Complaint Review: IDHS- Illinois Department Of Human Services

I'll keep this post as short as possible, just to get to the point. I the near future, I will also post more significant details which have caused me great & undo pain and difficulties.

Basic deal is this: I gave birth to a baby girl in May 1988. The father is Thomas Jay Wilson, a looser & nothing but, except I was young & dumb, and didn't fully find this out until I found out I was pregnant. Thomas wanted an abortion, NOT! My parents wanted me to give the baby up for adoption, maybe? (I was only 18 years old) I was adopted at birth. My parents thought this would be best, plus they said if I kept the baby, I couldn't stay there with them. I didn't have much going for me, and hadn't been working due to the pregnancy. Tom was history once he told me either I have an abortion, or he "leaves me". So I didn't get the abortion, and I left him.

In July 1988 I had to go to The IDHS. I had an appointment to meet with a lady to establish paternity, go after the responsible parent for child support, etc... So I went down for the appointment, which was with Mrs. Tepper, in the Kane County Office in Elgin, IL. I gave her all the information on the responsible parent, his place of employment, etc... She said it usually takes about 6 mos.-1 yr. for the paperwork to go through, in order to begin the process.

So, I waited 6 months and called, nothing yet, again at around a year, in July 1989 I called back, and they then told me they had no info on file, couldn't find my paperwork, case, etc... and I had to come back in to refile the paperwork. (It got "lost in the system") so I believe around August 1989, I went back in and refiled. Basically, this is my whole experience with them from July 1988-January 1997. Same thing, all the time. Fill out paperwork, paperwork lost somewhere in there system. No one knows how many hundereds of numbers and people all within this and the child support system of Illinois I had contacted trying to help me these whole 8-1/2 years. Kept getting knocked around, dropped, etc...

I finally got really sick and tired, and after hundereds of calls, transfers, sitting on hold, disconnections, endless busy signals, I finally reached Christine Stewart in the Administrative Consent Unit, in Cook County, Chicago, IL. Christine was a GODSEND! (I thought, anyways~til I found out mine was an Administrative Order and not a Judicial one. As it sits, I cannot open my order in a court of law. There can be no changes made to it, for anything.) I told Christine my story, she had me go to my local office, fill out all the paperwork one last time, and she "hand-walked" it through the system. Lo and behold, March 1997, I had an appointment for me & my daughter for paternity testing downtown.
(Of course Thomas always told everyone it wasn't his, tried to say it was for sure someone else's-(someone I hadn't even slept with at that time) but sure enough, the tests came back, and it was 99.98% match. So I had finally gotten somewhere! Even better, in I believe June, 1997, I received the Order for Child Support. Everything was great, right? HELL NO!

Since my order was established, I kept talking to people from the state who told me I could not get back child support, it could only go from the date on the order. I kept trying to dispute this, since it was their neglect and negligence in losing my paperwork all those years, that my order wasn't established back in 1988-1989. As far as I'm concerned, I was originally told it would take 6-12 months for me to get the order-which is when I feel I should get back support since. Nuh-Uh- can't happen, I was told.

I am a struggling single parent, and could not afford to hire an attorney on the case.

Thomas worked for a company called Vector Engineering, in West Chicago, IL. It was run by a family, the Finlaysons. Robert & Randy Finlayson. Thomas had started here in August 1987, when I had just became pregnant. I believe he was making around $8 an hour then, when he first started. He worked there until just recently- around November 2003-(which he was making 43 cents an hour less than he did when he started there 15 years prior?) There was a period in the middle of all these years that he temporarily didn't work for them, and was off getting paid cash by various friends who have decking & roofing companies. (These people are/were mutual friends, so I knew when Tom got paid under the table-but that's a whole other personal issue I am dealing with, as well)

I originally got a year or so of support from this company deducting from Tom's paycheck. Then, the 2cnd or 3rd year of support- around 1998-1999, the company hadn't sent me any support for 10 whole months straight. When I finally was able to get the state to contact the company and talk to Tom, it turns out that Vector Engineering had taken the support out of Tom's earnings every month for 10 months, but hadn't submitted it. The state finally got a hold of Randy Finlayson, the a*****e at Vector Engineering who handles the phone, office & my support, and his excuse for not submitting my support was that the company couldn't due to "computer failure due to lightening strike". Funny, he couldn't cut a support check to the state, but how did they cut checks for materials, employee's wages, etc...???

Now, to add fuel to the fire, the guy from the state office in Springfield, who talked to Randy Finlayson, said that Randy Finlayson has HIS OWN child support case he is responsible for with the state. The guy in Springfield thought that Randy may have been deducting my child support from Tom's check, and submitting it for his own case! I was exasperated!

Anyways, since this incident in 1998-99, and up until the first week of December 2003, I have not received more than 2-3 consecutive child support payments from this company, or something to that effect. One excuse or another. They deduct from Tom's check, but never submit, at all and/or on time. (Or they blame the state for losing it, again, heresay)

Which brings me to current. I heard rumors through mutual contacts of Tom's, all the summer of 2003, that the company was going to shut down and go out of business. As of the first week of December, 2003, they already owed me around $2000-$3000 or so-(don't have the exact figure)in support they never submitted, but that was again taken out of Tom's checks MONTHS before.

Here is what entailed when I called Vector Engineering to discuss this issue: In a conversation with Randy Finlayson, he stated that he didn't think he owed me the almost $3000.00 the state had just told me were in arrears. He stated he thought he only owed me around $1200.00, and that the state must have lost it, or something to that effect. At any rate, I said to him, "So you've taken my support money out of Tom's checks, and haven't turned it in?" "Yes" was his reply. I called him a thief, and demanded that he pay me this amount he "stole" from my daughter. He actually had the balls to sit and gripe to me about the shitty car he drives, the shitty shoes he wears, how broke he is, the business is going under, and so much unbelieveable s**t he griped about to me, looking for sympathy or something. This man is a piece of art. You should hear all the notes on this file with the state, and anyone with the state who's had to deal with him. He is a beligerant a*****e, and treats people like s**t, talks to them like s**t, UGH!

At any rate, he basically told me that they had just put the industrial commercial building for the business on the market, it looked like they may have a buyer, and the business should sell by the end of December, the first of the year, 2004. He said once the business was sold and he had his cut, he'd be sending me out the money he owes me.

I couldn't believe my ears with all this. UNREAL. How can someone from a company steal my daughter's support money, with no conscious, anything? THAT'S JUST NOT RIGHT!

So here I am, June 2004, not a dime from what that a*****e Randy Finlayson owes me. They just so happened to be selling one of their race cars- a corvette, online, at this same time, too.

I want so bad to get my first 8-9 years of back support owed to my daughter, especially since I'm struggling and she'll be going into college in the next couple years.

Now the state says I was given an Administrative Order of support, not a Judicial order, as it should have been. I need to go to the state, change it to a Judicial order, then they can go after him. Only problem is, he is now sitting on unemployment, and working for cash under the table with a roofer-(so I hear) so if I do take it back into court, I will end up probably with less than the measly $178 a month I get now. His unemployment 6 month mark is this month, so I don't know if he'll continue to receive that or not. I finally got support for the last 6 months because it was IDES-Unemployment deducting from his checks, not some a*****e at some company jerking me around. But what is going to happen now? If he continues to get Unemployment, great, but I still shouldn't change my case when he's on it, or it will probably screw me in some way. And what if he doesn't continue on unemployment, or get a job, (a real one that doesn't pay cash under the table) then I'm still screwed, cuz it will show no earnings if he makes cash. And I recently was told he was (while on unemployment) getting paid cash under the table from a roofer.

My time is running out, SUPER FAST! If anyone can PLEASE help me, or suggest what to do. I might try to get legal aid to help, since I cannot afford a lawyer who wants contingency. You would think the state would want to be a little more helpful, especially since this due to their negligence and screw ups, I can't get the first 8-9 years of support.

I really want to stick the $20,000 or so to Tom, and that should help with my daughter's college education. The only thing my daughter has gotten from him her whole life, is like 2 packages of diapers, s**t for money-(around $7000 in support, if that, and she's 16 years old this past May) and maybe a total of around $60-$80 in Christmas money for the last couple few years.

CAN YOU SAY DEADBEAT? DEADBEAT= TOM WILSON; DEADBEAT=RANDY FINLAYSON; DEADBEAT=ROBERT FINLAYSON; DEADBEAT= VECTOR ENGINEERING; DEADBEAT=IDPA, IDHS

Don't you love how our government works? They allow companies to steal your child's support money from you, they allow these deadbeats to remain deadbeat. At least in my experience they have.

If anyone can possibly help or make suggestion, I'd sure appreciate it. I am literally on my last short straw with this whole sordid situation. I'm tired of playing these games. Time for JUSTICE to be served.

Thank you for anyone's time, understanding & help!

Laurie

Laurie
Winnebago, Illinois
U.S.A.

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