Social Security & Child Support

Here’s a recent case from Wyoming that illustrates a typical answer to a question many parents ask about child support. Specifically, when the noncustodial parent is receiving Social Security benefits for a disability, are those disability payments counted as income? And if so, if the child is receiving the payments, are those payments credited toward the child support the noncustodial parent would otherwisde pay? The court in the case of Groenstein v. Groenstein, 2005 WY 6 (Wyoming 2005), answered yes to both questions.

The Wyoming court’s interpretation matches that of courts in Alabama. Brazeal v. Brazeal, 756 So. 2d 889 (Ala. Civ. App. 1999); Self v. Self, 685 So.2d 732 (Ala. Civ. App. 1996). The Self court said this:

. . . our decision does not serve to terminate the father’s child support obligation, but rather holds that he is entitled to a credit against that obligation for as long as the payments continue. The father’s Social Security income indicates that he would be able to contribute to the children’s support should their Social Security benefits be discontinued. Thus, his obligation is discharged only as long as, and to the extent that, the Social Security payments exceed his child support obligation.

42 thoughts on “Social Security & Child Support”

  1. I don’t think this is fare at all. It is nothing less than government subsidized support for dead beat dads. If a man gets 1100.00 a month and the child gets 550.00. And the dad also gets 4,000.00 a month from retirement. It is not fare to let the 550.00 be his child support. That is money the governement is paying to the child because if his father was working the child would be receiving more. You are taking from the poorest of children and giving to, or subsidizing the father. You aren’t doing anything for the child. Let me ask you this. If there is another person who is disabled and has no children. Why is it fare to pay my ex 1100.00 a month, and another 550.00 by paying his child support? And only giving the single person 1100.00 a month? The way you are setting it up, everyone that pays into social security is paying for my child’s support, and the father is, as he always has, skating, and living off everyone else, and the child is getting nothing from his father. Explain how this can possibly be fair?

  2. I would like to expand on that…My ex is getting 1100.00 from ss alone, he is on the gov dole for other things….My child gets a SEPERATE check for 500.00 because his father is disable. This is no way taking anything from his father…this is money that if Greg had no children, he wouldn’t get. As the government sees it, it is to help the children who are the poorest. The idea is that because the man is disabled, the child is getting less support than if the Father had a job like norman people.

    A telling fact, and a big gapp in your theory of letting the man frolic into the sunset, with in my eyes, government subisidzed child support is this..If the leach, [father] dies…the child then gets 1100.00 a month. Now wouldn’t that tell you that the ss people intended/expected that the man would be paying something? Duh? Chance’s father would be worth more to my child …dead..than alive!

    gail onesi

  3. I agree with you Linda. I had to settle with my ex and gave him more than he ever put
    into the marriage because he refused to leave my house and we had a young child present.
    Now he is threatening to go on social security — because he can and he won’t have to
    pay any child support. He pays $1200 a month to an ex-wife who got everything in that
    divorce but for a 3-yr old child who can’t take care of herself he gets to pay nothing.
    This system is not for children at all! It puts the children at risk financially and
    emotionally. I had to share rights with him for a child who he has made all kinds of
    pornographic and molestation comments about yet, the lawyers tell me since there has been
    no physical harm done he is entitled to rights to his child because she carries his DNA.
    Tell me how right is it to have a 2yr girl sleeping a bed with a 64 yr old naked man!
    If he starts collecting social security, he is claiming that I would get more money from
    the gov’t than I am getting from him. If I don’t go along with his scheme he is planning
    to go to the court and request a reduction of his child support payments and he is
    refusing to collect social security. In other words, he is going to screw the child
    financially. Yet he parades that he is the world’s greatest dad and he loves her so very
    much. The lawyers have been absolutely no help other than taking money for nothing. This
    system is corrupt and support dead beat dads! I totally get your point!

  4. If I understand the Law. Child support can not exceed the Social Security That the child is entitled from the Social Security Payment made to the Father for the child. I do live in California and it is more screwed up than MA. I sure hope that is correct, I am going on Social Security in Jan 2009. This will help me greatly if I only have to endorse the check over to the Usless X wife.

  5. I think I understand. My fifteen year old son was approved for social security. His monthly social security amount will exceed the amound paid to me by my ex by about $200.00. I am going to lose my child support because the social security amount it more. The explanation I was given was that this is because the social security payments my son will be recieving are coming from his fathers future social security.
    No. Just NO!
    I feel that this is letting him slide on his lone parental duty. He does not excersize visitation or contribute willingly in any way. Child support is deducted from his pay through a court order.
    I don’t think that they will increase the amount of social security he gets taken from his paycheck to this amount equal paid. Will it decrease his monthly social security by the two hundred dollars when and if he lives to collect it? Probably not.
    This is where the law fails.
    The children on social security are there for a reason. Most of the time this itself will create extra financial hardship, not to mention added emotional and mental stress for the custodial parent.
    I just don’t think this is right. They may call it a credit for the other parent, I call it crap.
    Thanks for listening.

  6. My ex was awarded backpay for SSD benefits to May 2005. My son also received the benefits back to that date, in a lump sum, received in August 2008. Although the benefits are from 2005 to the present, I cannot apply the money to anything my son received in the past, only the present and future. Also, since the payment was for $14k, this was more than the deadbeat dad owed for a lifetime of childsupport, so he basically has his debt to me wiped out. Anything I payed for in my childs lifetime, I will not get reimbursed for. I, therefore, am out all the money. Great that my son gets to go to college now, but what about the expenses I paid? I have to forfeit. Thanks alot, deadbeat.

  7. i just have a question that i cannot find an answer to anywhere my childrens father gets ssi in ny state can my children receive any benefits and if so how can i allpy for them he is soposed to pay child support and he has never paid any and wellfare and child support there is nothing they can do because he gets ssi it would be pointless to put him in jail what do i do

  8. I can’t speak for your state, but in mine the children’s SSI benefit always seems to exceed guideline child support, meaning that if you are now receiving that benefit, you’re probably not going to get any more by going through the tangled and rancorous process of calculating and ordering child support from a resistant father. Just make sure Social Security knows the children live with you, and you will begin receiving their SS benefit.

  9. thanks for the advice they have told me in the past that the kids are not able to get anything but that doesnt seem like it is right and i think that i will try and call again as soon as the weekend is over thanks again

  10. I have a question. Just wondering if the state of my ex wife can attach my Social security. I haven’t lived there for 40 years. I receive $1075 a month. This is all I live on now. I’m still paying $50 a month to the state, for back support for my child who is now age 38. My daughter is not getting any of this because we talk all the time.

  11. I’m wondering if the non-custodial parent who’s recieving SSI, can be made to pay child support. My sister is receiving SSI and I have been raising her daughter since she was 5 months, she is now 9. I’m wondering if I can get child support from her?

  12. Yes, but more importantly, the children are likely entitled to their own payment with respect to Mom’s disability (in all likelihood in excess of what you would get as child support), and you should be receiving that.

  13. I’m having trouble deciphering all this: I’ve been married 21 years to a man who is now disabled for mental illness (been disabled 5 years now). We have a 19, 15, and 2 year old. He gets 2100 SS for himself, and 480 each for 2 of the kids. He also gets an 800 pension. He is 43, and I’m 40. I am trying to find a way to get out as I can’t take the drama and it’s become hazardous to our health: at the same time, I can’t find a way to pay for daycare for the baby and work and still come out even. Would I get anything for being a housewife/part time worker for the last 21 years? There is no custody issue, he can’t even be alone with the kids legally. So I would have them, but to afford to do this I would have to move from CA, and doesn’t divorce prevent the spouse from leaving the state with the kids? Thanks in advance.

  14. I’m sorry; I honestly don’t know CA law and don’t know what benefits would be available to you. Perhaps a visit with a CA lawyer would be in order.

  15. well my child is 8 years old and his father never seen him hes a dead beat dad has another kid that he never seen and 3 with the women he is with now also i went to court for child support and they denied it due too the fact he was supposably disabled when i met him he wasnt disabled he was messin around with differrent women gettin them pregnant he never had a stable job and those days used too deal w drugs now that hes on disability i dont know from what making babies??? my son only gets 24.ooo usdollars a month!!!!for his child support i dont think its fair the man never worked scamed the govermentmaking money on the streets and now hes chillin at home like nothing ever happened plz he anit disabled he must of payed a lawyer his street money too win this one!!

  16. I’m on disability (for bi-polar), my ex gets a check from the government and I help out with everything from school clothes to supplies and sports out of my disability check, plus I have them at least 3 times a week. I’m a very good dad if I say so myself and if I wasn’t my ex wouldn’t let me have them so much (plus I baby sit my ex’s 14 month old). Before I became disabled together my ex and I ran a business and made 6 figures. Not every man on disability is a dead beat and some moms that have custody and some that don’t are dead beats. I also would like to say there are no favors being done by talking bad about the ex to the kids they will figure it out on their own, my brother and I did and we’re better fathers for it.

  17. I must say that while there are no excuses in some of these SAD stories, I’m more turned off by this being more about MAN-bashing! That PHRASE “deadbeat dad” is SOO offensive!! SOOO offensive!!! It’s typical in this society where so many are given so much in the name of political correctness that others get trampled. And NO apology or even common consideration is given!! I am a MAN – I got a girl pregnant and I have stood by through thick and thin to fulfill my responsibility to provide for and raise that child! I put aside pursuit of personal interests and happiness to be a Dad!! 3 years into our marriage she ran off and got pregnant by another man. I TOOK HER BACK AT HER REQUEST, and have labored on through all the problems, raising BOTH CHILDREN AS MY OWN. NOW her MOTHER has moved in with us and living off us…..again I AM A MAN~!!! This ugly generalization of “dad”s is offensive! A “dad” is someone and something specific and special. Does just having a child make a woman a “mother” ?!
    You all sit here slinging your mud at men in general, using your derrogatory terms slandering MEN!! Yet how many holy God annointed “mothers” have been reported killing their children in the last 20 alone?!?! HOW MANY Caly’s have there been!?!?! How many more stories are out there about OCTO-Mom?!?!?!? What?!? Isn’t she especially special and blessed?!?! She created life with her uterus, so that means everything about her is Blessed and Reverent – RIGHT?!?!?

    How is it that there are literally thousands of women on the government dole SIMPLY HAVING CHILDREN TO RAISE MORE WELFARE MONEY?!?!?! Our society has coined terms like “baby-daddy” and “baby-momma” — and then you sneer when someone suggests abstinance! It seems that every harsh reality is met with another excuse being made.

    Oh – you can’t blame women for being un-virtuous!
    Oh – you can’t blame women for killing their unborn fetuses
    Oh – you can’t blame women for killing their small children
    Oh – you can’t blame women for bad choices in marriage
    Oh – you can’t blame women for wanting to extract vengeance on their ex’s

    More women graduate from college than men now. The numbers you are citing are innaccurate and obsolete. The President – now that he was signed every ear-mark IMAGINEABLE is now turning his attention toward “righting” the concerns of women in society. Is that going to come with an updating of the outdated social security laws? Laws written 70 years ago when women DIDN’T work outside the home like MOST do now?!? Somehow – I bet womens groups would LOBBY against that – even though it would be the RIGHT thing to do in taking a big step towards establishing SOME solvency to Social Security. Steps that MIGHT allow it to survive for several more generations, rather than burning out when the brunt of the BabyBoomer generation hits it!

    But you people just need to – if nothing else – quit tossing about insults to those of us out here who have earned more respect while acting as REAL Fathers and REAL Dads!

  18. I am wondering my ex receives ss benefits for him and my 3 children right now they are living with him and I pay him child support but my question is that 2 of my children are coming to live with me so will they still receive their benefits or do they lose that?

  19. This is in response to the questions regarding the Non-custodial parent recieving SSI and what the children are entitled to. The answer, at least in Michigan, is absolutely nothing. This is a run around I have gotten from the Michigan FOC for 6 years. If my ex rec’d SSD, my kids could get something, however, my ex currently doesn’t even get SSI. He has an application out for it. He has been denied for 6 years now, however, he is in appeal (as everyone knows you can appeal forever) and as long as that application remains open, they can never touch him. He could get a full time job, and as long as he continues to appeal the denial, my children are SOL. And if he is ever approved, they will still never get anything. Great system we’ve got huh?

  20. Well i read the ladies stories. I’m in the same position, I live in the state of Michigan my child support owed to me is over 20,000. The crackhead dead beat looser, can’t call him father dad cuz he isn’t neither. However he receives ssi and i can’t get not one dime. My company recently closed down after working there for 15 years, now im on foodstamps n medicaid, n still cant get nothing to support my kids. The goverment gives money to ppl that are not disabled n claims they are, if this guy can go smoke crack sit around the house and live off free money while the kids suffer, it shows what kind of system there really is for the kids none……. I guess get on state assistance and run the game like the loosers do… Maybe one day they will enforce it…..Keep ur fingers crossed its been 15 yrs n i still aint got shit.. Thanks to the the goverment the kids are sol…

  21. I’m disabled due two cancer , my question if somebody know I’ll apreciate is : after pass over ( I’m married ) my ex has right to receive Social security.

  22. I wouldn’t want to diagnose this on a message board, but the solution is simple: call Social Security and ask. They’re set up to help with questions like this one.

  23. I am a grandmother who is being faced with the decsion to take custody of a 2 month old grandson, and the dad gets ssi. How do I get support once I take custody everything will be considered using my income which is too good to get any kind of governmental help. I will do what I need to do but have any of you checked the price of day care lately?? I am not in the position to quit my job and at this point either is my 68 year old husband who by the way is not the biological grandfather. so to the guy who is bragging about what a good dad he is, give me a break you ought to be!!! and I don’t care how much I get, if he gets 5.00 I will take 2.50.

  24. I think you simply need to ask. One option is to ask to be named the foster parent for the child, which enables you to receive some support from the state that is not limited by your income.

  25. Removing all emotion from past fights, unfairness, ex-bashing, hurt, regret, cheating and any other sins and maladaptions of what we thought marriage was going to be when we exchanged rings, I believe the child’s best interest is the center of the question of SSI vs child support or both concurrently. If the parent (either gender) who has custody of the child is not receiving anything due to an inability of the non-custodial parent (again, either gener) to find/secure/keep work, isn’t the SSI check of any size a whole lot more than the Zero they would otherwise get? What good does it do anybody to fight to get both when the alternative was zero in the first place? In the words of Dr. Phil, “So, how’s that working for you?” Fight it out while you could be actually fostering love and positive relationships and showing your children how to be mature enough to love them enough to let them find out about the other parent on their own? I’m just seeing a whole lot of greed and vengeance up above my posting. How’s that “stick it to the man” attitude helping your children? Right, you look really greedy and bitter and unable to free yourself to benefit your own offspring. I know of an ex-spouse who is the offspring of a millionaire and currently married to someone making about $70,000 yearly. Barely has to lift a finger to have quite the life due to old family money. The household of four people owns 8 computers, 5 TV sets, several vehicles less than 2 years old, new clothing weekly, several vacations yearly. Non-custodial spouse’s business died in this economy, as did that person’s spouse. There is no money for child support payments and they’ll probably lose their house. So, non-custodial parent, turned 62 and filed for SS retirement just to pay child support for one child of just less than $500 monthly, and obligation never left unmet over the last 12 years – until the business collapsed. By surprise, the child is eligible to receive about 3 times that amount from Social Security. You guessed it, the wealthy custodial parent riding the gravy traing is pushing back – a $1,500 monthly windfall simply isn’t enough. Got to go for the effing jugular while the kid simply watches the fight continue and runs around well past curfew every night. It ain’t so much about the money as it is the kid.

  26. How do these people get $1100 a monthe in SSI and SSD? How does the kids get $500? My children get $7.00 that is 7 dollars a month. I get $131.00 in SSI and $755.00. This is for a family of 5 PLUS 2 step kids. I worked my whole life and became disabled in 2005 fought 4 years with Social Security to loose everything. Social Security told me today to get a DIVORCE. Then I read about these dads who dont pay support, I have paid for my step kids for 16 years and thier dad pays nothing. How come I am being screwed over?????

  27. My cousin receives ss disability for one child as well as child support for that child, she receives welfare for the other child. She wants to send the older one to live with her dad and will only agree to it if the dad continues to pay child support and fowards the disabilty checks back to her. This makes me crazy. Her loozer of a husband was stabbed in a bar fight and now she is sueing everyone she can. She is not willing to cut the older one completely loose until she receives some sort of “settlement” MONEY. I’m not crazy about the father but at least he is willing to accept responsibilty and STILL PAY just to see his daughter. Are you able to collected ss and child support? and if the child is disabled (mentally I’m guessing) why is she the one responsible for the younger ones care? My cousin is always gone and the kids are alone. Don’t any of these angencies do follow up???

  28. my husband was ordered to pay child support until daughter was 19 or out of school. In June the daughter turned 18 and the checks were returned. We think the ex wife started receiving ssdi, could that stop child support? Or would a really bad report card stop child support?

  29. My ex pays no child support or any cost for the private school our son has always attended, nor will he help with 1/2 the cost of anything (school supplies, sports fees/due. He is appling for SSI due to being disabled. I undestand our son would also be eligible for benefits. My question is: We has joint legal adn physical custody with me having mor then 54 % of custodial time. Will the father get the SSI check or can I get it since I have more custodial time and pay all fees associated with raising a child? I live in California.

  30. Your question is a matter of local law, and I don’t know CA law. As a layperson, 54% seems awfully close to 50% and therefore might not be sufficient to cause a diversion of the SSI.

  31. To those folks who find it necessary to bash the disabled . Social security disability is for those who have become DISABLED in one way or another. These men and or women have paid into social security for all of their working years as I have as well. And if you women who are complaining because the money goes to the kids you ought to be ashamed by your comments. Hence the words “CHILD SUPPORT”. If you thought you needed more money for your new purses then you should have pursued more alimony for your self.
    I am disabled and because of a selfish woman just like you people ……. She has made it a point to alienate my children from me through lying and manipulation of their fragile emotions and the court system.
    I have had three surgeries on different parts of my body. And one of those left me with Chronic pain. and as a result I have to take opiates, Vicadin and Methadone to keep my pain under control. I have also developed uncontrollable asthma , degenerative joint disease ,Restless leg syndrome,, adult onset ADD, sleep apnea,, hyperparathyroidism , neuropathy , gerd choronic seborrhea dermatitis , chronic topical dermatitis, arthritis from the base of my tail bone to the base of my skull, Recurrent dislocations in my right shoulder , and Arthritis there as well, as well as depression ,Allergies 26 out of the 44 substances tested for including Latex. . . . For my asthma I took steroids while I worked and had no problem paying child support. In 2003 my conditions got a lot worse and i had to leave my job. I almost died a couple of times, my asthma was soo bad that i was on Family Medical Leave Act , trying to keep my job. I never bucked the support I owed to my children and even to this day I dont.
    Ever since then i have had doctors say that I needed to stay away from the triggers that cause such bad asthma attacks. Which comes from just about every climate, perfume, dust , mold, dirt , pollen, even roaches, and every grass, But my pulmonologist never would put it in writing. And if he had i wouldnt be soo far in arrears. So I have been trying to get s.s.d. The steroids in my asthma medicine has destroyed my bones and has caused degenerative joint disease from the base of my spine to the top of the c-spine. So much so that they were afraid That if I moved my c-spine in any particular direction I might become paralyzed. So I had surgery then and even need more surgery done today, But they wont allow it because of the scar tissue and the greater risks involved. And now as a result of the fusion surgery I have chronic pain along with about 9 other diagnosis’s. According to your assessment I would and am a deadbeat dad. but lets put the shoe (S) on your feet.
    Would you consider driving to work under the influence of a narcotics. I have to take two different ones to be effective against the pain all up and down my spine and joints all over my body.
    If I were to get into an accident the medicines would be blamed and i could be sued just that much more.
    My point being that SSI ad SSD are not government hand outs . You have to actually have worked for so long acquired so many points , be unable to perform certain tasks to have so much wrong with you and be on certain medicines to be found disabled. Disabled
    I have not been able to work now for more than 6 years. And the support amount has kept on rising but you know what .. I feel there are mitigating circumstances that there is just no way a parent has the ability to work . but from the sounds of quite a few people here. Some are saying that NCPs are just trying to get out of paying child support. But in reality all these people really want is retaliation because they are responsible . But listen here My ex got a degree in nursing, went to college ,was on food stamps. AFDC, medical, because I left her for having affairs with other men and women. And in the same person Has encouraged my children to hate me and not have anything to do with me.
    In court I was called a liar , the evidence I had about her embroiling the children against me I couldn’t use because the judge didn’t want to hear my evidence because the courts are not !!! not !!!! looking out for the benefit of the children. I had done nothing to my kids , never beat them, never abused them physically , sexually or emotionally either. but because one of my family members had done this horrible thing I was put in the same classification with him. She used that info to hurt my case for custody. The judge ordered me to have 7 supervised visits before he would talk about joint custody again. Only problem was i lived in Illinois and they lived in Ca. I had just become unemployed because of my illnesses (uncontrollable asthma). At that time I felt like doing all the things she had accused me of doing but I didn’t . Prior to that hearing through the span of 4 years with joint legal custody I saw my kids twice Did you read that ,only Twice. My ex did everything she could to stop the visitations with my kids although I had to pay child support,I had to pay alimony , there was no fairness to any of this. and the only explanation I can come up with is this. She knew like a lot of you folks how to work the system . Divorce is a big money making business for not only lawyers but the court system as well DCFS, department of child support enforcement a lot of people like myself have kept these divisions in business, Believe it or not I actually worked for this division in Illinois while I paid my support for three years . .
    If i had a chance to change any of this i would first of all require the CP to account for every last penny taken from me to be spent on the kids. I would make a new law that if the cp Violates any of the court orders that she should go directly to jail and be penalized say 110 % (money taken from her alimony) for six months , as well as supervised visitations even if she starts to comply with the orders. Just as the courts are doing to me. With interest!!!!!
    And if she gets disabled , immediately she should not have a drivers license, the kids come to me and she gets to start paying me money , with the threat of police action. And when she finally gets her ssd , ssi after ten years I will require her to the accrued interest of 110% as well as the back child support be taken from her ssd ….. By the way companies who cant stay afloat are being bailed out by the government for billions and trillions of dollars …. do you call them deadbeat companies??? . She will have no choice in the matter either and if she is completely disabled and has lost all of her extremities , and If there is no possible way she could meet her obligation (s) then we , the great compassionate country that we are . Will arrest her and keep her there until she can find some kind of work to do, or her family puts up the money. Or we will take her house , car, children if she has any absolutely- take away her professional, doctors, nurses, commercial drivers license as well as her non commercial drivers license so in the end her ability to make any money or even drive a car to get to work will be impossible . She is heading directly to jail.
    Does it feel good to know that you the citizen of this great country is stooping this low.
    This are the facts and threats I live under everyday. I dare any of you who are calling us deadbeats to take a walk in our shoes and see if you can or could even begin to live the way we have to. Always under he threat of serious jail time . up to 4 years . And i am speaking about the truly disabled person. I believe in child support , and I believe in supporting your children for AS BEST AS IS POSSIBLE as the CIRCUMSTANCES ALLOW . !!
    . Word web gives this as one of heir definitions for :Disabled -Incapable of functioning as a consequence of injury or illness
    So before you come against the disabled who are on SSD or SSI.
    Think about it one day you may need this service would you want some one slandering you the way you are slandering the truly needy. And if you happen to get behind on your child support ( because I guarantee to some of you who’s spouse is like my ex ). You will divorce because you cannot supply them with the life they have become accustomed. you will become less then dirt in their eyes and you will be on your own with exactly what happened to me on its way. because the ex’s will find out that not only are the children beneficial for food stamps but they can be even more valuable when it comes to child support that they don’t even have to account for at all. AFDC to the tune of about $1500.00 a month, medical, boy they got it made now . A few false accusations about you and your anger and how you tried to beat them and her or him with your cane one time. man o man they will have it made . And then think about this the less time the kids spend with you the more child support you have to pay. As i have experienced personally . My ex really knew how to use the system to her advantage. You will want to confront her but she has changed the locks on the doors and everything you say will now be used against you in the restraining orders she has just put out on you .

    14 years later $70,000 in debt to a corrupt government who at the beginning of the year told you you only owed 32,000 just slapped you with interest of 110% and there’s nothing you can do. But there is a way out. take the man who lost everything. His home his kids. The day of sentencing for not being able to pay his child support , he lost is drivers license and everything because of a money hungry ex. the day of the hearing he was given four years . he took out a knife and in the middle of court cut his own throat. he in essence gave the corrupt court everything he could have up to ad including his life .

  32. i live in tennessee and have been disabled for 2 years due to migrains..i get 1489 a month my wife gets 186 and my 3 kids get 186…ever since ive been drawing we have been seperated (not legally) but i do stay with her over half the time as im trying to work things out…i watch kids while she works and goes to school….i am with them more than their mom is…but she gets the checks cuz i told ss they live with her…but reality is i have them more…we are thinking of divorcing…will she still get the four checks or will i have to pay child support on top of that..or is there a chance that i can be entitled to some of it as it is clear that i have them more……also i have a ticket to work…as long as i make under 700 a month…but cant cuz i have the kids for her to work and go to school…..HELP!!!!

  33. I’m sorry. I don’t know how this works in TN, and even if I did, it’s not clear to me what you’re asking. If it helps, most states allow a credit against child support for Social Security payments received for the children by the custodial parent on account of the non-custodial parent’s disability.

  34. Hello my son father receives ssi payments from nys for the past 5 years. Can our son receive payments also?

  35. I am in NY, I am a custodial parent, I receive SSDI. My children also get benefits from my disability. Does that affect the amount of child support I get?

    1. You are asking a state-specific question, and the sad truth is that I simply don’t know the answer as it applies in NY. I’m sorry.

  36. Our divorce decree states that neither party pays child support and we have equal custody I take full financial responsibility of my child she has another child outside of the marriage. My ex is now claiming she can no longer work(stay at home computer job) and wants to be on disability and collect Social Security because she has fibromyalgia. She is always on painkillers,she relies on her seventeen-year-old son to do majority of the driving shopping and caregiving for my son because she cannot stay awake due to the pain killers,they are constantly moving and downsizing they now live in a two-bedroom apartment and my 12 year old son sleeps in her bed because she can’t pay her keep up on her rent, utilities are being shut off constantly and she cannot buy food for the children quite often.my son misses school at lest one if not twice a week when she has him at her house.my family and I give her money to help but it is an endless cycle and has been ongoing for eight years. I feel that I should have majority custody because I can provide a stable home for my son. Does she now have the right to hit me for child support and do you think I have a leg to stand on to fight her for custody?

  37. After the 5 yr government asst. , is there any financial help a single parent can get when the non custodian is on ssi? Social supplementary income. The non custodian parent just married. Can that income help if taken back to court?

    1. If you’re asking whether there is governmental assistance available for a child whose parents are poor, I’m afraid that’s outside the realm of my knowledge. If you’re asking whether the income of a spouse is included when the court calculates child support, the answer is generally no.

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