Posted on July 4, 2009 by Jason Schneider
The Court, in Illinois, at the request of either party, will order that the payments either be taken directly out of the non-custodial parent’s paycheck and sent to the State Disbursement Unit; or order that the payments be made directly to the State Disbursement Unit by the non-custodial parent. Sometimes the Court does not order this at all and the non-custodial parent will make the payments directly to the other parent. This usually happens when the non-custodial parent is self-employed, but can happen in other instances as well. THIS IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA. The custodial spouse can then claim that he/she never received the support payments and it becomes a he said/she said match. When the custodial parent files in the court saying that the other parent hasn’t made payments, the custodial parent needs NO PROOF. The burden will shift to the non-custodial parent to show that payments have been made. It is much harder to prove that payments have been made when there is no paper trail. The rule of thumb should be to always pay through the State Disbursement Unit. The SDU keeps records of all payments and if someone says you didn’t pay, all you have to do is get the records and you are home free. It is easy to do and even if the court doesn’t order it directly, you can still contact the SDU yourself and set up the payments.
- Melissa Fish
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