Child support is often an integral financial support in the life of a child. When payments are late or even nonexistent, it can sometimes be detrimental to the child’s best interest. Sometimes music lessons or new shoes might have to wait until the payments are received — if not something more vital like food or heat payments being made on time by the custodial parent. One Texas father claims that despite falling behind on his child support payments due to a clerical mistake, he was all paid-up when he was sentenced to jail time.
It was a clerical error that originally landed the man in hot water. Apparently, a mistake occurred with his automatic withdrawals from his paycheck, which in turn resulted in shorted child support payments. When he received a notice that he owed several thousand dollars in overdue support payments, he promptly paid it back.
Despite paying the back child support that he owed for his 11-year-old son, however, a case against him moved forward. Due to a recent Texas state law enacted in June 2014, the father was still sentenced to six months in jail for having initially fallen behind on his payments. He did not have the ability to appeal the decision.
Falling behind on child support payments is a serious problem and should be treated as such. Often that financial support is crucial to the well-being of a child. If payments are made late or, even worse, not at all, the ramifications can be serious. Texas state law dictates that even if a person is caught up on their payments, they can still be sentenced to a maximum of six months jail time. It can be imperative to keep a watchful eye on child support payments, even automated ones, to ensure that all payments are meeting the child support payment order and avoid potential jail time as the father in this case received.
