I don't think I would call that person responsible, more so...uh, stupid or naive.

People who pay child support, should know and have the common sense that they need to arrange the courts to receive the monies for the child, rather than 'trust' the ex. Then again COMMON SENSE isn't that common anymore.

You mean MONEY not MONIES

It is really sad when the system punishes a responsible dad who always paid the ex by check. Surely, it is painful for children who are caught between this. System should punish those who are really behind paying child support.

Hello All -
I'm new to this site but wanted to throw in my .02 on this subject as I'm VERY, VERY familar with it...

I've been divorced for almopst 3 years now and my divorce decree stated I was to pay $857 per month in child support. I faithfully paid my ogbligation every month (paid with personal checks and noted "child support" in the memo area. Well - in October of 2007 (over 2 1/2 years after my divorce, my employer receives a notice from the Child Support Enforment Agency stating that effective my next pay date my employer was to withdraw the funds from my payroll check and forward them to the CSEA. I didn't have any problem with this as I had been paying ever since the date of my divorce anyway. Well - to make a long story short, I receive a letter in November from CSEA stating that I was $25,500 in arrears for non payment of child support. I immediately got on the phone and began leaving messages for the person who was the "case officer". I left no less than 25 voice mails and never once received a response. My deduction went from $857 per month to $1045 to pay the "arrears" that I owed. I went to the Child Support with EVERY cancelled check and finally met with the case officer after sitting there for 7 hours. I was told that under Ohio law that payments made directly to the parent counted as "gifts" and would not be applied to MY responsibilities. Even after producing 29 cancelled checks that clearly stated "child support" in the memo column, I was told that the only way that the arrearage would be taken off was if my ex wife agreed to go with me to the courthouse and agreed to have a journal entry made that the funds I had given her all this time were in fact child support. My ex and I do not have a cordial relationship but I asked her anyway. She laughed at me and told me that there was no way that she would do anything to help me. (BTW - I now actually have CUSTODY of my son but that also has no bearing on what the CSEA states I'm in arrearage on).
To add insult to injury, I went to renew my passport to take my trip to see Tatiana in Moldova (even paid extra to the State Dept to expedite my renewel). I recieved a notification that I had been placed on the passport denial list because I had arrearages in excess of $2500.
Again I went back on the phone and was told that all I needed to do was speak to the case officer and she had the authority to remove my name from this list and that since I was already paying the "arrearages" it wouldn't cost me anything to get my passport back.
The case officer basically told me that she was sorry for my luck and that if I wanted my passport all I needed to do was to write a check (actually bring a Cashiers check) for $25k. We went into a negotiation and I advised her that I didn't have 25k lying around and she wound up settling for $1,500 to release my name from the passport denial list.
I guess the point of my post is that sometimes the dad isn't the deadbeat and even when he does the right thing he can end up on the losing end. Anyone who says that the child support system isn't biased towards the mother is sadly mistaken. I'm niot defecding the guy who's now the subject of 50 some odd posts, all I'm trying to say is that there were a lot of people who expressed opinions who knew absolutely nothing about how the system works. I wish this guy good luck and advise him to try and reach a compromise with his child support case officer. He may in fact be able to get his passport released fairly easily with an acceptable payment arrangement. Who knows - maybe he isn't the peice of trash that some people made him out to be.
Alan