Utah parents strive to provide their children with everything they need to grow healthy and happy. In some cases, one parent may pay child support to the other parent on behalf of a child. These payments help ensure that both parents share the financial burden of raising a child, and both contribute to providing for a child’s needs.
Sometimes, a parent will have child support payments automatically garnished from his or her employment earnings. The employer then sends the amount to the proper agency responsible for distributing child support to the other parent. While this method is meant to ensure that a child receives timely support payments for the proper amount, a mistake on the part of an employer can have devastating consequences for both parents and children.
Recently, a father who works as a bus driver received notice that his license would soon be suspended because he had fallen behind on child support payments. The man was confused because his pay stubs showed that his employer had been deducting the proper amount from each check. According to the state, however, he was thousands of dollars in arrears. An investigation into the matter determined that the employer had indeed garnished the child support payments but failed to send them along to the child support authority, making it appear that the man had not met his financial obligations to his child.
If a parent is having trouble making or collecting child support payments in Utah, he or she may want to seek legal advice from an experienced attorney. An attorney can help a parent use the court system to help ensure that a child is receiving these crucial payments. Child support orders are enforceable by law, and the court will investigate the matter and set things right.