Man Over pays Child Support, And visits his son too much, Sentenced to 180 Days in Jail

[Ms. Toad]

126. The problem with that is

generally there are orders which will eventually get straightened out between the CSPA and the employer; the additional money which was sent directly to the custodial parent will still be taken out of the paycheck,and the money "accidentally" sent directly as a mom can be treated as a gift, rather than a payment of the support obligations.

I'm no fan of non-custodial parents not living up to their obligations - or of funneling everyone into the CSPA system (even when they are friendly and would prefer to keep the 2% fee (or whatever it is by now) available their family by direct payments between the two). But since that is the system mandated, you go outside of it only if you want to risk everything sent outside of the system being treated as a gift.

It stinks - but since non-custodial parents are required to pay via agency, it isn't appropriate to expect them to take the risks associated with circumventing the system just because it gets screwed up. (They should be obligated to take all steps reasonably necessary to make the system work - like checking their pay stubs, their accounts with CSPA, making sure they know the amounts which should be deducted - and verifying that that amount is actually deducted, reporting incorrect deductions and taking steps to correct them)