I am interested in the laws in Ohio concerning the collection of child support arrearages. My husband is paying support and providing medical insurance per his child support order and an amount specified by the court/CSEA for his arrears each and every month. So my question is what would give the Child Support Enforcement Agency the right to freeze OUR checking account for the arrears if he is already abiding by the support order and obliging every questionairre they send him. I could understand this IF he was not paying the ordered support and/or arrearage but he is! My understanding was that they could only do this if he was NOT paying according to the order. He was recently called into the Bureau of Support office for a review hearing. The reason he was called in for a review was because they had found OUR checking account had an $8000 balance in it. We were told that they were supposed to have frozen our account but this agency did not like to do that because of the hardships it can cause. I explained that this was money was from a home equity loan that I had obtained solely in my name (house is in my name only as well due to these types of issues). We were told that it did not matter this money could be taken for his arrearage. It is also my understanding that the CSEA cannot use my income to calculate his child support. So then how could they possibly take MY money from OUR account for his arrearage that he is currently paying on according to their arrangement with him??????????????? I truly feel that his/our rights have been violated. I do not believe they should have access to our account info IF he is currently abiding by their support order!!

I have re-posted your question to the Family Law Board for OH. Please check there for a response and best of luck.