Enforcement of Child Support/Wage Garnishment through Air Force

[Samisma]

My daughter's father is currently with the United States Air Force. He enlisted within days of finding out that I was pregnant with his child. We were not married and we are not married or involved with each other now. He is stationed at Kadena AFB in Japan, and will be stationed at Langley AFB (VA) this June.

I represented myself (Pro Per) and he hired himself a lawyer when I started pursuing him for child support, paternity, establishing visitation etc. I started this after we had verified through GeneTree/DNA Testing that he was, without a doubt, her biological father - and he still refused to pay support or have her added to his health insurance.

In December the judge issued a court order - the birth certificate was to be changed to reflect him as her birth father. That visitation will be supervised until he is stateside when there will be a gradual introduction and then a modification of visitation rights. That I will be the custodial parent, he will be the NCP and it is legal joint custody. And also that he's to pay $600/month in child support and $125/month to arrears/lyinginfees/legal fees. There was an Order of Assignment (wage garnishment) and a Administrative Order of Assignment filed.

He has yet to contribute in any way to her support. He couldn't even be bothered to send her ID FORM 1172 (which gets her military id/tricare insurance). So I had to pay for notarized copies of the court orders and dna tests to take on base to get her temporary ID card (expires next month). I also had to take those copies to our office of vital statistics to get her BC changed because he didn't fill out the paperwork and get it notarized.

I can not understand why if there is an Order for Assignment why the Air Force has not started garnishing his pay.

I also can't understand why he has not bothered to attempt to make payments yet since there is interest growing on all these arrears.

Can someone tell me what course of action I should take now? Can I press charges for child support evasion? Is there a way to compel the Air Force to start garnishing his pay?

The court order and wage assignments were issued in December. It's been 4 months. HOWEVER. The DNA test was completed in April 2007 so he has been aware of his daughter since then.

I was under the impression that the military does not look to kindly on deadbeat dads/parents being among their ranks.

Possible pertinent information:
Court proceedings were in Maricopa County, AZ
CP & Child - reside in Maricopa County, AZ
NCP - is at Kadena AB in the 18th Com Squadron
NCP - will be at Langley AB in VA eta June 08.
NCP - official state of residence is Florida.

 

[Samisma]

Update

Just spoke with AZ DES

They're filing to follow up on enforcement of the order as payments were supposed to begin on 12/1/07.

By law the Military had 45 days to respond to the original Order of Assignment and they have not done so.

They did say that if I call next Thursday I can start proceedings to have him filed as in contempt.

Some of the penalities of doing so would be his license suspended, his passport revoked/suspended, his assets seized, and eventually a warrant.

However, I don't see what good any of that will do if he's stationed overseas.

I also learned that because of the way the court order was worded it's a set $600 for support but that the arrears are based on a percent. So now the total monthly obligation is $897.25

I still would like input. AZ Dept. of Economic Security doesn't seem to follow up with anything unless you harass them. Today I was very fortunate to reach a helpful and cooperative employee there who filled me in on the details and who is also filing notes with the case workers to get the ball rolling.

Is there anyway I can avoid going this route and just go through the military? Or do I actually need to go through the contempt of court process?

 

[munsterwoman]

I'm not sure how it works in your state, but in my state (MA), all I had to do was open a case with the state's Dept of Revenue Child Support Enforcement Division, and let them know where my son's father was employed, and even though he was out of state, they started garnishing his wages. His employer sends the money to the state, who then sends me a check. A search on Google yielded this site, which seems to be your equivalent: https://www.azdes.gov/dcse/ If you haven't already, I would suggest contacting them. If it works like it does here, once they verify you're entitled to support and that the father is indeed employed by the Air Force, the support should start getting withheld automatically. I suspect you'll find that your state government will have a lot more success getting the Air Force to collect your support.

In case you didn't know, as a soldier with a legal dependent, he's entitled to additional pay allowances every month that a soldier without dependents doesn't get. If he IS collecting that allowance without using it to provide for his dependent(s), then he can get into trouble.

BTW, if the USAF is anything like the Army, a strategically placed phone call to his commanding officer, if you can find out who that is, *might* get a fire lit under him to get the paperwork completed for the ID card, etc.

Hope that helps.

 

[ladyshi]

Department Of Defense Pay

If you fax all required paperwork directly to the Department of Defense Finance, they will direct deposit your payments to your bank immediately. The number is below. GOOD LUCK!

Garnishment Operations Customer Service

Toll Free Phone: 1-888-DFAS411 (332-7411)

Garnishment Operations hours of operation are 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

 

[PILawGirl]

If you get ANYTHING that is owed to you through DFAS, PLEASE tell me how you did it. I am in the same situation. They tell me he is a "Reservist" so he only gets the "Reservist" pay. I know he works on base M-F so maybe he works as a civilian? Either way, I haven't been paid in 6 months, I had a case open with the CA Dept. of Child Support Services but I was literally getting $15.00 checks, it was more of an insult to injury so I closed that case and tried to get it directly through DFAS. No such luck. The paralegal has no idea what she's talking about.

What makes my situation more difficult is he is in arrears to his first ex wife so I think that pretty much screws me and any chance I have for payment. He has not seen my son for over a year. Supposed to pay the court ordered amount of $322.00 BY the 1st of each month PLUS 1/2 of my son's childcare/tuition. So frustrating. Meanwhile I see these men who are TRYING to be the best Father's they can be and PAYING their support getting screwed by the court system because their ex's want to cry about the child being late to school a few times. Why doesn't anything ever happen to my ex? It baffles me.

 

[Samisma]

Update

At this point in time they are now reporting the delinquent child support payments to all 3 credit agencies. The first report was actually this month.

Since the final judgement AZDES has been handling the case in regards to collecting child support and enforcing it. Every time I do try to act or get involved they tell me I need to "wait 45 days". It seems like every time I ask a question another 45 days is tacked on.

NCP has been reassigned. Effective June 1st he will be stationed in Hawaii instead of VA. (lucky bum).

I'm frustrated in that his tax return & and stimulus/rebate were not garnished/withheld as federal law allows for - apparently DES did not complete the confirmation process and so nothing was done about it.

In the mean time, I don't know what to do or if I should keep waiting and hope to see pigs fly overhead. My company downsized and closed the office I was working in - the closest transfer for me would've been Minnesota. And my daughter has been diagnosed as special needs (low spectrum, high functioning autism - nonverbal). So I've no income coming in to support us, but luckily she is fully covered by TriCare/Deers. After a battle of wills she has a permanent ID card with the military now. The tricky part is her numerous therapy and behavioral sessions make it very difficult for me to find employment so now I'm beyond worried.

I'm just glad I had quite a 'nest egg' (or should i say dreamhome egg?) and we are surviving off of that.

Any professional or personal input? What should I do next? Do I keep waiting? When do I stop waiting and start acting?