A snippet:

Parents pinched by the recession are flooding courts across the state with requests for reductions in child support payments.

In Wayne County, requests for payment adjustments have doubled. Courts there and across southeast Michigan are prioritizing such cases to expedite relief to strapped payers, officials said. These requests, called modification motions, illustrate the ripple effect of the state’s economic contraction that reaches across multiple households and reduces the dollars available for children.

“I feel sick,” said Terry McCleery. The 48-year-old dad said he would like to pay more child support but sought a reduction in Wayne County after he was laid off from an auto supplier in May. “That’s less money going to my daughter. I ran out of money. I had no choice.”

The article, and the situations it brings to light, has resulted in some chatter on the MonroeTalks forums.

I have no experience with the Michigan Friend of the Court System. The child support for my daughter was handled through the Ohio Job and Family Services. The last check came in 2007 as she turned 18.

I did, however, have to deal with occasional situations over the years when my ex-husband was between jobs and the child support was late or on hold until his next paycheck arrived. In the meantime, I still had bills to pay. So I can speak from experience to the parents who are waiting for child support and either don’t see it coming, or it’s late, or it’s a partial check …

In a perfect world, such a thing would never happen. The full child support payments would always arrive on time. The child’s needs, after all, do not go away just because a parent is unemployed.

The reality is: split parents where one or both is unemployed have to work around money issues for the kids. It’s no different than if someone in the household became unemployed. And I’ve been in THAT situation too.

If you are the parent who is receiving money, here are some practical tips to deal with late or non-existent child support relating to joblessness:

• Stay in close contact with your case worker on details such as whether a revision of the court order is likely and what to expect in the long run. This is not a new situation for the agencies – they’ve been dealing with jobless parent matters all along. The difference now is in the number of revision requests they are handling.
• Find every means possible to cut back on household expenses so you have the flexibility to handle a late, shorted or nonexistent child support payment. Use my Downsized Budget series as a guide of where to look for cash flow savings.
• Seek out and use discount and money-saving programs and services that rely more on special circumstances or your own efforts than strictly on household income. Reason: child support is often included as income on assistance applications. Whether or not you are getting that money right now may or may not be relevant.
• All parents and children involved in these situations need to discuss — or at least be aware of — the priorities for any money that is available. It is likely that the family will have to cut back on student activities such as music lessons, sports involvement, Christmas gift budgets and summer camp until the situation improves. Another idea that worked at one point for my family: Can the children by cared for by the unemployed parent on at least a part-time basis so the working parent doesn’t have to spend as much money on day care?
• If the affected child is college age or soon-to-be, make sure you understand the rules that apply at the federal level, in your state, and at your college, for divorced parents and their household income. Check out the Divorce and Financial Aid section at FinAid.com.

The consensus is that one can get a lot of free samples, but pay attention to the mouse print if you’ll be directed to answer a survey first.

Here is a coupon thread. (Oh, yeah, I jumped into that discussion!).

Here is a summer vacation thread.

Here’s a discussion that popped up on MonroeTalks that I’ve been wanting to link to, but I had to wait until our web issues were resolved:

What are your favorite store brand items?

There’s been a lot of responses!

As you look through the recommendations, keep in mind that most of the people on that forum live or work in Monroe, Mich.

Follow the discussion thread if you like.

• In this economy.
• Since the Great Depression.
• Furlough.
• Bailout.
• Thousands of layoffs.
• Contraction.
• All circuits are busy, please try again.
• Short sale.
• Corporate jets.
• Stimulus.
• Subprime mortgage.
• Hedge fund.
• Financial meltdown.
• Downturn.
• MARVIN (yes this acronym is for the Michigan readers).
• Financially viable.
• Made redundant (British phrase for layoff).

Got any more to share?

(I also started a thread on this topic at the MonroeTalks forums)