Seven On Your Side Helps A Grieving Father

(New York-WABC, Sept. 28, 2005) (WABC) -- It was an extraordinarily painful loss - a teenage boy suddenly dies - leaving his family shocked and saddened. But for the boys father - the pain didn't end there.

The city of New York froze his bank account trying to make him pay child support.

Seven On Your Side's Tappy Philips has more on what went wrong.

The dad had been paying his son's child support each month - but after the boy died suddenly - the grief stricken father was shocked when the city wanted him to continue making support payments. As a last resort - he called for Seven On Your Side.

Last April, Robert Levine's fourteen-year-old son Brian died suddenly. to this day robert still doesn't know what caused it.

Robert Levine, Father: "I though I knew what sadness was. But I didn't."

Now the dad knows frustration.

Soon after his son died - Robert says he properly notified the city - sent over his son's death certificate and stopped paying child support. But week's later Robert started getting letters saying he owed hundreds in support.

Robert Levine, Father: "The first letter I received was that they froze my bank account, my checking account."

So Robert sent over the death certificate two more times - and even got a letter saying the problem was resolved, but...

Robert Levine, Father: "I came home one day from work and there was a message from a Mr. Singh from this child support agency saying 'next week if you don't contact us, it's urgent we're going to revoke your license.'"

Robert makes his living driving a truck.

Robert Levine, Father: "That's self-explanatory - what it's gonna do to me if I can't drive."

Only this month New York's child support enforcement told Robert he owes $2,500.

Robert Levine, Father: "I did enough - I've been through enough. I don't need this anymore."

So Seven On Your Side called the city on his behalf - and just days later - we got assurance that Robert's erroneous debt had been wiped clean.

Robert Levine, Father: "I can move on to other things and forget about this, that's all I wanted from this."

What went wrong? Human resources administration - the New York City agency responsible for child support enforcement - told us it was a straight bureaucratic bungle. They said "the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing."

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