Five tips to help your child support case in Puerto Rico

Here are five tips that can help you out when you deal with ASUME or Child Support reviews in Puerto Rico:

1. Time is your best friend.

We often hear that “Time is an attorney’s best friend.”, but when it comes to child support matters, it’s also your best friend.  Acting quickly can make or break a case. It can be the difference between “adequate representation” and “damage control”.  If you get a letter from ASUME (the Puertorrican Child Support Administration), don’t wait a few months to look for help. It won’t go away, and it’ll only get worse.  Jump right on it, and make sure that if you can’t handle it on your own, ask for help.  Help out there, but you need to look for it.

2. Be very, very, VERY careful when you fill out that PIPE.

A PIPE is the standard financial information form for all child support cases.  It comes both in Spanish and English, and it’s as complicated and as cryptic as government forms get.  There are literally HUNDREDS of small spaces to outline your financial situation: income, expenses, dependents, people living in your household, etc.  Do NOT grab a pen and start hacking away at it. The instructions aren’t really that clear, and the form in English has none. Again, look for help. Ask before completing it, and DO NOT file it unless you have an attorney check it out before you do. Unless, of course, you’ve filled out many of them. Even so, have an attorney take a look at it. After all, it is under oath, so a voluntary mistake can become a crime in the long run.

3. Your expenses might become your income.

Child Support in Puerto Rico is calculated based on either your gross, after-tax income, or your EXPENSES.  Yes, you read right. Your expenses.  The logic behind this is that if you’re spending it, you must be making it somehow.  Many of us live well beyond our means.  We stretch our budget, we take out loans, we refinance our homes, and sometimes we just survive. Spending money is NOT necessarily proof that you’re making it.  It just means that your finances might be off, or that your economic situation is in bad shape.  But, if you fill out your PIPE wrong, and you put down every single expense you’ve ever paid, your child support is going to sky-rocket.  And then, you’ll just have another debt to rack up.

4. Keep good records of EVERYTHING.

You might consider this tip as “common sense”, but when dealing with Child Support, it goes well beyond that.  Before, during and after your child support review or modification, keep records of EVERYTHING.  Cancelled checks, money order stubs, bank account statements and receipts are your best friends when it comes to determining your child support.  Government records are notorious for being off.  Sometimes, you will need to correct these records.  If you keep better records than ASUME (and we know you do), it’ll be easy to prove that you’ve paid throughout the years.  If you send ASUME a letter, send it through Certified Mail with Return Receipt.  Keep a copy of the letter, keep a copy of the receipt, and keep a copy of the reply.  That way, you can prove that you HAVE been in touch.  If you call over the telephone, which I’ve always thought was a very bad idea when dealing with government agencies in Puerto Rico, keep a record of the date, the time you called, who you spoke with, and what you talked about.  I know it sounds a little extreme, but it’s better to have this and not need it, than to need it and not have it.  Think of it as a your child support safety net.

5. Make sure EVERYONE has your postal address.

All ASUME and court child support communications are sent to the “last known address of record”.  If you move, and never tell them that you did, they’ll just keep sending letters to your old address.  Some of these letters might be to let you know that they’ll increasing your child support payments, or they’ll be garnishing your wages, or your income tax return.  Every single time you move, make sure you tell ASUME. Make sure they GET the letter.  Keep a record of your letter (see step 4 above), and if a few months pass by, and you don’t receive anything from ASUME, worry.  And then, send them a letter with your address.

This isn’t a sure fire list to guarantee that everything works perfectly during your child support case in Puerto Rico.  It’s just a few tips based on my daily practice that you can consider an ounce of prevention, and maybe save you a few headaches along the way.