JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – If you are behind in child support payments and think you’re going to receive $1,200 stimulus check in the mail, think again.
Depending on how much you’re behind, you could end up only getting a portion of the check or no check at all.
A local divorce attorney says the family court system frowns upon people who don’t make attempts to pay their child support.
So, when the stimulus checks are being mailed out, the courts will make sure the money goes toward back-child support.
“A judge will ask you, ‘Did you pay something?’ So if you had a loaf of bread, did you give your child even one slice. And that’s what the judge is looking for, some people just pay nothing and nothing is not acceptable to the courts,” said attorney Charles Willmott.
The person behind in child support payments may be struggling to make ends meet, but the court also looks at the parent who has been struggling to raise the child without receiving payments long before the novel coronavirus started to spread across the U.S.
This Florida Dept. of Revenue office in Jacksonville is where child support payments are collected and then distributed to a parent who was granted child support to help raise their child. This is also the same office where the stimulus checks will be going for child support payments that are long overdue. According to the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996, the Treasury Department is authorized to collect overdue child support by cutting or withholding federal payments.
Stimulus checks are considered federal payments. Willmott said the law was enacted to put the needs of children first.
“If you have children, you have to take care of your children and a lot of people feel this is like paying a credit card. Like, if I have the money, I’ll pay it. They don’t understand kids need clothes, shoes, food, and if you don’t pay, judges don’t respect that and they won’t help you later when you come to the court and say I got behind judge, can you give me a break," he said.
And because a lot of courthouses are still closed, there’s little chance to petition the court.
“By the time you file something, even with an attorney, the refund checks are going to be cut and their gong to be gone and will have already been dispersed to the other parents so, to file something is not going to be to your benefit,” Willmott said.
And then there’s the harsh reality for many people who are making payments and have never been behind. If Coronavirus causes them to untimely lose their job, they could fall behind on payments.
“They’re going to get behind, a month behind, maybe two because we don’t know how long this is going to last. And so it’s going to be a vicious circle where everybody’s going to be pinched. The person responsible for child support can’t pay and the parent who has the child can’t pay their bills either,” Willmott said.