From: anonymous@anonymitaet-im-inter.net   
      
   Greetings from Colorado,   
      
   I recently received a letter from the State of Colorado division of child   
   support   
   enforcement which states that they will suspend my driver's license if I don't   
   pony up for   
   an extravagant monthly payment (nearly $200!) which I simply cannot afford to   
   pay. It   
   warns of no other penalties, no dire warnings like "bench warrant" or "jail   
   time for   
   contempt of court," etc., so here's my situation and question:   
      
   All three of my children have worked steady full-time jobs and have moved out   
   into their   
   own apartments, miles away from their mother's residence. The youngest of my   
   three   
   children reached emancipation age earlier this year, and that was reflected on   
   the monthly   
   bill that I receive by mail from the child support agency now indicating   
   "$0.00" owed in   
   child support, but with several thousands of dollars owed in "arrears" which I   
   never   
   signed up for and was never part of the original court order stipulating that   
   I pay a modest   
   amount in monthly child support (on account of my poverty and disability)   
   because of   
   some rule that the Colorado courts must squeeze blood out of a turnip, so to   
   speak, to the   
   tune of $50 minimum per month, hence the judge made me volunteer to pay that   
   monthly   
   child support because they couldn't legally garnishee my SSI, and this under   
   the threat of   
   perpetual jail time for failure to comply (which my court-appointed attorney   
   referred to   
   as "contempt of court"). So I paid the required minimum monthly payment on   
   time every   
   month until last month when the child support owed was listed on the bill as   
   zero. I called   
   the child support agency and the case worker told me that I was no longer   
   paying child   
   support, but was now expected to pay much larger payments on some imputed   
   "arrears"   
   that I have no idea where it came from and the case worker refused to explain   
   its origin.   
      
   So now that I am no longer paying or obligated to pay child support, is this   
   ten-year old   
   "arrears" debt aged debt or zombie debt, or if not, is suspending my driver's   
   license the   
   worst they can do to me? For the past ten years, I've been receiving 100%   
   disability SSI   
   from the federal government and food stamps from the Colorado state   
   government. I own   
   nothing, and have had no other source of income since long before getting   
   approved for   
   SSI. To top things off, my most recent driver's license expired in the 1990s   
   and I haven't   
   owned or driven a motor vehicle since.   
      
   Sincerely,   
   Father of three   
      
   --   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)