Last week, I contacted the San Diego Department of Child Support Services. I am trying (once again) to increase the amount which Mark contributes to Kat's care. Her expenses are going up, and my Disability stipend is not cutting it. It never has. It is really only by frugality, along with gifts, monetary and otherwise, from many people in my life, that I am able to cobble together a functioning household in which Kat can grow into adulthood (at least young adulthood).
The Mira Mesa High School Band will be marching in the 2016 Tournament of Roses Parade. This is a big deal. They've begun their fundraising activities already, as there will be NO public school funds in any way, shape, or form allocated to the Band for participation. At present, pupils must already purchase those portions of their uniforms that are not school-owned and passed down from one generation of pupils to the next, and the funds for the buses to take them places (including the trip to Pasadena next Winter) must be raised through sales of stuff and various other fundraisers. I, for one, am pretty sick of fundraising catalogs from which the school receives a very small portion of the proceeds, and the fundraising company makes a boatload.
There is one fundraising project, however, that is reasonable because it does not carry a premium. It is the purchase of gift cards for various retail outlets, catalogues, and grocery stores through the school. The price one pays is the same as purchasing the gift card at the store, and the school gets a percentage of the proceeds. That makes some sense, and it shows good will on the part of the businesses who participate. I like that.
Well, anyway, back to my woes as a relatively destitute single parent. In order for the court-ordered support to be enforced, the state to which Mark recently moved (I think he enjoys being a moving target as much as I find it frustrating) has to decide to enforce a court order from his previous state of residence. Which, in short, means that I get zero financial support from him until his current state of residence decides it'll honor the support order from his previous state of residence, which was New Jersey. I asked the woman at the Department of Child Support Services here in San Diego if I might find out which state that is, and she said that they can't give that information out. So I don't even know where the f*cker lives now. It's not that I really care. What I care about is that he lives up to his responsibility of providing support, financial and otherwise, to Kat (at least until she reaches her majority in the eyes of the law).
The woman I talked to on the phone (her name is Linda) phoned to inform me that changing support orders is a long and arduous process, and can take months. First, the state of residence (his state), has to agree to enforce the current order at all. I believe most, if not all, states honor domestic court orders from other states. It would be just too easy for a state to become the haven for deadbeat dads. That state would have to be willing to be known for this feature by other states, and it will soon become a pariah in this nation that claims to care for its future.
In the meantime, arrears would be accumulating and, if the court in whichever state he's living in decides to enforce the standing support order, he'll owe several months' payments, which he will be ordered to pay, if not all at once, then over some fixed period of time, during which he's also supposed to make regular support payments. He'll beg off, of course, claiming that he, himself, is financially strapped.
In my opinion, his girlfriend, Zeynep, with whom he's been living, with their son, for several years now, can definitely afford to pay, since she's taking care of him financially, anyway. If she cannot or will not afford it, then she can go to bankruptcy court. I don't really care about their internal affairs. That'll be something she needs to decide, then. Does she keep the loser father of her child and pay his child support to another woman (me), or does she tell him to hit the road? I know what I'd do, but I'm a cold bitch, aren't I?
No comments:
Post a Comment