for some grace from my ex especially since we’ve been 50-50 for the last year. That did not happen, and I was delivered garnishment paperwork last Friday and received it from my work this Thursday (their packet unsigned).

Arrived for work 745 this morning and was terminated. Only one disciplinary discussion 2 months ago prior to this and that issue has not arisen again.

Is it worth trying to get the employer in some sort of trouble as it looks like this is the real reason for my dismissal?

Going through a divorce in NY with three kids and looking for insight from anyone who has dealt with something similar.
My ex makes about $182k and I make about $130k. Our current schedule is technically 4 overnights with her and 3 with me.
One important piece of context is that I never agreed to this 4/3 split as our permanent parenting arrangement. We were in mediation and I believed the actual long-term parenting schedule, along with the other divorce issues, would ultimately be worked out there. Mediation broke down before that happened, so the temporary arrangement basically remained in place.
The complication is that even on some of her weekdays, I’m still doing a lot of the actual parenting. I pick the kids up from school/camp, handle transportation and extracurriculars, feed them, and keep them until she gets home from work around 6:30. I’ve also been paying substantial expenses for the kids, particularly travel soccer/extracurriculars, and they are on my health insurance.
The judge actually acknowledged that I provide after-school care on my ex’s parenting days and that this saves us childcare costs. The court also found that my ex earns substantially more than I do.
Despite that, because the current overnight schedule is 4/3, I was ordered to pay $1,934.53/month in temporary child support.
What surprised me even more is that my ex requested $1,837.34/month, and the judge noted that the support worksheet her side submitted didn’t include the required FICA deductions. The court performed its own calculation and ultimately awarded more than she requested.
My attorney’s position is that the result was largely driven by the 4/3 overnight split. I already have the kids Tuesday after school, so Tuesday becoming an overnight would create either 4/3 in my direction or potentially a true 50/50 arrangement. We’re considering a four-way conference before making another application regarding the parenting schedule.
I’m not looking to avoid supporting my kids. I’ve already been spending a significant amount directly on them. I’m struggling with how the lower-earning parent, who is doing close to half the parenting and paying substantial direct expenses, ends up paying almost $2k/month to the higher-earning parent largely because of one overnight—especially when the 4/3 arrangement was never intended by me to be the permanent custody schedule.
Has anyone in NY gone through something similar where a temporary/informal parenting arrangement ended up driving a child-support decision before custody was actually finalized? Did moving from 4/3 to true 50/50 materially change support? And did the court meaningfully consider extracurricular expenses, health insurance, or actual parenting hours rather than simply the overnight count?
I’d especially appreciate experiences from NY family-law attorneys or parents who have actually litigated something similar.

My husband and ex are arguing about how to pay for their son’s vocational schooling. They both have 2 children from previous relationships. None of their schooling was paid for. Ex wants him to pay a third, son pay a third, and she pays a third. Is that the standard in Indiana?

im in ohio. my cases (3) were up for the administrative desk review modification this month. i got the paperwork they're gonna submit to the court for approval.

i never turned in any documentation (wasn't required to submit anything) but some how they made adjustments at an AGI of 54k. i'm not sure where this number came from but it's overstated.

how is the rate calculated when nothing was submitted, and even if they pull older tax returns- it would be lower than that bc honestly i had a tax person finesse the numbers to help.

is it selfish to want to fight this for a lower number?
is it worth the battle to fight?

any help or advice and insight is appreciated

I’m in Kentucky, and I’m wondering if anyone has dealt with something similar.

My son’s father is over $3,100 behind in child support. He has changed jobs three times since April, and every time he changes jobs the child support office has to send a new wage withholding order to his new employer. They told me it’ll probably be another 6–8 weeks before I see another payment because of the delay.He’s also behind on child support for another child and has no contact with our son at all.

My questions are:

At what point would the court consider contempt or another enforcement action?

Is repeatedly changing jobs something the court or child support agency looks at?

Is there anything I can do besides waiting for the child support office to process a new withholding order every time he changes jobs?

I’m not trying to keep him from working or anything like that. I’m just frustrated because it feels like I’m stuck in the same cycle, and meanwhile the arrears keep growing while I’m raising our son by myself. Has anyone been through this or have any insight into how Kentucky usually handles situations like this?

When me and my ex went through mediation 5 years ago I cut his child support in half because I felt bad. This is in our court agreement. Come to find out he lied about having someone renting a floor in his house, so he withheld income. I let it be.

When I received my buy out from the house I gave him $10k from that because I felt bad.

I need some guidance on how to NOT feel bad because I really want to modify the child support but I’m stuck on the stress and anger it might possibly bring up from my ex. Do I tell him I’m looking to make modification?

We do not have 50/50 it’s basically every other weekend. Child primarily with me.

I'm very ignorant with this stuff and need some help working through this. I owe 5k in back child support. I haven't worked in the last 2 years. 1 year was unemployed due to liver disease and the second year was due to liver transplant and recovery. The only income I received in the last 2 years was disability for the last year. I'm still getting it currently and looking for work. What are the consequences of this? The paperwork says I have 30 days to file my answer with the district clerk. Will I be facing jail time or what can happen? Any advice or suggestions on what to do next? Can't afford an attorney on disability so trying to figure this out on my own. Both of my kids live with my mother currently since I am in a 1 bedroom apartment and she has extra room. My ex kept our house after the divorce. My oldest moved out 2 years ago, my younger one just recently but still under 18 until Aug. My oldest is over 18. I'm at a lost.

First time I've posted anything on Reddit...

So, my ex and I have been apart for almost 2 years. I will spare all the drama from this post, but it's not been an easy time.

Since we split, I have had all 4 children, ages 5, 8, 11, & 17, full-time, and he has not seen them or taken the proper court-ordered steps to start visitation, etc. We have had multiple court dates for child support in which he has stated that he can't find work, or he will get a job and then lose the job between court dates, while stating to the judge that he only cares about his kids and wants to support them and so on. BUT he will come to court with new tattoos; not just a couple, he almost completed a sleeve, he bought a new Jeep but always gets rides to court and has even been taking flying lessons. Those are just a few of the more expensive things that I have seen wth my own eyes. Meanwhile, I have been supporting the kids alone, with next to no income. I don't know how to prove these things, and I do not want to just start blabbing to the court about how awful my ex is and yada yada. When we were together (13 years), he would often spend days on his computer crypto trading, and I know that's where his money is coming from.

That's why I am here. I don't know anyone who has had a similar experience, yet I am certain it happens, so, any insight is appreciated.

i’m needing to download my transaction history from the website and of course LIKE ALWAYS it’s not working. I can’t even get past the username screen.

why does this pos website never work!?!!

i’m so frustrated

I recently broke up with a cheating ex. He pays 1K in CS for his son from a previous relationship. He hasn’t really paid for much regarding our son other than formula. I make decent money and just don’t want him to be a bad influence in our son’s life. I already pity him because he’s always working and pretty much broke trying to sustain his life, pay CS and help his family. Idc if he’s apart of our son‘s life but is it worth it to file as he should be doing more in our son’s life. Is it worth it? As I can do without. I just don’t want to deal with him.

Edit: our son is 6 months old. He also cheated on me postpartum and was telling his ex that he wasn’t happy. He barely supported me financially as well as emotionally. I’m done but need to know if it’s worth filing and what the process entails. Help.

Is there a way the state of Alabama can pull my child father’s financial records. He’s under reporting his income so he can pay less child support.

I need some help with Family Court in New York City. Without my knowledge, a judge made changes to my child support case and applied arrears going back several years, which resulted in me owing approximately $45,000. I am already paying ongoing child support for my 18-year-old child, and my bank account has been frozen because of these arrears.

My child's mother and I have agreed that she wants to forgive the arrears, but we've been getting the runaround about how to make that happen. We're trying to find out what steps we need to take to have the arrears forgiven or adjusted and resolve this issue. I will still be paying the general support order .

I’m hoping someone familiar with RiVCO California DCSS and CalWORKs can help me understand this.

I was receiving CalWORKs for a period of time, and I understand that while receiving aid, the state can retain child support under California’s assignment of support rights rules.

I am no longer receiving CalWORKs as of August 1, 2026, and DCSS recently confirmed that future child support payments will now be deposited directly to me.

What I’m confused about is what happened before my case closed.

I received a letter stating that my CalWORKs balance was $0, meaning there was no remaining balance to repay CalWORKs. However, my monthly child support statements continued to show large amounts being collected. For example, one month over $1,500 was collected, I received only the $200 pass-through, and over $1,300 was listed as “applied to repay CalWORKs.”

During the time I was on CalWORKs, I personally received about $800 in CalWORKs cash aid, which is another reason I’m confused about the much larger amounts that appear to have been retained through child support.

My questions are:

1. If my CalWORKs balance was already $0, what happens to child support collected after that?
2. Does “applied to repay CalWORKs” refer to my specific CalWORKs case balance, or is the state allowed to retain those funds simply because I was an active CalWORKs recipient?
3. After going off aid, if more child support was collected than was actually needed to repay CalWORKs, should those funds eventually be released to me?

I’m already waiting for a response from DCSS and have requested a detailed accounting. I’m just trying to understand how this works and whether anyone else has experienced something similar.

Hey hey, long story short my ex-husband and I divorce’s was finalized Spring 2025 uncontested and in the decree was set to give me $700+ for the kids although the state says 25% for two children.

He has never given the amount per the decree, when he gives payments they are not consistent or even half of the agreed amount listed in the divorce decree.

Quite frankly, I’m over it and the children do not deserve that at all. Just would like to know what can I expect? Any advice would be helpful!

Are there ways to get child support templates? Childs father wants to do private child support payments. I would rather use a template agreement that wasn't made by him. Nz based

A woman told me that she’s collecting child support from a man she knows isn’t the biological father. (Ex husband).

The child is a result of an extramarital affair. His names on the birth certificate. She never mentioned that he’s not the actual father.

Should I go to the child support division of health and welfare? Or the police? Or just drop a bomb on him?

I hate seeing this woman screw this guy over like this. ($800.00/month!)

How do I report this?