There's nothing worse than getting "bad news" mail on a Friday, and it certainly seems that government agencies strategically plan it so the recipients of the bad news get the "NOTICE of whatever" at a time where there is nothing a person can do; such as a Friday or Saturday. So fay the Waukesha County Child Support agency is no exception to this practice.
On Friday afternoon I received not one, but two articles of mail from them. The first one was a form letter alleging that I have failed to make payments on my child support arrears as ordered by the court. The thing that perplexes me the most about this allegation is that child support payments are automatically deducted from my job earnings.
The second one was an Interested Party Notice of Administrative Levy. Essentially, the Waukesha County Child Support agency sent my bank some form of legal authority under which they were able to place a hold on, or "freeze" an amount of the monies that are in my checking account to cover the amount that I allegedly have not paid. Needless to say we all know what can happen when something of this nature happens unexpectedly and we are unable to access all of our money to pay bills, buy groceries, etc.
Let me rewind...
Court Ordered Child Support Payments
This wasn't the first time that I received the notice alleging that I was neglecting to make payments on my court ordered child support obligations. The interesting part of this whole mess is that my employer loyally deducts these obligations from my earnings every week and remits them to the proper authority where it is then dispensed to the recipient of the child support. Essentially I have NO control over whether or not I am going to pay child support. It comes out automatically, and quite frankly it makes it easier on everyone that it is accomplished this way. So when I receive such a notice, and I am in fact working and see that the deductions are made from my earnings when I review my check-stub, I get very concerned! How can something so simple get screwed up? I have some ideas, but discussing or guessing what is happening is not important in the context of this discussion. The problem lies some where between the Waukesha County Child Support agency -- namely the case worker assigned to my case -- and the entity responsible for receiving and dispensing the payments to the proper parties.
Child Support Case Worker Incompetency
I am going to direct the title of this paragraph towards all to whom it applies. Not all child support case workers are incompetent. Some, if not most of them work diligently and with great respect for the power that is at their finger tips -- a power that can quickly turn someone's financial accounts in complete disarray, or result in the loss of one's liberty. In my opinion this power should be greatly protected and delegated to only those who prove that they can handle it with great care. In my case there is a clear-cut case of incompetency on the part of my child support case worker. This is not just an opinion, but based upon fact.
When I called the number contained in the notice of alleged failure to pay my court ordered child support, I spoke with an individual who realized within minutes that I did, and have been making regular payments towards my court ordered child support obligation. Obviously my child support case worker did not take the time to check these readily available records? Even I was able to access them online via: Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. But rather than check to see if regular payments are being made, this case worker thought it was best to mail me an intimidating letter alleging that I am not making payments, and even take it to the next level and place a levy against my bank account! All this despite the fact that payments are being made. So as it currently stands, my bank has a hold on half of the balance of my account from the Waukesha County Child Support levy, and it looks as though it may be there for some time? Needless to say these actions require my prompt attention, and I will take whatever legal action is necessary to bring this mistake to the attention of someone who can vacate the erroneous levy against my bank account.
