Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act

North Carolina Child Support

The USFSPA law is unfair!

The former spouse receives the money even if she remarries! She will receive it until one of the parties dies.

There is nothing to prohibit former spouses from marrying and divorcing two or three times and receiving multiple payments and they will receive the money until they die or when the military retiree dies, whichever happens first.

This law effects people who were in the military and married even before the law was put into place.

Now with the women in the 70's and 80's that entered the military and got married and then divorced, the law that was supposed to protect women is now hurting the military women that are retiring.

Here is my horror story. As of 2-24-05

I served in the US military for a little over 17 years before taking one of the early retirement options in 1994. I was married for about 15 of those years to Pauline M. Dolen. We moved to North Carolina and the last thing I thought was that we would be getting divorced. But in 1996, we separated and shortly after we separated I found out that she had been having an affair that had started a few months before. The state of North Carolina doesn’t really care why a couple is getting divorced, they just require the couple to live apart for at least 12 months. She didn’t ask for any money then. Both of our children remained living with me. I didn’t ask for any money until the start of the next school year. At that point the expense of both children was starting to take a toll on my finances. I asked her then if she was going to help out with the children any and she didn’t really give me an answer. But a week or so later I got a letter from her lawyer advising me that she is entitled to a portion of my military retirement pay and for me to consider what she would be getting to be her contribution to child support. I divorced her in 1997. In North Carolina if one partner commits adultery it voids any opportunity for them to ask for alimony so I was safe there. Except for a couple of brief stays with their mother, both children still stayed with me most of the time. Toward the end of 1999, Pauline advised me that she had filed under the USFSPA to receive half of my retirement pay. She started receiving that in January of 2000. At around this same time my youngest son announced that he wanted to live with his mother. He was old enough at the time that if I had tried to fight this in court I probably would have lost because the court would have gone with his wishes. Child support didn’t come up at that time because my oldest son was still under 18 and living with me. But as soon as he turned 18 she went to the local child support enforcement office and applied for child support. I went when called and signed a consent order to start paying her child support. So I got the double whammy – lost half of my retirement pay and wound up paying child support to an adulterer. My youngest son did move back in with me in 2003 and my child support obligation to her ended. I decided at that time to proceed with requesting child support from her through the local child support enforcement office. The process took several months but in November she signed a consent order and started paying me child support. She has missed a couple of payments along the way and the last time I received a regular payment from her was August of 2004. Then she quit making payments. She was supposed to be having employment problems yet she was receiving half my retirement pay which would have covered her child support obligation. So now she is receiving $451.61 a month from my retirement pay and is under a court order to pay $380 a month for child support. She presently owes me a past due amount of $2,416.28. I had a meeting today with my child support enforcement case worker to see if there was any way they could garnish what she is receiving from my retirement pay. She didn’t seem to think they could do it but is supposed to be checking on it. This evening I’ve also contacted the Defense Finance and Accounting Service via the internet to ask for help. I’ll be posting more on what happens with these things.

2-25-05
Well the DFAS gave me a quick response, but not what I wanted to hear.

Sir:

The payments that your former spouse is receiving under the Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act, 10 USC Section 1408, cannot be garnished for the support obligation. According to 10 U.S.C. 1408 (c) (2), this section does not create any right, title, or interest which can be sold, assigned, transferred, or otherwise disposed of by a spouse or former spouse.

In order for us to reduce her award of your disposable retired pay, we will require a modified court order.

Thank you,

Doris Milkovich
Paralegal Specialist
DFAS-DGG/Cleveland
Garnishment Operations

So she can freely take money from me but I have no recourse from that action to get money that she owes to me. Well....let's see if the North Carolina Child Support Enforcement people can help me with a modified court order. Or will I have to go with a lawyer...which I can't afford....

3-18-05

Well, almost another month has gone by. She did not pay anything for Feburary. She now owes me $2,799.28. I haven't heard anything back from the NC Child Support people. I'll bet if I was a woman they would be all over it! Another two weeks or so and she will be over $3,000 past due. Is that some crap or what?? I did talk with her a week ago. She was angry that I had put her name on the Internet and wanted to dispute the amount I said she received. OK... she will have to get over her name being here..and the amount I stated is what is deducted from my retirement check...what she receives is minus taxes. I want to thank all that have visited this web site and the Chanute web site. If you agree that the USFSPA law is wrong I encourage you to write to your elected officials, including the President.

4-5-05

Well another month has passed with no child support. The military pay went out on the first and she's still got it and not giving up any for her child support obligation. Now she owes $3,182.28.

4-9-05

I'd like to thank everyone living in Hell for turning their air conditioners up. Because my first thought today when I opened up my mail box was that Hell must have frozen over. Yep, there was a check! Only for $100 though but I'll take what I can get. Only $283 to go and she will be paid up for this month. Hopefully, that will happen. But she still owes the $3,182.28. Hopefully, she will work on that soon.

5-19-05

Well, a couple of updates. I did receive another payment in April for $125 but that has been it. She still owes the full $383 for May and now has a past due amount of $3,340.28. Going to court...Oh Joy!! We were supposed to have had a hearing on 2-24 but she was never served with papers so that was supposed to be rescheduled. I knew about the hearing way back in November because I got a letter from the Child Support Enforcement people. But between November and Feburary they somewhat dropped the ball and never followed up to see if she had been served with the papers. Then on 5-10 I was making one of my daily checks of my account on the Child Support web site and there is a note that says a hearing has been scheduled but it is in TWO DAYS!! I don't know when this was originally scheduled but I'll assume that it wasn't scheduled on the 10th for a hearing on the 12th. So apparently the support people dropped the ball again. Now we are scheduled for a hearing on 7-28. These hearings are for failure to comply with a court order. It is still amazing to me that with the possibility of loosing her nursing license, drivers license, ability to register a vehicle and possibly an additional fine and/or jail time that she hasn't been able to cough up more money. I'll be real curious as to the excuse she is going to give the judge. Yet she is still receiving the $451.61 a month from my retirement pay.....

5-24-05

OK...maybe she is getting on track. Today I received her full payment of $383 for the month of May. Let's see if she keeps it up...

7-28-05

OK, it’s been a little bit since I did an update. I’d been getting some payments so I wasn’t saying too much. I received a payment of $454.47 on 6-1-05. This was a result of the Child Support Enforcement Office collecting her Federal Tax Refund. I received a payment of $354.00 on 6-6-05. I’m guessing this is taken from what she is receiving from my military retirement pay. Not sure how she came up with $354? I received a payment of $354.00 again on 7-9-05. Sounds like things are going good, right? Wrong! We had our court hearing today for her failure to comply with a court order. We sit down and I’m expecting to hear how she is going to pay the past due amount and right off the bat she announces she has lost her job. I won’t go into exactly why she lost her job. If you are curious enough go to:

WHY SHE LOST HER JOB

Not only has she lost her job but she tells the judge she has no money and the only immediate income she is going to receive will by her payment from my retirement pay. So the Child Support Enforcement people ask if it is OK if she pays $200 out of that instead of the full amount. Since I’m not a total jerk, I agreed. But this is still real wrong! So the judge gave her some instructions and she has to report in to the Child Support Office next week with the $200 and we get to go back to court again on October 27th. Now the past due amount is $2,902.16 and add $29.00 to that after the end of the month since I doubt she is going to get current on this month's pay.

9-1-05

Well here we are at a new month. The $200 was all she paid last month (money she gets from my retirement pay). Now the past due total is $3,114.16.

12-23-05

Well the end of another year is almost here. She still owes $138.17 for this month. Since her payments are $88.39 a week, unless she has a little something extra to kick in, she is not going to make her monthly commitment again. As of today the past due amount is $3456.18. Yes, since we have been to court the past due amount has gone up! We go back to court again on 1-26-06. Ho Ho Ho...

2-2-06

OK, we went to court on 1-26. She is still not in jail and I still don't have any money. She was ordered to pay an additional $12.00 a month to cover her arrears. (Why does that sound funny??) Anyway, she didn't make all of her monthly payments in December and made none in January. So she now owes a past due amount of $3,977.35. We go back to court on 5-25. She is going to try and have her monthly obligation reduced.

3-6-06

It has been a little over a year since I started this. Let's see where I'm at. When I started this she had a past due amount of $2,416.28. We've been to court several times. I sure would have thought things would be getting better but it just keeps going downhill. As of today she has a past due amount of $4,178.05.

5-1-06

Well, I did receive a couple of payments in March but not quite the monthly amount. I received one payement in April of a little over $360. My guess is that was her tax return but I'm not sure. Anyway, a new month and the total owed now is $4,306.00.

7-7-06

Time for an update. We went to court again on 5-25. She wanted me to excuse some of the balance she owed and come to some agreement (between me and her) on lower monthly payements. I told her she was on drugs. No to the excused balance and that we'd let the court and child support enforcement people come up with the reduced figure. We none of the balance has been excused. Her monthly payments have been lowered to $271 a month and $12 a month for arrears. Almost two months now since then and haven't received anything. Yet she has received over $800 of my retirement pay during this period. As of today her past due balance is $4,400.

9-20-06

Time for an update. We go back to court next week on the 28th. Should be interesting. Her last payment was 7-17-06 for $283.00 which brings her past due amount now to $4,659.00.

The USFSPA law is unfair!

The former spouse receives the money even if she remarries! She will receive it until one of the parties dies.

There is nothing to prohibit former spouses from marrying and divorcing two or three times and receiving multiple payments and they will receive the money until they die or when the military retiree dies, whichever happens first.

This law effects people who were in the military and married even before the law was put into place.

Now with the women in the 70's and 80's that entered the military and got married and then divorced, the law that was supposed to protect women is now hurting the military women that are retiring.