Here's a brief explanation of the situation. My husband's exwife left for California, 5 years ago. In that time, she lost custody of their 2 daughters by being ordered to complete a psychological evaluation and a homestudy.. neither of which she bothered to do. My husband was granted sole custody of them after she didn't show up for the final court date.. and was also granted an order for child support.
No contact has been made between her and the children in the whole 5 years that she has been gone. 3 child therapists advised us that it was not in the girls' best interest to have any contact with her.
She rarely pays her child support and changes jobs frequently to avoid paying it. To date, she is over $3500 in arrears.
Fast forward to yesterday.
We get a call from her and she says that she has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and that she has quit her job and will not be returning to work because she has applied for social security/disability. She said that she would like for my husband to drop the child support order and was even willing to sign over her parental rights in order for that to happen.
She stated that once she starts receiving social security/disability, that she won't be able to afford to pay child support.. and that she won't be able to "live" if money was taken out of her check for the support.
Of course, we have some immediate questions about this and have contacted our attorney. However, with Monday being a holiday, it's probably going to be the end of the week before he can get with us.
First question: Can she just sign over her parental rights like that? Is it possible for her to sign a paper out in California (where she's been living for 5 years), and have it sent here and just relinguish her parental rights like that? Our reason for asking this question is because she called again today and said she was filling out the papers to sign over her rights to both girls.
Second question: Wouldn't the children be eligible for some sort of funding through social security/disability if she is awarded that funding? My mother in law says that she remembers when she was on disability, and she received a check each month for both of her sons. A few other people have advised us that this would happen as well. We've never heard of it and were curious.
In other words, if she began receiving social security/disability, would the children receive a check from that... or would it just be deducted from whatever money amount she receives?
Someone told us it would be similar to the death benefit that children receive from S.S. when a parent dies. They would continue to receive that money until they reach the age of 18, or until they finish schooling.
We are also unclear on the process of signing over parental rights. Can she just decide that she wants to do that? Will it need to be agreed upon by my husband, and/or approved by the judge? Can she do such a thing just to escape having to pay child support?
We are both desperately wondering all of these things and are grateful for any answers that can be provided!!
Thanks in advance!
No contact has been made between her and the children in the whole 5 years that she has been gone. 3 child therapists advised us that it was not in the girls' best interest to have any contact with her.
She rarely pays her child support and changes jobs frequently to avoid paying it. To date, she is over $3500 in arrears.
Fast forward to yesterday.
We get a call from her and she says that she has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and that she has quit her job and will not be returning to work because she has applied for social security/disability. She said that she would like for my husband to drop the child support order and was even willing to sign over her parental rights in order for that to happen.
She stated that once she starts receiving social security/disability, that she won't be able to afford to pay child support.. and that she won't be able to "live" if money was taken out of her check for the support.
Of course, we have some immediate questions about this and have contacted our attorney. However, with Monday being a holiday, it's probably going to be the end of the week before he can get with us.
First question: Can she just sign over her parental rights like that? Is it possible for her to sign a paper out in California (where she's been living for 5 years), and have it sent here and just relinguish her parental rights like that? Our reason for asking this question is because she called again today and said she was filling out the papers to sign over her rights to both girls.
Second question: Wouldn't the children be eligible for some sort of funding through social security/disability if she is awarded that funding? My mother in law says that she remembers when she was on disability, and she received a check each month for both of her sons. A few other people have advised us that this would happen as well. We've never heard of it and were curious.
In other words, if she began receiving social security/disability, would the children receive a check from that... or would it just be deducted from whatever money amount she receives?
Someone told us it would be similar to the death benefit that children receive from S.S. when a parent dies. They would continue to receive that money until they reach the age of 18, or until they finish schooling.
We are also unclear on the process of signing over parental rights. Can she just decide that she wants to do that? Will it need to be agreed upon by my husband, and/or approved by the judge? Can she do such a thing just to escape having to pay child support?
We are both desperately wondering all of these things and are grateful for any answers that can be provided!!
Thanks in advance!