Any woman who suspects an ex isn't paying what he has been court ordered to and is making excuses why he can't pay, knows she can call the Department of Child Support. DCS can and usually does garnish the wages. It's pretty cut and dried anymore. It doesn't matter even if he becomes unemployed or what the reasoning is.... he owes a specific amount per month via court order. No way out but to run and hide.
I'm the one that wrote that to CFM and if you would read what I wrote I said that my ex has refused any "extra" help due to the fact of my loss in pay and 6 months of being unemployed.
I used to make the same as him when we got divorced. While I was at work doing late night end of month inventory, my son was a victim of a crime. My ex chose to ignore that it ever happened, chose to not go to the counseling or the police interviews or to court. I chose to take a pay cut and get a Monday thru Friday 8-5 job for my son, so that he could get better and have someone there for him.
Go Figure, I used to work Fast Food and made $35k/year. Now working an office job, I make about half that. With the same support that I was getting at $35k/year I have made it, because I had to and because DCS would not review my case because I had an administrative order that I would have to go back to King County Court to change (notice that I live in Snohomish County, down to downtown Seattle is an awful drive). What a joke. So, then in the middle of all that I lose my job. Still no help from my ex. When I ask him to please just sit down and play nice and figure it out ourselves, no way. When I ask for even a little bit of help it's a big old sob story about how King County Parks is getting cut back and such and how they are facing layoffs, etc. He makes almost $5k more a year last year than he did in 2000 when we got divorced, while I'm making almost half of what I was to take care of OUR boy.
DCS cannot do anything about a court administrative order until 3 years has passed. This poses a problem for someone that might have the need to raise support but doesn't know whether the ex makes enough to be able to raise it. It has to a certain amount for them to raise it at all.
So, going back to court without knowing what the ex is making is not only expensive and a huge battle especially when you live in a different county then it's even more of a challenge. Especially when you don't have the money in the first place to be able to hire a high and mighty lawyer.
Also, when asking for a review, you have to fill in what you "think" your ex-spouse is making on the worksheets. If you really have no idea due to change in circumstances then it makes it really hard to fill in that part. In any legal matter, making sure you have the correct information the first time is very important.
Even if the info is 6-12 months old if you're into the 2-3rd year and you haven't known since the divorce what your ex made, it's a place to start when filling out the paperwork.
This information was helpful, yes. Have I ran down to DCS and filed the paperwork now that it's been the 3 years, NO. And my ex doesn't even know that I know how much he made. I like to think things through before I jump, that was the information I needed to know whether it was worth causing a big old stink between the ex and I or not.