Lorna, I realize this was a year ago but sure hope you did not sign anything. You as the custodial parent should have received the backpay for the children and could have received all arrears from his lump sum back pay. Also the kids will get a monthly payment from now on from Soc Sec. sent to you. You need to go to your local Soc sec office and make sure he didn’t lie and say you deserted them and he doesn’t know your whereabouts and he has custody and you still can take 65% of his monthly amount for arrearages if he is not remarried and supporting another family- then you can take 50% monthly! Get a printout and divorce custody orders and go to local sec office and they will file the paperwork.

Can disability benefits be garnished to pay child support?

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I am often asked if Social Security Disability Benefits can be garnished to pay child support payments. The answer of this question depends on what type of Social Security Disability benefits you are receiving.

If you are receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the federal government does not allow these benefits to be garnished. SSI is given to lower-income individuals – those individuals such as the aged, blind, and disabled who meet certain low income and resource levels and do not qualify for Social Security Disability (SSDI). The federal government funds SSI through general tax revenues so that the qualifying individuals can pay for expenses such as clothing, housing, and food. Because the federal government treats SSI as a public welfare benefit and not as income for the purposes of child support payments, they do not allow Supplemental Security Income benefits to be garnished.

On the other hand, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) can be garnished to pay child support payments. SSDI benefits are funded from the money you as a worker paid into the Social Security system (through employment taxes) when you were still working. The amount of SSDI benefits you get is based on how much you earned/how much you contributed into the Social Security system (via taxes). When employees become disabled and are unable to work, these SSDI payments act as a replacement of income. According to the federal government, because SSDI is considered a substitute for lost wages, it can be garnished for child support payments.

A benefit of SSDI is that children of the disabled workers that receive SSDI payments may qualify to receive SSDI benefits until a certain age as well, and these payments can be subtracted from the child support owed.

So that this makes sense: I am on SSDI. My son who is autistic receives SSI. We BOTH live with my parents.

My EX-BOYFRIEND [his father] DOES NOT receive either. He has no job; but does have to come up with child support each month on top of paying for school on top of paying loans… yikes. Anyway. He does not live with us. In fact he lives in another state.

Why does the SSA take 2/3 of my EX’s payment to my son and deduct that amount from my son’s SSI payment? Why does the SSA take some $224 and some cents for “FOOD AND SHELTER” when technically he lives with me?? I may as well never have tried to get any ‘help’ as aside from Medicaid [okay that is a huge blessing], but aside from that; he gets barely anything from SSA each month!

If you can answer this for me, you know WAY MORE than the vast majority of SSA workers [pst, not that hard]… I DIDN’T SAY THAT!!!!