[Hodar]

...but for god’s sake, quit whining and pay for your kids.

Just a thought. When I travel, I have to keep receipts for my meals, airfare and any other expenses I incurr. When I file my taxes, I have to provide receipts for any deductions I want to claim.

Yet, if I'm a divorced woman with 'x' kids - I can demand child support - and do NOT have to provide any receipts on how the child support was spent. Nada, nothing .... If my ex- either re-marries, or gets a better job; I can file for a child-support ammendment (always more, never less) to include the income of his new spouse - or due to a promotion that the ex- had absolutely no contribution for.

I'm sure you can find plenty of examples where it's alleged that child support is being spent on things, other than child related.

[Tulane]

...but for god’s sake, quit whining and pay for your kids.
Just a thought. When I travel, I have to keep receipts for my meals, airfare and any other expenses I incurr. When I file my taxes, I have to provide receipts for any deductions I want to claim.

Yet, if I’m a divorced woman with ‘x’ kids - I can demand child support - and do NOT have to provide any receipts on how the child support was spent. Nada, nothing .... If my ex- either re-marries, or gets a better job; I can file for a child-support ammendment (always more, never less) to include the income of his new spouse - or due to a promotion that the ex- had absolutely no contribution for.

I’m sure you can find plenty of examples where it’s alleged that child support is being spent on things, other than child related.
____________________

No doubt, there should be an accounting. And as many freepers have noted, the system IS stacked against the father, and reform is needed.

[wbill]

do NOT have to provide any receipts on how the child support was spent

I have one friend who was divorced, and had a kid.

Your point is what annoyed him the most. He was certain that the money he paid was going to cigarettes and beer. Meanwhile, when his daughter came to stay with him, she'd eat him out of house and home, he'd handle all of the clothes shopping, back to school shopping, and so on and so on. Fortunately, he (and his new wife) could afford it.

He didn't begrudge a penny of help to his daughter. Buying his ex-'s current boyfriend booze and Marlboros, though, really really bothered him.

Fortunately, the kid turned out OK. She wound up living with my buddy pretty much full time, and is headed out to college this year. Realizing that your mother is a complete trainwreck must be a pretty tough thing to come to grips with, though.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

In a divorce action , “Child Support” is nothing more than a ‘re-distribution of wealth’.

It is assessed as a percentage of gross income , before taxes, based upon the number of children.

No receipts , no accounting , no innocence , no lost jobs ,no excuses
It is financial suicide

[PieterCasparzen]

I'm sure you can find plenty of examples where it's alleged that child support is being spent on things, other than child related.

How about... a woman who constantly presents hospital emergency bills to her not-to-smart low-income ex-husband who has since remarried and has a new happy wife and child. He is afraid that he will be "in trouble" so he always keeps scraping together money to pay these bills and the support. The ex-wife keeps playing with visitation - saying that he can't see the kids because he hasn't paid the bills. In reality, the law in that State says that visitation and child support are SEPARATE issues; he can't be denied visitation. Also, the ex-wife MUST use his insurance and abide by it's rules - which specify that the children must go to a (easily available) primary care physician for colds and so forth, that emergency room visits must be paid by HER if she is not following the rules, since the husband acquired health insurance for the children and provided id cards to her. It took some other people to help this guy retain a good lawyer to straighten things out - she stopped calling him constantly at home and at work messing with him. How about this - working as an office-cleaner for an attorney - and taking the kids with her to help - so she could get cheap lawyering with frequent motions made in court which harassed the man for mo' money - including her writing what looked like legally threatening letters to him on the lawyer's letterhead. Renting out rooms to itinerant workers that she employed in a business. Rooms in her home where the children were living. Making her children work in her businesses. All while hammering on her ex-husband for mo' money. A crazy woman run amok in the legal system. And the poor ex-husband would show up in court, studdering, being demeaned by the judge and assumed to be a "deadbeat".

Judges are supposed to stop this abuse of the system. When they don't that cat is away and the mice will play.