Does child support get taken out of NYS Department of Labor unemployment benefits automatically?
I just started receiving unemployment benefits from NYS Department of Labor and I'm wondering if they automatically deduct child support from my weekly payments? I have a court order for $280 per week but I haven't seen anything deducted from my first two payments yet. Should I be worried that this will catch up to me later or do I need to contact someone? My ex keeps asking when the payments will start coming directly from my unemployment.
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Rhett Bowman
Yes, NYS Department of Labor does deduct court-ordered child support from unemployment benefits. It's called an Income Deduction Order (IDO). The delay you're seeing is normal - it usually takes 2-3 weeks after your first payment for the system to catch up and start the automatic deductions. You should contact the Support Collection Unit at 1-888-208-4485 to verify they have your current unemployment information on file.
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Danielle Campbell
•Thank you! So I don't need to do anything special to set this up? It will just start happening automatically once the systems sync up?
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Abigail Patel
This happened to me last year. The child support started getting deducted in my 4th week of unemployment. They took out the back amount I owed from those first few weeks all at once, which was a surprise. Make sure you budget for that catch-up payment.
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Danielle Campbell
•Oh wow, I hadn't thought about them taking the back amount all at once. That could be a big hit. Did they give you any notice before they did the lump sum deduction?
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Abigail Patel
•No notice at all, it just showed up as a much larger deduction one week. I think it was like $800 taken out that week instead of the usual $200.
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Daniel White
If you're having trouble getting through to the Support Collection Unit, I had success using a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get connected to NYS Department of Labor agents. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. It helped me get through when I needed to update my information for child support deductions without waiting on hold for hours.
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Nolan Carter
•Never heard of this before but the phone system for unemployment stuff is definitely a nightmare. Does this actually work for child support issues too or just regular unemployment claims?
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Daniel White
•It works for getting through to agents who can help with any unemployment-related issues, including coordinating with child support. The main thing is it saves you from the endless phone tree and busy signals.
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Natalia Stone
ugh the whole system is so slow!! i had child support taken out but it took like 6 weeks and then they messed up the amount for 2 weeks. just be prepared for delays and mistakes
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Danielle Campbell
•That's frustrating. How did you get them to fix the amount when they messed it up?
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Ava Garcia
•@Natalia Stone Had a similar experience - took forever to get sorted out! I ended up having to call both the unemployment office and the child support enforcement office to get them to communicate with each other. The key was getting a case number from both sides and referencing it in every call. Took about 3 weeks of back and forth but they finally got it straightened out.
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Tasia Synder
The automatic deduction is definitely the way to go. Before unemployment, I was always behind on payments and dealing with enforcement. Now it comes out before I even see it, which actually makes budgeting easier even though the unemployment amount is less than my regular salary was.
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