Child Support when father collects SSI

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

Hello,

My daughter is 15 years and has been in my custody since birth. Her father starting collecting SSI at the age of 19 yrs. I have went to attorneys in the past, but have been told he isn’t obligated to pay any support since he gets SSI. However, I was reading that some of these laws may have been changed over the years. A few years(~6 yrs) ago he took me to court, in attempt to get visitation rights for his mother (our child’s grandmother). After almost a year of not following through with the judges orders(psych eval, etc) the case was dropped. The judge saw first hand, he had no interest in seeing her, he was doing it on behalf of his mother. Throughout this, I had an attorney and he thought it was best not press the child support issue during this, because it could potentially ignite him and start another visitation case. He is now married and has 2 other children. He has always worked for his father’s construction business and his father pays him “under the table”. After 15 years of providing full support for my daughter, I was wondering if it’s even possible to get any support from him? If so, do you recommend I go to social services? Thanks for any help or advice.

2

You can contact the local child support office in your county and open a case with them. They will start by requesting a certain income information from both of you.

His SSDI income does count as income. According to the NC Child Support Guidelines: "Income means a parent’s actual gross income from any source, including but not limited to income from employment or self-employment (salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses, dividends, severance pay, etc.), ownership or operation of a business, partnership, or corporation, rental of property, retirement or pensions, interest, trusts, annuities, capital gains, social security benefits, workers compensation benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, disability pay and insurance benefits, gifts, prizes and alimony or maintenance received from persons other than the parties to the instant action. When income is received on an irregular, non-recurring, or one-time basis, the court may average or prorate the income over a specified period of time or require an obligor to pay as child support a percentage of his or her non-recurring income that is equivalent to the percentage of his or her recurring income paid for child support.