What Can a Parent Be Forced to Pay Out of SSD Benefits

My question involves child support in the State of: tx

the court order we are following is from tx from 2007. My ex was ordered child support of $450 amonth plus medical. He has paid support for a total of about 1.5 years. 2011 tx filed contempt on him for non payment. He counter filed for full custody. Well finally our trial date is the 30th of this month. There has been amicus attorney's involved. Amicus is on my side to keep sole custody. Anyway ex was approved for ssdi in July. He got back pay for ssdi from March 2011 to current and I got back pay from ssdi for my daughter from aug 2001 to current. Well ex owe's 18K and about another $700 in medical expenses. He is telling amicus he recieved 20K in back pay and has paid me $0 for arrears or medical. Since July I have recieved 250 from ssdi and another $200 from him. I have sent the proper notifications of medical expenses and he is ordered to reimbust me, but hasn't. Will the courts be able to make him pay the money he owes from his lump sum from ssdi? Will they garnish his ssdi for back pay? And can the courts lower his monthly child support?

He refuses to pay medical, would it be fair to ask the courts to make him responsible for travel expenses for visitation in exchange I cover all medical and 50/50 on deductable? fyi I and child live in LA travel is split about 60/40 with me having the 60%.

Texas is pretty cut and dried. he'll owe the support and it'll come out of his SSDI or whatever income he's getting. it may be lowered at this point (not what he owes, just going forward)
I highly doubt the court will broker an order regarding expenses and medical. IMHO they don't like to spend more than 20min on these issues.

if you come to an agreement outside of court then yes....but I am willing to bet the judge will just slap him with the back childsupport and medical as per standard custody.
Also, just FYI....back child support if you get autopay setup, will be total divived by # of months until youngest child is 18 and divvied out that way.
HIGHLY unfair if you ask me....but nobody did ;)

Mom, be prepared for Dad to request that the SSDI dependent benefits be considered in lieu of child support - in other words he'll have no ongoing obligation.

Yes, SSDI can be garnished for arrears but again, you need to be prepared to receive only the arrears from hereonout.

I am prepared and also satisfied with that. Something is better than nothing.

Absolutely! :)

When a parent is genuinely disabled, I do empathize. But by the same token that doesn't mean the child suddenly needs to eat less!

Do let us know how this turns out, if you have a chance?

Oh he could still work, but I am letting this battle go. It is hard to be the sole provider for our child yet he can do what ever he wants. REGARDLESS, our child will have what she needs and some. I worked hard to get where I am. Since 2007 I have gone from being a physically and mentally abused house wife with no employment experience to a college grad with a great job and career. I am not on any gov. assistance. Our daughter takes after me and makes A's and B's in school. But here comes ex to throw a rench in her life. He counter filed to get out of paying child support. He chose not to see our daughter for years only to try and mislead the courts into thinking I was denying him visitation so that he could get full custody. Well after two years of a very expensive custody battle in which he was pro se, he now drops his suit after I would not agree to his proposal on all the court issues and gets mad cause he was under the impression it would make court go away. All the money he has taken from our daughter by dragging us through court! I have spent over 10k in the TX court, that could of been spent on her or her education. And he gets a 20k lump sum and pays me 0??? Crazy! Then on top of it takes her to disney world... even more crazy. I expect nothing more from him than what I have been getting for years... nothing. I am willing to accept it and move on. I will definately repost when this is all over.

Cheer up! things do get better. It's sad to say but I think divorce is the best thing possible that could have happened to me. In the last 4-5 years my paycheck has more than doubled, and now I make 6x what my ex's takehome is now. He pays me a paltry 500 a month for two kids and is extremely bitter for it. Meanwhile until my youngest started school this year I was paying 1300/mth in daycare alone!
He lived with his parents until he was 24 and moved in with me, and he's now 35 and has been living with his parents for the last 5yrs without any intentions to move out.
He's still driving his hunk of junk 00 neon that looks like scrap on wheels, and I've had a 2010 and 2012 since we divorced.

I take some measure of comfort in how much this galls him when he's being a total jerk or refusing to pay half medical or ignoring the hospital bills....etc.

my divorce cost JUST ME 30K, and I went pro-se a few times. My ex kept dragging me back in with BS because he had his parents bankrolling him. He easily spent 40+....and he only makes 28a year!
So sad, because we could have settled it with no fuss for 1-2K total....but he was a jerk and I wasn't going to give up my kids!
Originally mine wanted the house, but wanted me to pay for it and move into the hotel I worked for (WHAT?)
he wanted me to take all 15K of the cc debt, all of which was in his name
Wanted full custody and to pay him child support AND daycare

Still makes me laugh. Eventually you reach a point where it'll all turn around for you, and you'll be proud you've come through it for the better. Until just recently I was working 20hr days, traveling, hardly ever sleeping, dealing with a toddler and little boy (1 and 4 when we seperated)....couldn't rub two nickles together.
Now I look back and feel like i'm a rockstar :)

*hugs*
Best of luck to you hon, but I wanted to let you know i've stuggled with the justice system and just struggled in general. I'm in the best place emotionally and financially that i've EVER been...even as a kid growing up. I hope you get there too.

Thank you basylica for your post! I really hope I will be where you are soon! Trial is the 30th of this month, I have been on this site since the begining of trial and I hope my experiences can help guide some others through the hard times of court battles.

If you have a child support order and he's in arrears, I trust you've contacted the SSA to talk about it. You shouldn't need a court to make a special order as to arrearages to ask SSA to start sending money from his SS benefits to you (since he clearly isn't coughing up what he owed out of the backpay he received). Depending on the judge, he might even get tossed in jail.

CAN the court lower his child support? Sure, if it meets income guidelines. Interesting that he must have a lawyer advising him to file for full custody, which is a sad tactic (one should only do that if in fact one believes the custodial parent is a monster, and it's difficult to credibly argue one wouldn't be fighting for that from the get vs. only after a motion for contempt).

SSA? Social security office? I have called attorney general and let them know of his ssd benifits and I have contacted social security and notified them he has arrears and child support. I havnt even officially been notified of his income. I have only heard from amicus attorney he is getting around $1600 a month.

And I do believe he had some kind of help on what to file, but I am most likely to win seeing as of 2 weeks ago he dropped all his suits against me... I find it very odd after so long of court battle he just throws in the towel... maybe he has something up his sleeve?