Refund of Support Overpayment
My question involves child support in the State of: NJ
I filed a motion earlier this year for a modification of support. While waiting for the Court to grant my motion and issue an Order revising the amount of support, I continued to make payment of my old support obligation.
In June, the Court issued an Order which reduced my support obligation retroactively to March. There is now a large credit balance in the support account due to money having been already disbursed to my ex.
I have received conflicting information from the NJ Child Support call center representatives and case worker(s) and I am trying to sort out how I can be refunded my overpayment. Initially, I was told that I simply needed to request that I be issued a check for the credit amount, which I did. Subsequently, when inquiring about the status of said check, I was told that I need to file another motion with the Court in order to be refunded the credit.
Can anyone help to clarify this? If there is a credit in the support account, am I permitted to simply not make payments until the credit is exhausted?
Thanks
Re: Refund of Support Overpayment
If the money has been distributed to your ex-, the state does not have the money to refund to you.
If the issue of a credit was not addressed in the prior order, and the administrative agency won't give you a credit without further order of the court, then you will need to obtain a clarification from the court. That may not be a refund; for example, it could be an order that your ongoing support be reduced by a certain number of dollars until the overpayment is satisfied, or a credit to be applied to your final months of support before the support obligation expires. That will depend upon factors including the full facts and context, the amount, and the policies of the court, as well as any statutory restrictions that may apply.