Wayne County Friend of the Court 7 Years of Hardships Dealing With Wayne County FOC--Arrearages Accruing Detroit, Michigan

My daughter was placed under guardianship of my sister, who lived in Redford.


My sister went to Wayne County FOC to get child support.  The court originally set the monthly payments at $1,300 per month!!!  This is the only child I have to pay support for & I was only making $7.55 per hour!  My daughter's father was making over $30 per hour at GM & his payments were only $700 per month!!

Also, the caseworker didn't make my sister prove that the child was in daycare & didn't ask her to show receipts for the money she claimed to be paying for child care.

The caseworker said that I could dispute the payment in front of a judge or I could think about it & file a motion within 60 days of that date to get a free hearing to dispute the payment.

Because I am a Quaker I don't believe in suing, so when the caseworker asked me if I wanted to see the judge concerning this matter, I said 'no'.   I also didn't want to cause conflict between my sister & myself--she IS taking care of my daughter. So I told her I would think about it--being I had 60 days to do so.  She gave me paperwork that gave the address where I would send my grievence to if I should decide to file a motion.

I really thought my sister would calm down & voluntarily lower the support order.  Well, she didn't.  And after a few days I decided to file for the free motion--'the grievence' is what they called it.  The thing is that I live in Lenewee County, 2 hours away from WCFOC.  So I can't just 'pop in' at WCFOC to file or see if I can get a caseworker, etc.  Also, the price in gasoline would be more than I can handle--I was only making $7.50 an hour at a temp service.

So I filed for the motion via the snail mail address the caseworker gave me & waited.  I didn't hear anything concerning my hearing for a few months. I tried call WCFOC to see what was going on , but half of the phone numbers I had for them didn't work & the ones that did directed me to a call center where the people did absolutely NOTHING to help me.  They kept telling me that I would have to 'come down & see the caseworker' to answer my questions.

But they told me to see a caseworker I would have to file a motion!

Talk about chasing my tail!!

So I decided to contact the Powers That Be--i.e., whoever will listen--concerning this matter.

I contacted the Mayors of both Detroit & Hudson, Senators, State Reps., the President of the U.S., etc.  I hand wrote one letter & photocopied it & did a mass mailing.

I quickly heard from FOC with a court date--no filing fee--& I made arrangements for a car to take me to the courthouse as my car was too old & unreliable to make the 2 hour journey.

When I got into the courtroom, I heard the Judge say 'Is THIS the one who's been causing all the trouble?'  And I knew I was hit!

The judge blamed me for the whole situation--'why didn't you do this?  why didn't you try that?'--& sentenced me to the pokey until I could make the $500 bail.

My driver came up with the $500, & after much running around trying to find the right place to pay it, he bailed me out.  By the way, he had to take 2 days off of his own work to get me to court & bail me out.

For the next few months, I was receiving support adjusments from WCFOC in the mail.  I probably got 20+ of these things, each for a different amount, anywhere from the original $1,300 a month to $25 a month. 

I didn't know how much to pay MiSDU!!!

Now the payments are changing every month.  When I get my pay stubs from MiSDU, there is always a different payment amount.

Now my ma has guardianship of my daughter & has voluntarily lowered the support payments to $69 a month, but the WCFOC still charges me the much higher amounts.

And my ma isn't even receiving the payments I send in to WCFOC.  She finally got fed up & opened a case in Kansas so now I'm getting double billed, basically. 

WCFOC can't give us a straight answer as to where my payments are going to--I can't pay the amounts they are billing me for, so I am in a big arrearage--& Kansas Child Support Enforcement Agency has an accruing bill on me because they aren't receiving the money I'm sending to WCFOC!

My ma's caseworker in Kansas tried getting WCFOC to close the case there so I could pay directly to Kansas Payment Center, but WCFOC is not closing the case.

My ma & I are in arguements as to whether I'm paying my child support.  She isn't receiving it, so it's hard for her to believe I'm sending it in.

The caseworker in Kansas told me to send payments directly to Kansas Payment Center so at least my ma's getting the money.  Which I have started doing.  Problem is, WCFOC is still accruing arrearage on me.

I just contacted Sen. Caswell & he is going to see what he can do about getting the case closed, but I fear retaliation from WCFOC like what happened before, if the Senator can get someone to listen to him.