Child Support

Post by **Killfile** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 7:18 pm

It seems that my blog entries are getting cross posted here a lot. Here's another one for ya - about 1/2 personal experience and about 1/2 political rant.

I wrote: Posted at 8/22/2005 9:39 pm : I have recently been involved in a process that has lead me to the fairly inevitable conclusion that the child support system in this state, indeed possibly this country, is well and truly broken. An old friend of mine, we’ll call her Rebecca (not her real name), has two children. Several weeks ago she was rather severely beaten by her husband – who was then removed from the home. Since then her husband has been paying expenses for Rebecca and her children under the orders of a civil court.

I spent the weekend lending moral support to Rebecca during the criminal trial of her husband for the crime of assault and battery. This is where the problem comes in. Rebecca was forced to seek charges against her husband to protect herself and her children in the long term. In doing so, she landed her abusive husband in prison. Unfortunately, in prison he is unable to pay child support. While child support will accrue while he is in prison, the state will not make good on these payments.

In short, by testifying against her husband in court, Rebecca has effectively denied herself the child support payments that her husband owed her and her children.

Fast forward to when Rebecca’s husband is released. At this point he has several months of child support payments built up, continuing payments (since the kids won’t be turning 18 any time soon), no job, and a criminal record. What employment is can get will be low paying – and his wages will be garnished for child support payments, both current and past.

Given his low income status, this will push him well below the point where he can realistically make ends meet. At that point he has two options – stop eating and pay the bills or drop out of the system and go on the run.

I understand that Rebecca’s husband deserves to get smacked around by the legal system, and I’m all for that. What I’m not ok with is that Rebecca and her children are going to end up victims here as well.

An example of how broken this system is turned up in Florida (this thanks to the Family Law Quarterly – linked at left). The State of Florida hired Lockheed Martin IMS and Maximus Inc to track down a number of deadbeat dads and try to force child support out of them. The project, for which Lockheed billed the state $2.2 Million and for which Maximum billed $2.25 Million netted some $143,706 by tracking down 83,962 deadbeat dads out of a target pool of 200,000. That’s a 41% success rate for finding missing fathers, but a pathetic average of $1.71 per father located.

On the other hand, had the same amount of money been simply divvied up amongst the abandoned families, each would have a little over $20. Not a staggering sum by any means, but more than 10 times what they got (on average).

We need a more concrete method of guaranteeing support to needy children and mothers. Why is it so much more politically popular to say “we’re going to track down these deadbeat dads” than it is to say “we’re going to help these broken families.”?

I'm curious what you guys think about child support - particularly those of you from other countries. How do your governments deal with the issue of child support? Do those methods work?

Post by **LordMune** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 7:44 pm

I don't think Sweden, pinko nation as it is, has these kinds of problem. Not the legal system fucking up child support like that, anyway.

Post by **MrFelony** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:43 pm

the idea behind it, im sure you already know but im going to say it anyway, is that the people responsible should pay it, not the state. but that comes into the conflict twhere if the state just pays, then more help could be administered to those who need it. however you dont really give all the facts, and i doubt you could find them, about the florida case. did the gov believe that they would net more than they would pay, or that the amount they pay is worth bringing in people to face their responsibilities. also, there really isnt any way to say whether or not that act helped prevent other fathers from running, though i doubt many

. but besides that point i mostly agree with you.

Post by **Kêthêrîc** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 11:18 pm

This system is so shoddy. My dad didn't want to pay child support, so he purposely stayed unemployed and went to jail, just to screw us out of any money. Bleh, there are just so many things that piss me off about these programs, just like how they do food stamps now.

Post by **Femto** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:34 am

The system is only as broken as the people underneath it.

I know that the above statements won't fix things as people will always be in conflict but, even though it appears as though the system is broken, you are still looking at statistics from the side of parents that aren't willing to pay child support. It's a long shot here, but I'm willing to say the majority of parents do pay child support and relatively few are landed in jail. Even if my guess is way off, it's still better than what goes on in my home country, where if you're a mother with 2-3 children and your husband leaves, you are pretty much fucked. No child support, no nothing, the father is free to leave without looking back if he so wishes.

The system would need fixing but, like you said, what's more important for a family? To be safe from a potentially abusing person or to get child support? It varies from person to person, and single mothers are in fact capable of pulling through by themselves, even if it is somewhat draining.

It's not perfect but, like everything else, it's not black or white either.