News Excerpts Archive

Article Summary: "Battle Over 21, Debt to State Finally Ends with Application of Some Common Cents"
The Columbus Dispatch
January 26, 2003

Gayle Channell never imagined cashing a child-support check could lead to so much trouble, including a threat of hundreds of dollars in court costs. The postal worker's plight began May 4, 2001, when a state-issued child-support check for $178.51 arrived at her home.

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Article Summary: "No visible means of child support"
The Plain Dealer
January 20, 2003

Stacy Posey agreed to take in her three nieces last summer so they wouldn't have to be placed in a foster home. She wanted the girls to stay with family, not strangers, even though she and her husband were short on cash.

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"Private agencies help find debtors; Parents using firms instead of courts to chase down unpaid child support"
The Ann Arbor News
January 13, 2003

Nancy Fox tried for nearly 10 years to collect child support from her ex-husband, who moved out of state two years after their 1989 divorce.

©2003, The Ann Arbor News. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

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"LOCAL COMMENT: Friend of the Court plan needs replacing Choices, more efficiency are best for kids"
Detroit Free Press (Detroit, MI)
November 29, 2002

Michigan's next attorney general, Mike Cox, says the reason he wants to pursue "deadbeat" parents and get them to pay their overdue child support is because he wants to help the kids.

A great way to do that would be to make it easier for custodial parents to fire Michigan's Friend of the Court, the state's official child support collection agency, and hire a private attorney or collection agency to do the same job.

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Click here to read 'Letters to the Editor' in response to this commentary.

"Child support families wait 2 years to receive seized tax returns"
The Associated Press
November 26, 2002

The Alabama Department of Human Resources has decided to put families owed child support first in line to receive seized income tax refunds, more than two years after federal law required them to do so.

"Missouri must collect more child support; State can take steps to cut delinquencies"
Kansas City Star
November 24, 2002

Missouri needs to do a much better job of collecting child-support payments. Custodial parents in divorce cases depend on the regular checks to pay for their children's clothing, food, shelter and school supplies. If the checks do not arrive, children are harmed.

Unfortunately, Missouri has not used its enforcement authority to collect as much as it should from parents who don't pay. State Auditor Claire McCaskill says that her office found that for five years ending in 2001, Missouri failed to collect about $1 billion in child-support payments. This is a troubling number, and the state should take all the steps it can to cut the delinquencies.

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"Audit says child support collections need improvement"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
November 19, 2002

Jefferson City, MO - Missouri failed to collect about $1 billion in child support payments during a five-year period and should be more aggressive about getting money from non-custodial parents, according to a state audit released Tuesday.

State Auditor Claire McCaskill's office said that between 1996 and 2001 the state Division of Child Support Enforcement collected about 20 percent of child support payments due to 538,000 custodial parents in Missouri.

Another area of concern found by auditors was that paternity determinations were not being completed in a timely manner because of increased workloads, inadequate training, disregard of division policy and other interruptions.

The audit said that increased use of contractors could help the state boost welfare benefit collections related to child support actions.

"Mom plans to protest child support run-around"
The Courier (Russellville, Arkansas)
November 18, 2002

DOVER — Daisy Edberg is a disabled mother of two daughters and also takes care of her mentally ill sister’s daughter. She does not receive child support from her ex-husband, and Monday she is going to do something about it.

Instead of making phone calls to the local prosecuting attorney’s office or the child support office, the governor’s office in Little Rock or even the White House, Edberg plans to hold a demonstration in the parking lot of the Pope County Courthouse in Russellville beginning Monday morning. Her reason is simple, she explained recently. Women and children in Arkansas are owed millions of dollars in back child support, and she believes it’s time for state laws regarding child support to be enforced.

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"$72 Million in Fees, Child Support Not Collected, Suit Says "
Jackson (AP)
November 4, 2002

A lawsuit recently filed alleges the (Mississippi's) child welfare agency failed to collect nearly $72 million in overdue child support on 124,000 cases in 2000 and didn't seek millions of dollars in attorney fees that could help needy children.

The lawsuit, which represents one side of a legal argument, alleges DHS' Division of Child Support Enforcement does not routinely seek attorney fees and court costs, does not routinely seek Medicaid reimbursement and fails to seek interest on overdue child support.

DHS Executive Director Janice Broome Brooks said last month the agency could close by the end of February or mid-March if it does not get $19.8 million to cover a budget shortfall.

The lawsuit says at the end of fiscal 2000, the division had 265,846 open child support cases for 326,036 children and that $71,639,877 was owed in 123,923 cases.

The bottom line is we're not doing as well as we need to be doing for our children in the DHS," Moore said.

"Judge Rules On Child Support: Agency Must Account For
Unpaid Checks"
The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI)
October 23, 2002

A state judge has given the Hawaii Child Support Enforcement Agency until March 31st to account for more than $3.5 million in uncashed child support checks, paving the way for thousands of parents to get payments they never received from the agency since its inception in 1986.

McKenna's decision followed a two-week trial on a class-action lawsuit filed in 1998 by Anne Kemp, a divorced mother whose initial checks from the state agency were delayed for several months even though child support payments were being withheld from her ex-husband's paycheck and turned over to the state agency.

For years, parents have complained bitterly about the agency, conveying frustrations over having to chase down payments. Many have written letters to the agency and visited time and again in a story familiar to hundreds in the system.

"Richardson Proposes Child Support Enforcement Measures"
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
October 1, 2002

The system has a history of problems that includes caseload backlogs, computer glitches and understaffing.

According to the candidate, in the year 2000 - the most recent for which federal statistics were available - New Mexico spent $33 million to collect $39 million. It collected $1.18 for every dollar spent, the worst rate in the nation, he said.

"Two Deadbeat Dads Caught in Nationwide Child Support Crackdown"
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
August 20, 2002

In Michigan, 450,000 people were child-support delinquents in May. Of those, 93,000 were not making payment on their past-due balances, but some were making current child support payments.

In September 2001, Michigan officials estimated the amount owed to Michigan parents was about $7 billion.

"Virginia Seeks Methods to Collect Child Support"
Daily Press (Associated Press story)
August 28, 2002

About 506,000 children, or 25 percent of Virginia's youth, are owed child support, said Phyllis Sisk, a program manager at the Department of Social Service's central office in Richmond.

"State Agency Identifies Deadbeat Parents"
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
September 4, 2002

MDHS officials said some 320,000 Mississippi parents owe child support totaling more than $650 million.

McDaniel said the staffing situation at MDHS has made collection difficult. In fiscal 2003 the child support division lost 72 positions to funding cuts. In addition, there are 36 vacancies, meaning the division has 108 fewer workers than last year, he said.

"Being fully staffed certainly makes our efforts much more productive," McDaniel said. "More staff is needed and necessary for us to collect that $650 million that is due to children and Mississippi families."

"Support Collections Inch Up"
The News Journal
September 4, 2002

Delaware collected a record $82 million in child support last year, but the state still recovers only about 60 percent of the money noncustodial parents owe, officials said Tuesday.

But thousands of custodial parents still are unable to get the money courts have ordered they be paid for the care of their children, said Charles E. Hayward, director of the state Division of Child Support Enforcement.

"County Board Hears Complaints About Child Support; Two Mothers Say Caseworkers Don't Return Phone Calls, Miss Court Deadlines"
The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.)
September 3, 2002

Caseworkers who don't answer the phone or return calls and missed court deadlines are some of the complaints the County Commissioners recently heard about the Department of Social Services' child support enforcement division.

According to [Department of Social Services Director Dan] Hudgins, the county's child support collection rate hovers around 57 percent, nearly at the statewide level, with the goal to collect around 60 percent next year. Each caseworker handles about 500 cases, he said. There are two vacancies in the division, and neither can be filled because of a county hiring freeze.

"Missing Money; Ohio Fails to Deliver Support, Suit Says; Guardians of Children Say State Department Isn't Following Rules"
The Columbus Dispatch
September 19, 2002

Rhonda Bungard has been caring for her niece's 4-year-old daughter since the child was an infant. The added expense has caused her to fall behind in rent and utility bills for her West Side apartment. At one point, she had to go on welfare. But this isn't the story of a deadbeat dad.

The girl's father had been paying child support all along. The problem was that the state was sending the money to the mother who had abandoned the child.

For years, Bungard said, she has gotten the runaround from caseworkers in Franklin and Licking counties and no help from the state agency. She's been trying to get support payments sent to her and to have a later court order requiring the girl's mother to pay support enforced. Bungard estimates she is owed about $11,000.

The lawsuit illustrates the complaints long voiced by advocates and parents: dismal service by child-support caseworkers and state officials.

According to the lawsuit, the state has stalled, evaded its obligations, failed to render services promptly and provided inferior and negligent service.

The lawsuit comes as state officials continue returning what is expected to add up to $38 million, plus interest, in child-support cash confiscated from an estimated 160,000 poor Ohio families. The money represents child-support payments or income tax refunds that had been diverted by the state from October 1997 through September 2000 to cover the cost of earlier welfare assistance to custodial parents.

"Child Support Refunds Begin 36 in Cuyahoga County to Get First Repayments"
The Plain Dealer
September 17, 2002

Job & Family Services is striving to meet an April 2003 deadline to refund $44.6 million in child support payments and interest.

Last summer, Gov. Bob Taft ordered that the money be returned after former human services officials admitted intercepting late support payments and state income tax refunds that should have been forwarded to more than 100,000 custodial parents who received welfare assistance between October 1997 and October 2000.

"Ryan's All Talk on Child Support: Blagojevich"
Chicago Sun-Times
September 25, 2002

The Illinois Department of Public Aid collects only 16 percent of the child support money owed to single mothers and fathers in Illinois, compared to the national average of 42 percent, according to figures Blagojevich attributed to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. That puts the state 51st in the federal department's ranking of the other 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

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