The enforcement has paid off: The US child-support collection rate has doubled since 1995. In 2000, nearly $18 billion of the $23 billion owed by noncustodial parents was collected. Altogether, the support has been invaluable to many of the nations 12 million single parents, nearly 10 million of whom are women, according to the US Census Bureau. But the collection efforts have also created almost insurmountable problems for some low-income parents who are trying to support their children. Most state child-support-enforcement programs could be doing a much better job of distinguishing between so-called deadbeat fathers and dead broke fathers, Ms. Roberts says. Also, reform advocates say, the recession has made it more difficult for low-income fathers to find and keep a job. Child-support debts can mount when fathers are out of work or incarcerated. We hear reports of fathers willing to pay [support] being thrown in jail for accumulating child-support debt. Instead of making it harder for fathers to earn a living, states should devise realistic payment plans, with job training and placement help, says Ms. Weinstein. Even before the economy began to slide, meeting child-support payments has been a problem for low-income parents. Findings from the ongoing Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a joint project between Princeton and Columbia Universities, revealed that unwed fathers earn about $17,000 a year on average. With such low earnings, the study says, child-support orders need to be set at rates proportional to ability to pay. Poor fathers are routinely required to pay much higher proportions of their income than middle- and upper-income fathers, says Sara McLanahan, director of the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton. Unrealistic arrearages arise because child-support agencies and courts base child-support payments not on fathers actual earnings, but on their presumptive earnings. 1 | 2 Next [next]
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 02:44:13 +0000
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