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How Does Child Support Work When The Father Is Deployed To Iraq?

8 September, 2010 (17:51) | Child Support Collections, Child Support Enforcement Laws | By: stlscorpio


Amanda asked:

My son’s father is being deployed to Iraq in May, but leaves in March for his training. Child support is already court ordered, but I know that there will be a huge increase in his pay once he leaves. What should I do about getting child support increased? Should I contact his national guard unit or child support enforcement now or should I wait? If I wait until he has gone, how do I show his income? He is ordered to pay, but has just started to pay because he will most likely to have to serve 30 days before he leaves. His court date is on the 18th for that. He is over 3000 behind already. He is in the national guard so when we processed the orders he was working a minimum wage job. His pay will increase.

Answer: Here is the deal with a temporary increase in pay like your child’s father will see. It takes time to get a modification of a child support order. Most of the time it takes many months. Judges are unlikely to give you a modification based on a temporary and involuntary increase in pay. What I mean by that is your son’s father is likely to be deployed 6-9 months. He may have an increase in pay and may get hazard duty pay and other allowances. But those are all temporary. You cannot apply for the increase until it actually happens because me things happen that interfere with deployment dates and locations and all of those affect the man’s actual income.

Once he is deployed it will be impossible to serve him the lawsuit for an increase in child support. Additionally he will be covered by the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act which prohibits or at least holds at bay lawsuits for active duty military, especially those deployed.


Lastly I would not want to be the one telling a judge that I should get an increase in child support because someone is temporarily making more money for being at war. How is the judge supposed to deal with that? By the time the case even came around the soldier would be home and back to his lower income. Yes, he gets some temporary benefit of increased income during the time he is at war, but like we always tell the kids life is not always fair.

BUT, and this is a big but, I highly recommend you immediately contact a child support collection agency. This is an excellent time to collect that past due amount. If you have information on his unit, etc you can start making up the past due. In most cases you will be entitled to your present amount due plus at least an additional 50%. If he owes $300 per month you will collect $450 with $150 going toward the back. Take action right away so you can get the most from his past due. You may be entitled to a lot more than the 50% extra and could get it all made up from this one deployment.

Related posts:

  1. How Do I Collect Child Support From My Son’s Unemployed Father?
  2. How Do I Cancel Child Support On A Child Who Is Emancipated?
  3. When Do I Need A Child Support Lawyer?
  4. What Happens To Child Support When One Or More Children Move In With The Other Parent?

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Comments

Comment from Tapestry6
Time September 19, 2010 at 10:12 pm

Contact the unit commander, his support should be coming to your child in the form of an allotment check each month.
Whether it can be increased temporarily while overseas I don’t know. Unless the court order adjusts when he gets an increase of pay, but since this is temporary it may not happen.

Comment from onlyme78729
Time September 20, 2010 at 1:48 am

Have you talked to him about the increase, since he knows his pay will increase he might give the courts what they need instead of you having to go thru his unit.

If he isn’t cooperating then yea, go thru his unit, and usually when it’s court ordered that amount comes out of his check, he will have no choice in the matter.

Comment from Gottcha go
Time September 21, 2010 at 11:45 pm

well if he’s already paying and he’s about to get a whole lot more i really don’t think you can get any back then what he’s already sending.You might need a lawyer then to ask any one on here they would find out faster what you can do, i bet if you do that they can get you more back even after he leaves to Iraq.

Comment from Feythe
Time September 22, 2010 at 10:03 pm

There is NOT a huge increase in pay when he’s deployed. He gets hazardous duty pay which is at most maybe $200 a month extra, and I think he probably deserves that for getting shot at and putting his life in constant danger.

The child support should be set up as an allotment that comes directly out of his pay and goes directly in to your account. You will still get it while he’s deployed.

If you want more money, you need to contact your attorney.

You are so selfish I cannot believe it.

Comment from Blessed21
Time September 24, 2010 at 3:32 am

the increase in pay we get over there is not our real salary so they never go by that. although since he will be getting regular active duty pay u should hit him up for that. and the army CAN enforce the child support order. your child is entitled to all of the servicemember’s BAH. when my husband was deployed i didn’t get a dime and his unit told me they can’t enforce it with no court order! i too am in army and know that’s not true.

Comment from Mom2Be
Time September 24, 2010 at 11:27 pm

Nothing u can do if hes deployed theres a act against that. No his pay wont increase the state cant not touch his tax free money sorry only his basic pay if u want more money get a second job and stop trying to life off you baby child support.

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