aztchr

My sister is the addict and has an almost 4 year old daughter.
My niece's dad lives in CA and sister and him were never married.
He pays child support and it goes directly to my sister on a debit card. It's automatically renewed each month. My sister is using the support for herself, not my niece who lives with my parents.

Does anyone know if there's a way to get this changed so my parents can be given the support money?

My sister will not hit bottom if she has her child's money every month.

aztchr

Unfortunately, my dad has stated that he doesn't want to file for any type of custody of his grandchild. This is another issue, but thought I should add that my parents do not have any legal orders.

Astro

My child support payments are paid directly to the Clearinghouse and my ex has a credit card as you described, you might contact them to see if there's any possibility of changing it. This is the only info I could find Arizona Child Support Guidelines I'm assuming CA uses a similar system?

aztchr

Thanks, Astro. I wasn't sure which state or if both would have to be contacted.
I'll do a little research.

sleepygoat

I suspect that if you informed her X of what's happening to his child support, he would be pretty pissed. He probably has to be the one to go to court on this one and have things changed, and he just might do so. so that's my 2 cents.

aztchr

Yep, that's what I'm thinking, too. Just not sure how he'd prove what's going on.

AUDRADAVID

family court will have all your answers (usually fam/civil court). It could get sticky though if your parents try to intervene because if they tell the court why they want custody i.e. drugs (which is the only way to get her child support taken) the father becomes next person to have psysical custody. then it goes to next generaion (grandparets) USUALLY but not always, but be careful bc the last thing u sound like u guys want is the daughter moved to CA with her dad, which is very likely in the event that the "apple cart is shaken" good luck. u could always call a free lawyer (for low income) they always give advice over the phone 1st. i'm sure if the debit card "mysteriously" gets lost right before the next payment goes in it will take at least 2-3 days for your sis to be issued a new one. 2-3 for an active drug user is forever, so that may help her reach her bottom faster. However maybe your neice would be better with dad than mom right now. consider talking to him too. your parents and him could go to court and state your sisters problem and with his go ahead your parents could obtain custody (temp or perm), he does have the option to allow (legally or not) his daughter to live with your parents IF he gets full custody. good luck