I left my husband of almost 7 years and took our 2 year old daughter, escaping from Detroit, Michigan to my parents' home in Kentucky.

 Kentucky/Michigan USA

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In July 2020, I left my husband of nearly 7 years and took our 2 year old daughter, fleeing from Detroit, MI to my parents home in KY. My now ex was abusive to me and also a heavy crack user and I obviously could not keep our child around that. After I left, he spiraled further, started squatting in abandoned houses and added opiates to his crack habit. We had no contact at all, which made the divorce tricky. I couldn't really send him a summons because he didn't have a real address, but the divorce was finalized in January of 2022. He has no custodial rights (but does retain parental rights) and was ordered a little over $800/month in child support. I honestly don't remember the exact number because I never retained any delusions that I would ever see a penny of it. I don't even know if he is aware of this because he didn't attend the zoom court meeting.

Anyway, back in January, he almost died for the 9 millionth time, this time due to a serious staph infection from dirty needles. He claims he has been clean since then and contacted me for the first time in over 2 years on 4/14 to get my cash app information, and sent me $125. He claims he is going to send that amount every week, which if he does, is still like $300/month short of what he is ordered to pay- plus dude is already 15 months and $12,000 in the hole on payments. My question is, does this even count as making child support payments? Could I lose my Medicaid/child care assistance/SNAP benefits due to this? I cannot rely on him to make consistent payments. Historically, we are reaching the max clean time I've ever seen out of him (12ish weeks) and I do not expect him to maintain sobriety. Do I even have to accept the money? Currently it is still sitting in my cash app. What would he have to do to request visitation rights? She's almost 5 now and knows nothing of him. He's never so much as sent her a birthday card.

1 comment

  1. Yes it would/could count as payment towards his child support. However what you claim is up to you. Nal
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