In The News

Jilted Arrow driver may be forced to pay child support twice

Ex-Arrow driver Travis Chamberlain of Mills Creek, PA, is having trust issues these days.

That’s because he was under the impression that the money that was being deducted from his pay for child support was being forwarded on to the proper agency to disburse to his family.

However, in the aftermath of the Tulsa-based company’s chaotic collapse, Chamberlain said he found out the hard way this wasn’t the case at all. Now, he’s without a job and reeling with the news that he’s still on the hook for nearly $2,400 he already had deducted from his pay, but that his children never received.

In recent weeks, Chamberlain said he has met with his case worker a few times about the situation and also provided him with copies of his pay stubs that showed the money was being deducted from his check. But he is still in limbo until an “official hearing” is held on Jan. 29.

Chamberlain started working for Arrow in August 2009, about the same time he started having the money deducted from his check. He said from what he can tell everything was going smoothly until October 2009, when payments to his ex-wife stopped.

“I had received a phone call from my ex stating that she had not been receiving child support,” Chamberlain told Land Line . “But she had also just moved, too, so I just figured that something had gotten tied up somewhere in the system and that was why she wasn’t receiving her child support.”

On Dec. 21, 2009, Chamberlain said had pulled into a truck stop in Gary, IN, when he first heard “rumors” that Arrow was going under.

“No sooner had I backed into my space than another Arrow driver approached me and said he heard things were over,” he said.

The next morning, the day the company announced it was “suspending operations,” Chamberlain said he called his dispatcher, who said something was “definitely wrong,” but that she would call him back when she knew more after the meeting she was getting ready to head into.

“She called me back and said what I heard was true and told me to check everything, including my child support, because they might have been taking money out and not paying it,” he said. “That’s when the Domestic Relations office in Pennsylvania confirmed they had not received any child support from me since October and now they are coming back on me for it.”

In the meantime, Chamberlain has contacted his state and U.S. lawmakers to make them aware of the situation. He has yet to hear back from them on this issue.

Jeff Wagner, spokesman for Oklahoma Child Support Services, said his agency has been on high alert since he first heard about the distressing circumstances surrounding the company’s demise.

“As soon as we heard about this I notified our local offices, as well as our surrounding offices that would likely be affected, as well as our customer service call center,” Wagner said.

Unfortunately, he said the practice of an employer withholding child support but not forwarding it to the state is becoming more common than one might expect.

Wagner told Land Line that affected drivers like Chamberlain should call 800-522-2922 if they have any questions or concerns about their child support.

Chamberlain said he’s still stunned by the news.

“I just didn’t think that a company would do that,” he said. “After all, they were a family-owned company so I just figured they were passing on the money for child support.”

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