By Captain Gene Thomas Gomulka
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Dear Gene-Thomas,
Five years after leaving active duty, I was recalled as a reservist and am now having a hard time while deployed getting my child support payments reduced that are based upon what I was earning as a civilian. Frustrated by the lack of support I am experiencing in resolving this matter, I feel betrayed by the military and our courts.
David
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Dear David,
After serving on active duty for 24 years as a chaplain, I thought I dealt with every problem in the book. Well, today I realize that there are problems surfacing that were either nonexistent, or much smaller in scope in the past. If the military hopes to continue to recruit men and women into the reserves, it will need to address and solve problems such as yours, particularly now that large numbers of reservists have been recalled to active duty to serve for extended periods of time in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (ACF), “Being called to active duty can mean a reduction of total monthly income. Those reservists who are currently paying child support payments based on higher monthly income may find that child support arrears will begin to accumulate when monthly child support payments are not met…Reservists experiencing a reduction in monthly income may wish to contact their child support office to request a review and modification of their child support orders.”
Unfortunately, accomplishing this task, as you indicate, is not always easy. In an article entitled, “ Divorce and Child Support are Eviscerating Military Recruitment ,” David Usher reports how less than 5 percent of activated reservists are able to obtain the support modifications suggested by the ACF. He cites the example of Gordon Dollar, a reservist for sixteen years, whose military record was tainted when 60 percent of his military pay was incorrectly garnished by the Arizona Child Support Department. According to Usher, after appealing the injustice to the Arizona Attorney General's Office, Dollar was informed that “it would take a year at the earliest to adjust support if they agreed it would be adjusted.”
What happens in the course of a year when a recalled reservist's pay is insufficient to cover the child support payment that was based upon his much higher civilian salary? Most people, unfamiliar with the child support system, would think that a reservist could straighten the matter out once he returns from active duty. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In an article entitled “ Laws Must Protect the Rights of Military Dads ,” Jeffrey Leving and Glenn Sacks point out that “ the federal Bradley Amendment prohibits judges from retroactively modifying child support beyond the date which an obligor has applied for a modification.” In cases where reservists are called up at the last minute and don't have time to file for a downward modification, the arrearages stay along with the interest and penalties charged on them. According to Leving and Sacks, “A serviceman whose arrearage reaches $5,000 can become a felon who can be incarcerated or subject to a barrage of harsh civil penalties, including seizure of driver's licenses, business licenses and passports.”
Although I am not in a position to get your child support office or the court to adjust your monthly child support payment, I can use this column to recommend that DOD use its fleet of lawyers to get states to follow the lead of Missouri that requires an automatic modification of support obligations for activated reservists. Unless other states institute this practice, recalled reservists with child support obligations like yourself could face years of debt, legal battles and possible incarceration as long as the Bradley Amendment remains in place.
Reservists like yourself have a hard enough time fighting terrorists without having to expend energy and funds in battling the courts and your states. It's time DOD, military and governmental leaders work to ensure that your support payments are adjusted accordingly without bankrupting you or sending you to prison when you return after serving “in harms way.”
Gene-Thomas Gomulka
Columnist and author whose books are available at www.plaintec.net
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