Getting Back Child Support After Many Years

I have a question regarding back child support. I became pregnant with my son when I was in high school. My son was born in 1989. The biological father broke up with me shortly thereafter. He was out of the picture at that point. Around 1994, the biological father had a stroke from some brain ailment. Apparently he went on SSI or something from there. Two years later the DA found him for a child support order. He signed the stipulation, but because he was getting disability, I could not get child support. He remained on SSI/disability indefinitely until child support services closed my case back in 2004. Today I do not know his situation. Our son is 18.7 years old now. I was wondering what could I do to get back child support from the biological father. What steps should I take to get back child support? :wallbang:

You probably wont get back support, unless there is an arrearage on file.
And from what you told us, there isn't one, as he was disabled.
If anything, you may want something stipulated that he help out on college expenses.

So how does child support services define back child support then??? What is a Arrearage on file?

An arrearage is the amount unpaid on an existing order.

So this arrearage on file thing means that he would have to have had been paying child support to me & then suddenly stopped? This would of caused a debt? Well at least I wont waste my time in some fruitless attempt. Thank you

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Quoting JudyX

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So this arrearage on file thing means that he would have to have had been paying child support to me & then suddenly stopped? This would of caused a debt? Well at least I wont waste my time in some fruitless attempt. Thank you

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Yes and no. An arrearage can only exist if a court issued an order to pay CS. Apparently, your ex was never ordered to pay CS, therefore there aren't any arrears to file for payment of.

Okay! I think I understand. I thought when he signed the CS documents, that was considered "ordered to pay child support". But the order does not really count until a biological parent pays the support, thereby establishing a kind of system in place. I think I was confused because I had a friend who was on Welfare. Her ex-boyfriend had to pay back child support I think

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I thought when he signed the CS documents, that was considered "ordered to pay child support". But the order does not really count until a biological parent pays the support, thereby establishing a kind of system in place. I think I was confused because I had a friend who was on Welfare. Her ex-boyfriend had to pay back child support I think

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If the COURT enters an order for child support, there is an obligation to pay. If the NCP never actually pays, or doesn't pay in full, the NCP is still obligated to pay and an arrearage occurs. The key here is whether there is a court order to pay support.

I know this is an old forum, but I am hoping some will be able to provide some good sound advice. This is kind of the same situation, I have a child support order in place by a judge. The amount started at $2 per month (6/2002) and I hired a personal attorney to modify the amount. It was increased to $450 per month in December 2004. The non custodial parent was injured in 2008 and has just been approved for SSI benefits/ 100% disabled as of 7/30/10. I was advised by Missouri Child Support Enforcement that they can not collect or attempt to garnish any wages due to it being 100% disability/ approved. Then they informed me that they will be closing my case as of 10/3/10. When I questioned what will happen to the $30,624.00 owed in back support, I was told it would just go away. I need to know if I should file some type of judgment to try an obtain the back payment or just give up. My child is only 10 years old and is defintely college bound.

If NCP is actually on SSI - as opposed to SSDI - it will be nigh on impossible to collect.

If NCP is on SSDI, your child would be entitled to a dependent benefit in lieu of child support.

Either way, you really can't get blood out of a stone although getting the judgment may at least enable you to collect something should NCP's status change in the future.

The NCP will shortly begin recieving SSI rather than SSA (I thought it was all the same). Apparently SSA in Missouri the person is still allowed to work 12-15 hours a week without it being a problem and stil receive disablity payments. SSI I was told on the other hand is when the person is not able to work at all and receives disablity payments......but can apparently still play basketball ..GO FIGURE. Thanks for responding. I will look a little further into filing a claim for back child support or even a civil judgement against the NCP. I just hate that I put in all this work over the past eight years for my child to get nothing and the NCP gets off that easy.