Child Services Levy our Checking account after filig 3 months ago

[tammygirl1]

Repost from the Ch13 Forum. I didn't realize this new forum was even here.

I am so stressed right now. We have paid court ordered childsupport since it was reinstituded. We paid Oct 1 (with receipt) and even have bank statement to prove Oct payment. Because their auditing is all done by computer and that our Oct payment was posted to September even though receipts says 10/1. Fast forward..I get an alert from Chase indicating my funds were down to ...yep zilch,nada,none ! I call the bank who only tells me the legal levy acct number (which is Child Sup number). Chase says they need a letter from Services of the error. I was told that the computer randomly picks 4500 accounts to freeze/levy a day if someone is out of compliance and in arrearage. They felt I was out of compliance since in thier computer ways I didnt pay in October! Ugh... I was furious! Thank god we have a few hundred emergency funds. We are current on all our support with exception to the arrearages which are being worked into the plan to be paid 100%j through the plan. Can the agency put a hold on our money since we filed BK? Isnt there an automatic stay for even Child Services? To freeze an account would they not request a releif from stay? They haven't even submitted a POC yet. They took over 1000 which was for mtg ...just dont know what to do. Lawyer faxing our paperwork tomorrow hopefully it will all work out. My daughter says it has to get worse before it gets better...I hope we are on the better side soon. If you made it through all this thanks for listening...don't have anyone really to talk to about this mess.
have a good evening
Thanks for any insight

[Meatstick]

Not sure at all if there is an automatic stay for CS, most likely not but your attorney should be able to answer that one.

I paid CS for many years and when it was time for it to stop it took many months for the CS agency to stop the automatic withdrawl form payroll. They then sent a refund to my employer who in turn sent it to me.

Good luck and I wish I had better answers for you.

[RichM]

Geez... sorry about your problem.

I don't know if there is an automatic stay for CS. Even if there is, I wouldn't count on them to obey it because, well, they're a government agency, therefore the agency and its employees are pretty much beyond being held accountable for their wrongdoing and/or incompetence.

For what it's worth, I never pay any government agency using a check or any other draft against any account that I own, nor by debit or credit card, nor will I accept direct deposit of tax refunds, etc., nor would I ever in a million years authorize a government agency to automatically debit any account of mine.

Yes, I know that they can get the account numbers easily enough in the event of a judgment. That's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about incorrect debits being made due to the sheer incompetence of government agencies. It may take a nanosecond for money to be taken out, but it could take months or years before it gets put back. In the meantime, you're S.O.L.

Hope you get this straightened out quickly, however.

-Rich

[Flamingo]

The only way to put a stay on child support or increase or decrease it or to resolve any problem is to go get another court order making the change and hope that the other parent is agreeable. If you don't pay it you are in violation of a court order and can go to jail. Get some good legal advice as to your child support situation and see if you can make payments directly to the agency yourself instead of the agency withdrawing from your bank. I am assuming your state requires the payments drawn directly out of your account.

[RichM]

....

Get some good legal advice as to your child support situation and see if you can make payments directly to the agency yourself instead of the agency withdrawing from your bank. I am assuming your state requires the payments drawn directly out of your account.

If, in fact, that is the case, then I would open a special, dedicated account for that one single deduction -- and deposit only enough money into that account to cover the payment and any fees. I would never, ever, ever allow any government agency access to my "general" checking account, under any circumstances.

I say this as a one-time government employee and present government contractor, by the way. The incompetence of government agencies in general is appalling.

-Rich

[tammygirl1]

We got it all straightened out once our lawyer faxed the BK paperwork to the County and my husband talked to the guy in charge of releasing the freeze on the account. He explained we had paid the monthly payment via the web site (debit with Visa logo) and that said it would post for October 1 not September. We also faxed the confirmation reciept prooving Oct 1st. The county agreed to release and we had our funds by Sat morning (account frozen on Monday). The County did say to 'make sure' we did not pay until at least the 3rd but before the 25th to be sure it gets paid within the current month which we have done since then. I guess we got lucky to get our money back??? Whew.