Agency slow in deadbeat dad case
Virginia Gibson says it is tough enough coping with a deadbeat dad who stopped making his child-support payments almost 18 months ago.
But when the Smiths Falls woman turned to the Ontario government’s Family Responsibility Office for help, she found the agency to be as elusive as her former boyfriend’s support payments for their 10-year-old daughter.
In fact, Gibson seems more frustrated with what she says is a lack of communication from the agency than his arrears, which are around $7,500, excluding interest.
Gibson, 31, says she made many calls to her caseworker that went unanswered. When her calls were returned, she says she was instructed to check back for the status of her case in a month or two.
Another time, she says she was told that there wasn’t any record of voice-mail messages she had left with her caseworker. A manager told her she probably had not provided the correct case number when she was prompted on the telephone, causing her call to be transferred to another caseworker’s voice mail.
Gibson says the agency, which falls under the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services, even suggested she help it by finding out where her former boyfriend worked, his salary and his social insurance number.
“Am I supposed to be a detective here?” asks a frustrated Gibson. “I’m confused.”
Ministry spokeswoman Charlotte Wilkinson could not address Gibson’s case, but says the agency uses the resources it has, including information from support recipients, “to get money into the hands to which it belongs.”
Wilkinson also says “enforcement tools are progressive and used according to the unique factors of each case.” She says in situations in which the parent providing support becomes unemployed or is on social assistance, “more aggressive forms of enforcement may not be immediately pursued.”
Aurora Gibson was born in 2002. Her parents chose not to marry and broke up in 2005. Gibson says her former boyfriend asked that she not seek a support settlement in court as he was more than willing to pay support for Aurora anyway. Gibson agreed, but it didn’t take long to realize her mistake. His monthly payments were often small — $50, $100, maybe $200.
By late 2008, the meagre payments suddenly stopped, prompting Aurora’s paternal grandmother to make the monthly contributions out of her own pocket.
Gibson decided it was time to act and secured a support order from a family court judge in September 2009. She says she did not pursue any support payments for herself.
The father, who worked for a kitchen-cabinet maker, was ordered to pay $366 a month. He was also ordered to pay an additional $1,000 over 20 months ($50 monthly) as a settlement for his previous shortfalls.
As it turned out, the father missed his very first payment. The court automatically issued a garnishee order on his wages, but only on the $366 portion, and not the additional $50. Gibson says she was never able to find out why, and the issue was never corrected.
Gibson says she continued receiving the $366 until January 2012, not long after Aurora was told by her father that he was quitting his job in favour of becoming a self-employed cabinet installer.
Gibson says she received one more payment — for only $183 — in February 2012, and has been left in the lurch ever since.
Luckily, she has a minimum-wage job and her mother cares for Aurora after school. Gibson married in 2012 and says her husband has “pretty much taken over the financial responsibilities (for Aurora) that her father hasn’t.” The couple is expecting their second child.
Gibson says it is difficult managing without the father’s support. She says there isn’t enough money for Aurora to play soccer or attend a special summer camp this year.
Gibson says she fully expected the Family Responsibility Office to be proactive when she started leaving her caseworker voice-mail messages (she has never been able to reach anyone directly) to report the problem.
She says her caseworker finally called in April 2012.
The ministry says the agency is achieving its goal of getting back to clients within two working days. But Gibson says she doesn’t think she ever received a return call “before a week went by.”
Gibson says the first piece of written correspondence from the agency arrived last November, nine months after the father’s last payment, and only after she wrote a letter pleading for information.
The agency replied that it was looking for any property he owned and his income sources. As he had been self-employed for months by this point, Gibson wonders why the agency simply didn’t pay him a visit as she had provided it with his address. But, as she later found out, “They haven’t gone to see him because it’s not something that they do.”
She started writing letters to the media, looking for help. She contacted the office of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington MPP Randy Hillier, and the office of the Ontario Ombudsman. Suddenly, the agency was more forthcoming with information.
A manager from the agency called in June, and though she explained “she had no idea why I wasn’t being informed,” she had some news. The father’s driver’s licence had been suspended for not paying the child support. He also faces a default hearing before a family court judge, though it is likely to be a long process and allow the father to avoid paying support until the case is resolved. And, depending on his income — the father says “it’s been kind of tough lately” finding work — his monthly payment could be reduced.
Asked if he was concerned about missing his payments, he replied, “Big time.”
“You’d find it tough, too,” says the 33-year-old man, who is married with two children, including a stepson. He says he almost had to sell his trailer home to make ends meet.