$1.9 Billion Still Owed To Virginia’s Children
Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement Rate of Collection on Past Due Support is Dropping

For Immediate Release
December 11, 2002

Richmond,VA ---- Contrary to recent self congratulating comments from the Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE), thousands of custodial parents across the state consider the pathetic 9 percent increase in collection dollars to be unacceptable. In fact, the DCSE should apologize to the citizens of Virginia for the fact that the state is collecting fewer and fewer past due dollars for deserving children.

The state’s percentage collection of past due dollars has been steadily dropping and is at an all time low of 6 percent, down from 11 percent in 1998. The amount of uncollected past due support has ballooned 500 percent from 370 million dollars to 1.9 billion dollars in just three years.

A major part of the problem is that the Virginia DCSE is too lenient on "deadbeat parents." The state agency often accepts partial payments, making it easy for non-custodial parents to fall significantly behind on payments without much of a risk.

"There are thousands of Virginia families that are owed between 25 and 50 thousand dollars in past due support that the state isn't even trying to collect," stated National Coalition for Child Support Options President Susan Williams.

Today there are at least 216,000 Virginia children who have not received a penny of the child support owed to them.

To make matters worse, the Virginia DCSE is unwilling to cooperate with private enforcement agencies trying to assist Virginia families that the state has failed to help. This policy of non-cooperation hurts families by limiting their enforcement options.

"The Virginia DCSE is essentially saying, 'we can't help you and we won't let anyone else help you either,'" said Williams. "When you are closing the door on one out of two custodial parents, you have a responsibility to ensure that there is another door open someplace else."

Tammy McArthur, a custodial parent in Newport News waited for the state to help her for eight years before turning to a private agency to collect her support. "The state completely failed me. I am so thankful that there was another option available to me at the time. Now, I am doing everything I can to help other parents like me by advocating for enforcement options in Virginia."

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The National Coalition for Child Support Options (NCCSO) is a coalition of more than 3,000 parents, concerned citizens, community and business leaders, attorneys and members of the child support enforcement community who have joined to fight the national epidemic of unpaid child support.

NCCSO works to protect the options available to parents to collect the child support they deserve. NCCSO does this by reaching out to the media, decision-makers and the general public to educate them about threats to the existence of these options and choices.

For more information, please visit the web site www.childsupportoptions.org or call 1-866-244-1946.