EX-SPOUSES BAND TOGETHER TO OPT OUT OF MAINTENANCE ENFORCEMENT...................................A divorced Winnipeg couple ended up bonding in their battle against a program that was supposed to ensure their kids got child support. The two got so fed up with Manitobas child support maintenance office, they opted out of it. The irony of it is that my ex and I were going to court fighting against each other, but we kind of bonded in the end over our disdain for Maintenance Enforcement and just the strain it put on our lives, said Corey McCarthy. McCarthys ex-wife, who did not want her name published, agrees: We had to come together to figure it out, she said. McCarthy was up to date on his child support payments in 2007 when the provincial Maintenance Enforcement Program (MEP) told him he owed $3,000. Both he and his ex-wife knew otherwise. I would get letters from Maintenance Enforcement threatening to garnish my salary if the payments werent brought up to date, McCarthy said. At one point they suspended my drivers licence. His lawyer got MEP to acknowledge the error. Thats when the office recalculated McCarthys account, which triggered a new batch of correspondence. I was getting letters saying that I had an overpayment of $8,000, which clearly wasnt true. All Ive ever done is paid the exact amount Im supposed to, said McCarthy. But MEP didnt just send letters. It also stopped forwarding his cheques to his ex. At this point, the two were not on good terms. Initially she would accuse me of not paying maintenance on time, which I denied because it wasnt true, said McCarthy. McCarthy eventually decided to take matters into his own hands, copying and time-stamping the cheques he submitted to MEP and giving them to his ex. Thats when she started to come around and realize the problem was actually with Maintenance Enforcement. said McCarthy. His ex said she would try to contact the office but faced four-hour waits on hold. Its like they did not care when I got the money, which is for the kids, she said. Conscious choice made The head of Manitobas Maintenance Enforcement Program admits she made a conscious choice not to enhance the offices phone lines because the services are available online. If I were to dedicate staff to answering those queries or comforting those people [who] for whatever reason are not receiving their money, I think that would detract from performance in terms of gaining compliance from people who have to pay, said Shauna Curtin, the provinces assistant deputy minister of justice. Manitoba is not alone when it comes to cash-strapped enforcement programs. All maintenance enforcement schemes are inadequately funded. says Rollie Thompson, a professor at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Halifax. - INTERACTIVE | Family support arrears across Canada - On mobile? Check out our interactive map here A CBC News investigation this week found there are 40 people in Manitobas MEP office dealing with more than 13,000 open files. When McCarthy and his ex finally got a meeting with MEP to straighten out the account, they were offered the option to opt out of the program. They looked at each other and agreed it was better to go it on their own. The animosity is now gone. We are friends again, said McCarthys ex.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 08:54:32 +0000
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