At least put a twenty on the dresser afterwards....

I am a single dad. I am a single dad that pays a lot, in my opinoin, of child support. I am a single dad that pays a lot of child support and I feel like the whole system is against me. I pay my child support faithfully. Every paycheck it is deducted automatically and sent to the child support enforcement agency. I have never missed a payment. I even kept up with the payments while I was unemployed last year. I had the wonderful state of Ohio take out the maximum they were allowed, half of the unemployment check. That left me with less than $200 every two weeks to live on. I did that for 4 months. Now, there is your bit of historical data, now I can rant.

I applied for a child support review. A child support review is a process that takes the previous child support worksheets and figures and compares them to your current situation. Life changes, incomes change, lifestyles change, so in my estimation, that is very fair. Here in the county that I and my ex live in, you are allowed a free review every 3 years. When my ex and I seperated and divorced she had not been working for over 4 years so I was ordered to pay the maximum I could pay for what I had earned. Being an IT professional, that is not bad pay. Anyway, I requested the review. After sending in mounds of paperwork, my W2s, the unemployment paperwork, a rather long questionairre, copies of my last years taxes, and insurance information, I recieved a notice in the mail that the child support had been adjusted, in my favor. That is good news. My beef is with the system and the process. I was ordered to carry the insurance on my children. I have no problem with that but that little sentence does not cover the fact that my fiancee or spouse might be able to get cheaper or better insurance. So even though hundreds of dollars are coming out of my household income each month, I cannot use that figure in the child support review. Also, my ex gets a credit for any children she has with another man! She has another son with her new husband and that is calculated against me! Why? If she popped out 4 more kids does that mean that my child support goes UP???? And the IRS, since its tax time I will include them in too, does not allow for me to deduct that child support, even though it is taken out after taxes. And she does not have to claim it as any sort of income on HER taxes either. So the money that I provide as support for my children is tax free for her and penalized as taxable income for me. I love my kids and I will happily provide for them probably forever. Parents never really stop caring or providing for thier kids. But I think that the system needs a bit of review itself.