Not real sure as to why my sister in law should even file for child support now

[JohnDaleswife]

So, that's not considered "government aid"?

No not at all. But, I wasn't even thinking that I had come across as winning the lotto.

 

[SirDuff]

No not at all. But, I wasn't even thinking that I had come across as winning the lotto.

If it isn't government aid, what is it? I mean it is money from the government, right? Through the lottery (rather than taxes) but still from the government. Does everyone get it? Or is it based on merit or need or something else? Not something that we have here.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

Ok, I went onto the Georgia Compass website to check eligibility for programs and I will say that this site seems very useful.

I went in and put in the following info, which I think is very close in accuracy. And these are the numbers that it came up with in regards to what you could POSSIBLY receive in food stamps.

2 person household
215.00-weekly income
175-paid for rent each month
No child support
$141.00-341.00-possible allotment
(I am very confident that she does receive around $300 a month in stamps so these numbers make perfect sense)

2 person household
215.00-weekly income
175-paid for rent each month
$400 a month child support-just a guess as to what she might could be awarded. Could be more/less.
$21.00-221.00-possible allotment

So it looks as if her food stamps could be cut down quite a bit, along with her rent going up as well.

I also talked with a woman I work with last night and she told me that her daughter had a similar situation and there were times in which she received her child support and other times she wouldn't. But she said that even during the times when she didn't get it on a timely manner, she still had to pay the amount of rent owed at that time. And this was recent. Sounds like a disaster!

 

[JohnDaleswife]

If it isn't government aid, what is it? I mean it is money from the government, right? Through the lottery (rather than taxes) but still from the government. Does everyone get it? Or is it based on merit or need or something else? Not something that we have here.

Well she did have to keep and still does have to keep a certain grade average to retain it. It's not tax payer funded at all. It comes from the sale of lottery tickets.

 

[Disneyliscious]

If it isn't government aid, what is it?

Its a lottery. Paid for by people who choose to purchase lottery tickets. Its not a tax or government funds. We have the HOPE scholarships here in TN as well.

 

[Shmily1]

So, that's not considered "government aid"?

Nope, not government aid at all. It's for those that qualify based on grades and paid for with lottery money. Come on over to GA and buy some lottery tickets. It will help more people get educated!

 

[loves to dive]

I live in Georgia and was a single mom from the time my son was 10 months old. My ex did not pay child support, ordered to and even held in contempt of court but our divorce was in his county which is rural and I'm not from there, in the words of my attorney at the time (who is now a judge) "you got country, good old boy screwed and there is no way to win". Anyway, the courts will garnish the wages of the Dad if he has any, my brother gets his garnished and has never even met his son, doesn't even know where he lives, they divorced when his wife was pregnant. For the record, I never once took any kind of government assistance, it was a matter of pride. I was a secretary and my son was in day care before he started school. I just learned how to stretch a pound of hamburger and only paid min. on my credit cards. It is possible to work and support your child, I say go after Dad and see what happens.

As far as Hope, it is not a government program is it funded by the lottery. In order to qualify you have to have a certain grade point average and you must maintain that average. It is more like a scholorship program. They have reduced the benefits in the past few years, even though they have been trying to figure out ways to use the lottery money because they are too much in the black. It was established strictly for education but as with all things that are voted on for one purpose, they have found a loophole.

 

[supersnoop]

So it looks as if her food stamps could be cut down quite a bit, along with her rent going up as well.

So, if she gets $400 more in child support, she'll lose $150 in food stamps. And that's not worth it?

 

[barkley]

Ok, I went onto the Georgia Compass website to check eligibility for programs and I will say that this site seems very useful.

I went in and put in the following info, which I think is very close in accuracy. And these are the numbers that it came up with in regards to what you could POSSIBLY receive in food stamps.

2 person household
215.00-weekly income
175-paid for rent each month
No child support
$141.00-341.00-possible allotment
(I am very confident that she does receive around $300 a month in stamps so these numbers make perfect sense)

2 person household
215.00-weekly income
175-paid for rent each month
$400 a month child support-just a guess as to what she might could be awarded. Could be more/less.
$21.00-221.00-possible allotment

So it looks as if her food stamps could be cut down quite a bit, along with her rent going up as well.

I also talked with a woman I work with last night and she told me that her daughter had a similar situation and there were times in which she received her child support and other times she wouldn't. But she said that even during the times when she didn't get it on a timely manner, she still had to pay the amount of rent owed at that time. And this was recent. Sounds like a disaster!

like I said before-I didn't administer housing programs and they differ from one another so much it's impossible to compare one to another. where I worked there were MANY different programs-state, county, city, privatized...and all had different budgeting and eligibility formulas so what a co-worker's dd may have experienced could be entirely different that a person even living in the same complex but funded under a different program.

as far as your calculations above-

she's getting about $300 in food stamps now, which would reduce at MOST (per your calculations) to $21-so a net food stamp loss of $279. with the $400 you used for the child support though-that results in an overall monthly net gain of $121. THAT'S A 40% "raise" over what she got just from food stamps previously.

they won't count it unless it's actually received so she wouldn't get less than the amount of food stamps she's receiving now if he fails to pay, and in months it was received she would end up at minimum $121 ahead.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

So, if she gets $400 more in child support, she'll lose $150 in food stamps. And that's not worth it?

Oh, ya that would be worth it. But there's also going to be a nice size increase in her rent as well.

 

[Hikergirl]

So, if she gets $400 more in child support, she'll lose $150 in food stamps. And that's not worth it?

That is exactly what I was thinking. That child support is supposed to be given to support a child, that means feeding them. So, the parent may be losing the State's benefit but she's still getting money in order to put food on the table.
This poster also posted a thread recently wondering if her SIL could get a check from the gov't because her child has speech issues. It just seem like she is just looking for ideas on how to get the most money from the taxpayers IMO.

 

[havaneselover]

She needs help getting skills to get a job which will earn a living wage. This child will grow up fast--she needs to be prepared to be cut off from these handouts.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

like I said before-I didn't administer housing programs and they differ from one another so much it's impossible to compare one to another. where I worked there were MANY different programs-state, county, city, privatized...and all had different budgeting and eligibility formulas so what a co-worker's dd may have experienced could be entirely different that a person even living in the same complex but funded under a different program.

as far as your calculations above-

she's getting about $300 in food stamps now, which would reduce at MOST (per your calculations) to $21-so a net food stamp loss of $279. with the $400 you used for the child support though-that results in an overall monthly net gain of $121. THAT'S A 40% "raise" over what she got just from food stamps previously.

they won't count it unless it's actually received so she wouldn't get less than the amount of food stamps she's receiving now if he fails to pay, and in months it was received she would end up at minimum $121 ahead.

My co-worker told me this just last night. Every three months her daughter's numbers in regards to income, support, etc got calculated. Even if the father of the child missed one, two, six or no payments, her rent and food stamps were set for those three months. No increase in stamps or decrease in rent at all until verification time again. Made it extremely difficult at times. And this was in the past 6-8 months. Now she would get some type of credit or something but in the meantime before verification came around, the numbers were set in stone.

 

[barkley]

Oh, ya that would be worth it. But there's also going to be a nice size increase in her rent as well.

has she verified that or is it just what she 'thinks' via what she's heard word of mouth from other tenants/a friend of a friend....? some programs for housing subsidies use as much as a one year budgeting concept such that despite what a person is currently earning/receiving-whatever their income (all sources) was at the time of the yearly renewal stays in place for the entire following year. ideally they have a provision to reduce the client's rent share if their income reduces but i had MANY clients who were found income ineligible to several government aid programs when they managed to score good paying jobs but still retained their existing subsidized fixed rent payment schedules until they were next reevaluated for their yearly subsidized housing renewal (and then it often was raised in much smaller increments than they anticipated).

 

[themommy]

My sister in law is a single mom, works a job and does receive government assistance. She has a very nice low income apartment and I mean it is nice. She also gets a food stamp allotment each month and Georgia Medicaid for her child.

Even with the help of government assistance, she can barely make ends meet, even though she tries. So me and my husband were to the point that she is going to have to file for child support. Her daughters father is a dead beat, but he does work and keeps a job. The child is three.

But last night at work my co-workers informed me that any child support she would receive will count as income, therefore her rent payment would go up and her food stamp allotment would go down. So I am now torn as to why in the world she would even need to file for it. It doesn't seem as if it will help her that much financially now. And the same thing would happen too if she were to get a higher paying job or increase the amount of hours worked.

Am I wrong, or do I have a valid concern here? I am so very discouraged with all this. Thanks for reading.

Why should she file for child support? Um, because the father should be paying for his child and not the people in Georgia.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

has she verified that or is it just what she 'thinks' via what she's heard word of mouth from other tenants/a friend of a friend....? some programs for housing subsidies use as much as a one year budgeting concept such that despite what a person is currently earning/receiving-whatever their income (all sources) was at the time of the yearly renewal stays in place for the entire following year. ideally they have a provision to reduce the client's rent share if their income reduces but i had MANY clients who were found income ineligible to several government aid programs when they managed to score good paying jobs but still retained their existing subsidized fixed rent payment schedules until they were next reevaluated for their yearly subsidized housing renewal (and then it often was raised in much smaller increments than they anticipated).

Yes it's verified. My sister in law got a job at Amazon at one point and her rent went up to $450 for several months, (even though she didn't work there but a few weeks) until she went part time at Lowes.

 

[barkley]

My co-worker told me this just last night. Every three months her daughter's numbers in regards to income, support, etc got calculated. Even if the father of the child missed one, two, six or no payments, her rent and food stamps were set for those three months. No increase in stamps or decrease in rent at all until verification time again. Made it extremely difficult at times. And this was in the past 6-8 months. Now she would get some type of credit or something but in the meantime before verification came around, the numbers were set in stone.

sounds like the co-worker's dd is on a 3 month recertification schedule which is usually done when there are fluctuations in income. even if there's 3 months between food stamp recertification's that doesn't stop her from reporting a loss of income source in an individual month before the recertification and requesting she be evaluated for an underpayment.

can't speak to the housing.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

Why should she file for child support? Um, because the father should be paying for his child and not the people in Georgia.

Ugh, ya we all pretty much agree on this.

 

[TwoMisfits]

It seems like your sister-in-law (and possibly your family) sees the government/taxpayer as the 1st layer of the support system, when in fact, it should ALWAYS be the last one. Your sister-in-law and your niece's life could currently be improved through 1. her own advancement/skills (to include getting new work, budgeting better, etc), 2. the father of the child paying his fair share of child support, 3. the extended family and friends offering assistance when times get short, 4. charities stepping in to pick up the slack (Churches, children's funds, etc), and then 5. Uncle Sam and the taxpayer.

If, we as citizen adults, have abandoned this structure, we risk bringing down the entire support system in the future either through overextension or unpopularity - both issues we already have with most folks believing these programs are rampantly abused, and the programs themselves always saying they are underfunded.

If filing for support causes issues with your sister-in-law's ability to keep housing, she could a. try to work more, make more money, or make different financial choices (like dropping services to pay housing), b. see if the support she would get (which is likely more than $400/month) would cover it, c. see if her family could help her with her housing situation, d. see if a charity would step in to help pick up the slack (either with food, clothes, rent help, etc).

This is what adults do - they manage their responsibilities themselves.

 

[StuckInKS]

Well she did have to keep and still does have to keep a certain grade average to retain it. It's not tax payer funded at all. It comes from the sale of lottery tickets.

Its a lottery. Paid for by people who choose to purchase lottery tickets. Its not a tax or government funds. We have the HOPE scholarships here in TN as well.

Nope, not government aid at all. It's for those that qualify based on grades and paid for with lottery money. Come on over to GA and buy some lottery tickets. It will help more people get educated!

It is still free money to help put your child through college, which equal assistance, even if it is not technically from taxes. If it were't going towards your child's education, it could be used to offset other things that taxes are spent on. It would be great if all states had this, but they do not, therefore people in other states might have to take a Pell grant instead. I think its rather rude for PP to state they she puts her kid through college without government assistance (even though she is still receiving some type of assistance) like that some how makes her better than those who need to use a Pell grant since their state does not have a free program like this. In my eyes it is the same. Assistance from others is assistance from others, no matter where the money comes from.