FLSDU Florida State Disbursement Unit They continued to accrue child support after my husbands death. Then intercepted MY tax refund for a debt that was not owed!! Tallahasse Florida
My husband passed away August 03, 2010. He was NOT behind in his child support payment. His payment for the month of August was actually deducted from his paycheck that was distributed on August 6, 2010. Therefore she received a child support payment AND a social security payment for the month of August.
In December 2010, I received a letter stating that my deceased husband owed back support. The amount added up to the months that he had been gone. I contacted the state immediately and they reassured me that the state of Texas had contacted them 2 days prior and they were closing the case. They assured me that everything was taken care of.
In January 2011, I received a letter informing me that my husband had overpaid in his child support. They sent instructions as to what I needed to do to get the money back. It was less than $100.00. I was still in a grief stricken state of mind, so I told them to keep it. The process just wasn't worth that small amount of money.
In April 2011, the day after my tax refund was deposited into my account, I receive a letter from the Department of the Treasury informing me that they had withheld $1500.00 from my refund for The Office of Child Support Enforcement.
After numerous phone calls with everyone blaming someone else, I am finally told that I need to file a motion to have the child support case reopened. I finally get a court date for June 2012. The attorney for the state acted like he didn't want to call the case because my husband or my husbands ex was not there. (I'm not kidding, he was so rude!!) He actually asked for my husband and I had to inform him to read what the case was about, my husband was deceased!
Once the case is called, I explain to the Judge what happened. The Judge looks at the states attorney and he (states attorney) tells him (Judge) the money has already been disbursed and there was nothing they could do about it. The Judge then tells me that the amount actually owed to me is over $1800.00 and I should just be glad that this is over!!
So, what I have learned from this experience is that apparently the Florida State Disbursement Unit can take/withhold money from whomever they want and apparently get away with it! I dealt with this matter for over a year. Money that was not owed to them was stolen from a newly widowed mother of 5 (MY name was on that tax return) with the help of the Department of Treasury and the Putnam County court sytem!