THOUGHTS FROM AN AGING PIZZA EVANGELIST KIDS, PARENTS, VISITATION, ALIENATION AND FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Bob Fettes / Columnist Published: August 17, 2014 8:00AM August is Child Support Awareness Month in Guernsey County and across the entire State of Ohio. A recent article in The Daily Jeffersonian brought us up to date of the involvement. The Department of Job and Family Services and Child Support Enforcement Agency will be using the month of August to observe the importance of children deserving the love and support of both parents. Unfortunately, many times children of separated parents are not permitted to receive the nurture and love from one parent because of alienation tactics practiced by one of the parents against the other parent. The alienated parent faithfully pays court-ordered child support, but still is refused access to the child for one reason or another. Typically the alienated parent is the father. Some interesting statistics recently reported listed Ohio with the third largest for child support cases in the entire nation. Over one million cases collecting two billion dollars in support. This translates to an average $41.50 per week per case. In Guernsey County, the caseload is 4,800 with $7,600,000 being collected per year. This means that an average of of $33 per week per case is collected here. I realize that you might be saying how in the world can you support a child on these minuscule amounts? It gets even worse when you understand that the supporters employer is permitted to keep $2 for cutting a check to Child Support and then Child Support keeps a percentage for dispersing funds to the parent. However, these are just averages. Many parents pay nothing and some pay as much as several hundred dollars per week. The one fact that I find most interesting (or maybe I should say heartbreaking) is that whether you pay nothing or several hundred of dollars per week in child support doesnt automatically guarantee you will be permitted access to your child. Thats right, paying or not paying child support is no guarantee you will have visitation or no visitation rights with your child or children. I personally know of one case locally where a father has paid almost $50,000 in child support over the past five years but has been refused access to his children. Why? Because an appointed Guardian Ad Litem got tangled in a snafu by failing to report to the court certain data supposedly needed before visitation could be granted. Is this an isolated case? Maybe, maybe not. Who suffers in these foul ups? Certainly the alienated parent, but mostly the children are the ones who suffer the most. Im mindful of the public service announcement broadcasted on radio that spoke about a parent going to prison that it was the estranged child who experienced being incarcerated more so than the parent. P.S. CSEA says to help celebrate this occasion. It is holding a drawing where it will be raffling off four Family Fun Packs. Items in the gift packs will include a $25 movie gift card and a pizza gift certificate. This is great, but how about correcting the problems surrounding alienated, child support paying parents who are not permitted to see their children because of unprocessed legal paperwork? See you next Sunday. Bob Fettes is a semi-retired Cambridge businessman and columnist for The Sunday Jeffersonian. He can be reached at nancopiz@yahoo
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 16:58:10 +0000
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