"Not everyone who owes child support is useless." Is it fair that the government withholds a stimulus check for falling behind? Should there be exceptions?
[ad_1]
JMen Texas wrote to The Moneyist on Tuesday to say that I owed my son's child support for my first marriage and that as such, the money from his stimulus check had been withheld and instead , I used to pay some of these debts. "Does President Trump not realize that I now have another dependent family? They need me now. If I cannot feed my family, I will do my best to make it happen ", he wrote.
He did not give a valid reason: or any reason – for not having paid, then The Moneyist took care of it. "You cannot choose the children who deserve your help at a time when millions of families are struggling," I wrote. Therefore, the federal government has intervened to ensure that it is meeting its legal and moral obligations. Now is the time to take responsibility for your own actions. "
Dispatches from a pandemic: Letter from New York: "New Yorkers wear homemade colorful masks, while nurses carry trash bags"
To defend the author of the letter, the government has stated that certain types of delinquent debts, including student loans, would not prevent people from receiving their economic impact payment. Is it even an exaggeration to split these 50/50 checks? Should the government make a greater effort to distinguish "annoyed parents" who choose not to pay from parents who to have makes an effort to pay?
Related Downloads:
ACA International, the association of credit and collection professionals, said its members continue to work "diligently" to help consumers meet unexpected financial challenges. Is it, in fact, ethical for the government to draw a red line on certain unpaid debts, such as child support, while choosing to bypass other consumers who are in the red?
Some readers were offended by my response to J.M., calling it serious:
"I am a single mother," wrote one woman. “I owe support to two of my children. I have custody of someone with type 1 diabetes and I don't think it is right not to have our stimulus checked. The simple fact is that we cannot pay our child support. Some people make mistakes in their lives and slip and cannot take care of their children. The system is trying to stop us. "
Matthew, another reader who owes child support, was even more upset:
"They also gave me a stimulus check for child support," she wrote. "I also have a new family to feed. I am a disabled veteran and I haven't been able to work for about 5 years after my last deployment to combat. This is why I owe you child support. I went crazy for therapy, hospital treatment and rehabilitation to go back to work and pay child support. Now I have over $ 16,000 in support. "
"
"There is NO good reason not to pay for your support, but sometimes life does happen."
"
"Do you think the government will give me a bond?" Do you think I will get a tax return again? Probably not, and that's fine. I don't want government bullshit. Some people owe this money for a reason. There are NO good reasons not to pay for your support, but sometimes life does happen. Now I'm back at work, one of the "essential" workers that everyone loves these days, doing good work for the money. "
"I graduated from high school when I was too scared to leave the house because of post-traumatic stress disorder. But that doesn't count at all. Not everyone who owes child support is useless or deserves to have their money taken away from them. In addition, the problem is easily resolved by dividing the payment between the two households.
See as well: I received my $ 1,200 stimulus check from my ex-husband because we filed joint taxes in 2018. Should I give him the money or return it to the IRS?
James shared his story and a few words (now deleted):
"I lost my job in 2008. My support was $ 1,300 a month because my ex-wife was not working when we divorced," he wrote. "It took me over a year to find a job that was even close to my previous salary, and at the time I was paying as much support as possible, which was calculated by my state according to law. I was accumulating $ 600 a month in child support. "
"
"I lost my job in 2008. My support payments were $ 1,300 a month."
"
"When I returned to normal in 2010, I had a debt of almost $ 15,000 with my ex-wife. I paid the backup diligently and, 10 years later, I paid it back. I finally paid. He got two cars back. If my cash flow went down, she got the money and my cars didn't. My ex-wife was underemployed for 8 of those 10 years so my pensions food remained above $ 1,000 per month. "
The Moneyist: My son stays with me, but my ex-husband, financially irresponsible, received his stimulus check for $ 500. Does my ex have the right to keep it?
"I have scraped, scraped and fought for all that I have and have developed a well-paying career. The reason I paid child support was because the government took the $ 1,055 I owed my ex-wife out of my stimulus check. She has a great job now and doesn't need that money in addition to the money that she and her husband earn. His work has not been affected by the virus. "
He added: "Yes, there are people who shirked their responsibilities, but I paid as much as I could, sometimes working 2 to 3 jobs to make it all work. Fortunately, I have not had to cut my wages, but my wife cannot return to work at the moment. But I guess we should remove the "blame" for blaming COVID-19 for shutting down his job, firing him and my fault, right? "
The Moneyist responds to letters from these readers:
There are always two sides to the reader's letters. According to J.M. and the hurt tone of your letter, I guess – correctly or incorrectly – that there were no good reasons why he did it do not
At the end of the line:
I applaud any parent who bravely tries to do the right thing by supporting their children.
You can send an email to The Moneyist for all financial and ethical questions related to the coronavirus at [email protected]. Do you want to know more?Follow Quentin Fottrell on Twitterand read more of its columns here
Would you like to subscribe to an email alert when a new Moneyist column is published? If yes, click on this link.
Hello MarketWatchers. Check-out Moneyist's private Facebook
FULL BOARD,
group where we seek answers to life's thorniest money problems. Readers write to me with all kinds of dilemmas. Post your questions, tell me what you want to know more about or note the last columns in Moneyist.