By FITSNews || The ongoing U.S. recession is hurting everybody – but one group that isn’t getting a lot of ink are the children of custodial parents who aren’t getting child support payments because their non-custodial parents aren’t able to find work.
According to federal data from fiscal year 2008, there are 140,000 child support cases currently in arrears in South Carolina – yet there are only 77,000 cases paying on those arrears.
That leaves more than 60,000 cases in which the non-custodial parent isn’t paying.
The total current support owed? Nearly $350 million.
The total arrearage for all fiscal years? $1.1 billion.
Some say the total arrearage figure is even higher (possibly totaling as much as $2 billion), but that we’ll never know the actual amount because South Carolina’s system is missing out on tens of thousands of cases.
Obviously, these figures also do not include private cases not handled by DSS.
WEB EXTRA
Child Support Statistics
By Another Opinion February 15, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Just build more prisons. That’s what the gov. is doing about everything else, from veterans to the mentally ill, folks are going to prison in droves.
By Ynotfirst February 15, 2010 at 4:46 pm
prisons are a money making biz
By Hmm February 15, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Deadbeat? http://www.fitsnews.com/2010/02/07/campbell-child-support-questioned/
By Earl Capps February 15, 2010 at 5:11 pm
I’m waiting for Governor Sanford to kidnap half the Riverbanks Zoo to hold a press conference to bash the agency for being fined for upwards of $100 million for failing to conform with child support standards.
Being a parent who raised a daughter without a penny of child support, I can understand the frustration parents feel because I’ve been there.
It’s an outrage to see how the Governor crusades against state agencies that aren’t under his authority, but when similar acts of incompetence and corruption take place with those agencies that are under his watch, he couldn’t give a damn.
The man could care less about his own family, much less others. He makes me sick.
By Nancy Corbin February 15, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I don’t believe these statistics reflect the job market. Most of those not paying without a job were not paying when they were working.
By southernmapart February 15, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Stop putting the non-paying parents in jail. Period. It costs more than it is worth.
Remove social privileges from those who don’t/can’t/won’t meet their social obligation of supporting children they beget. For instance, remove driving privileges and file judgments against them for liens.
We are putting these people in prison for debt; not fraud, not stealing, not embezzlement, but for nonpayment of a debt obligation.
The State of South Carolina has a screwed up, I mean really screwed up system of collection of child support, particularly under Title IV (or Title V, whatever it is) where the Feds pay the state to collect and put people in prison. That is where the millions came from that Tommy Moore’s brother stole while he was with state DSS.
For example, the state will pick up a guy for non-payment, just because the state records are screwed up. The burden of proof is on the parent that gets picked up. They miss one or may several days of work, get stressed out with being threatened with jail and losing their job, all because an employer, a court clerk or a state child support office has credited payment to the wrong account. It happens all the time!
The state can be up to three months behind in forwarding child support that was collected from a non-custodial parent.
Stop this schitt now!
By Just a thought February 15, 2010 at 8:09 pm
How about an automatic review of child support awards when a parent goes on unemployment? Opps my bad, unemployment commission.
By Bottom Line..... February 15, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Parents who fail to pay their child support should go to jail. Its called neglect, people! However, I don’t agree that the recession has anything to do with it. The majority of those who are in arrears either failed to pay when they had a job or can’t keep a job.
By Question February 15, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Why haven’t we heard more about what the $5.2 million Paul Moore Embezzled was SUPPOSED to be used for? Emma Forkner, director of HHS, who paid the money to DSS and never noticed it was not used as it was supposed to be, insists that this $5.2 million was “appropriately paid” even now. Even people “in the know” at DSS wonder what program(s) that money was supposed to fund. Why haven’t we heard more about the source of the embezzled money? $5.2 million would provide a lot of jobs.
So would the hundreds of millions in stimulus dollars being paid to the rainy day fund while Medicaid services are being slashed. Whose pockets would that money have gone into had it not been for media attention?
By Huhhh??? February 15, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Men and women need to start thinking before they bring children into the world…I wish we could put something in the water.
Yeah, FITS, you explain why after 7 years of Sanford, DSS still doesn’t have a child support computer system that works? How many millions are we still getting fined a year because of that?
By Mercy February 15, 2010 at 11:19 pm
I would hope that those who are out for blood would try to consider each delinquent payment on a case by case basis. Even if you are working, that doesn’t mean you can afford to pay sometimes exorbitant child support fees. Working doesn’t mean you’re making money. You might be just scraping by or even losing money after figuring cost of travel and all those other things. We all know there are cases where some parents were just terrible. Sometimes it isn’t the case. Sometimes the deep pocket gets to pay for someone else’s idea of what was right or wrong when an objective person knowing the facts (which can’t always be known) would never order the person to pay up. It makes a lot of people mad, but working doesn’t mean you can pay.
By Earl Capps February 15, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Mercy, I’m with you on this. Child support enforcement always seems to snag the guy or gal who is trying and falls a couple of weeks behind, but won’t lift a finger to find a deadbeat.
In my case, it was an ex who was in the phonebook and whose new husband was in the navy. New Pontiac Grand Am. Great new life. Somehow, they couldn’t seem to find her.
Amazing how that works.
Nancy has a point as well – many of the hardcore deadbeats would be that way with a 100K/yr job or with no job whatsoever.
I’m all in favor of mercy of working with those who are trying, because there are a lot who do try, but those who don’t care and don’t bother, no mercy whatsoever.
By southernmapart February 16, 2010 at 7:03 am
Those who support jail time for parents who fail to financially support their kids – get a grip on your pocketbook, that is, if you are paying taxes.
One deadbeat goes to jail and gets his regular medical treatment at local taxpayer expense. Why? Because the jail is required to tend to medical needs of prisoners and it cost the county $50,000 when they jail him. In our county it costs near $20,000 per year to jail these non-violent offenders. $20,000 will pay for a lot of childcare.
Take away driving privileges and there will be no driving the new Pontiac Grand Am. File judgments for liens and if the deadbeat ever owns assets, they’ll be paying up.
Think of the savings on the state budget when the child support collection system is cut out. Millions and millions of dollars saved for a few hundred state employees put on unemployment and no fed money for the Moore boy, et al to steal.
Judges can order child support payments paid through a commercial banking account. One parent makes a deposit, then the other writes a check.
Limit government involvement and save jail space for hard criminals.
By Nancy Corbin February 16, 2010 at 10:36 am
When the deadbeat lives in another state the custodial parent is just out of luck. If you think SC is in bad shape you should see what my daughter has to go through dealing with NC,oops she can’t deal with NC, SC has to and SC tells her that NC is in charge of her case. In the mean time the deadbeat pays a payment of any amount every four or five months to keep from going to court…
By Barker February 16, 2010 at 11:38 am
I would ask if she was good, Earl, but I think you got much more of a screw than you gave her.
By WorkingTommyC February 17, 2010 at 8:27 am
Except in cases of violence, how about making divorce dependent on both parties having to agree to get divorced?
A lot of men don’t want to marry nowadays due to their knowing they could be taken to the cleaners at the whim of the woman who goes astray when she decides she likes having carnal relations with someone else. In cases of divorce, there is a great inequity of legal power in marriages in favor of the wife who is also a mother.
If there were a divorce “veto,” many who feel inclined to cheat or look for other opportunities while they’re still married might think twice. It would also make couples work harder to make things work out if one spouse stands firm in favor of the marriage and forces the other to stay in and work it out.
This is not the “perfect solution” but it could go a long ways in taking the rashness and emotionalism out of divorces and restore some balance of power. Unlike the one year waiting period, this would not force the couple to separate which only contributes to their immediate alienation.
A lot of folks make the mistake of marrying the wrong person. There’s no reason to punish the children for their mistakes, however. My own parents have pretty much conceded that they’d have been a happy old couple if they’d stuck it out despite the hard times. I certainly wish they had. From what I know of the situation, a veto would have caused them to stay together.
By Lilly Collette February 19, 2010 at 5:06 pm
A White woman 3 months pregnant by an Asian man forged the name of a disabled White man to a marriage license and 6 months after the forgery gave birth to a fully Asian featured b@stard.
Ooops!!!
She then divorced her victim and verbally alleged that her victim had agreed to sign over his home to her and pay her $200.00 a month to support the (bastard) child.
The court supported her in all of her crimes. Sound too strage to be true?
See, Charleston County S.C. family court case file# 87-DR-10-00294.