Legal Question in Family Law in Washington
child support
my husband has a 14yrs old daughter
and he has been paying child support
from day one to her mother. he is
paying her without court order.
recently we found out that he is not
on the child birth certificate and the
mother has been using her child to get
a public assistance including cash
without disclosing that he is her baby
father and he supports her. she is
claiming that she doesn't know who
her baby father is. now we are afraid
that the state might come after us,
even though we had no prior
knowledge of what she was doing. and
isn't she committing a welfare fraud ??
? thank you very much.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: child support
She is committing welfare fraud if she didn't disclose the support from your husband. If he is not the father, she has also been defrauding him as well. If your husband is NOT the father, he may have a lawsuit against her for fraud. But just because his name is not on the birth certificate doesn't mean of course that he is not the father.
What you do depends upon whether he wants (or has) a relationship with the daughter.
If you are certain your information is correct, you may want to turn her in to the Welfare Fraud unit in DSHS. However, that may cause her to retaliate, resulting in your husband to lose any contact with the child unless he goes to court to get a parenting plan. Another risk is that by going to court, if he is the father, his child support obligation may increase.
Re: child support
She may be committing fraud, but you (and your husband) are not until you have knowledge. I hope your husband was paying by check.
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