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Democrats, women’s advocates, the National
Governors Association, and child support enforcement officials are sounding the
alarm over proposed cuts in the federal funds that subsidize states’
child support enforcement efforts. The cuts, which recently passed the House,
will reduce federal reimbursement from 66% of the states’ costs to 50% over five
years.
According to the Congressional Budget Office,
this will lead to $24 billion in child support going uncollected over the next
10 years. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Los Angeles County Child Support
Services Department Director Philip Browning are warning that the cuts will mean
a drastic reduction in the amount of child support collected. A bipartisan group
of senators has penned a letter opposing the cuts, explaining that "in 2004,
more than $4 was collected in support for every dollar invested in the program."
All of these claims, however, are based on false assumptions and misleading
data.
It is true that federal figures show that over
$20 billion in child support is collected nationwide yearly, and that only $5
billion is spent on enforcement. However, the vast majority of the funds
collected are not done through enforcement tactics—they’re simply the payments
already being made by law-abiding noncustodial parents. These payments will
continue to be made regardless of the cuts. The myth that child support
enforcement is a bargain was created by incorrectly counterposing total
collections with expenditures on enforcement.
In reality, much if
not most child support enforcement funds
are frittered away in misguided attempts
to collect artificially inflated paper
arrearages from low-income men who couldn’t
possibly pay them. Federal Office of Child
Support Enforcement data shows that two-thirds
of those behind on child support nationwide
earned less than $10,000 in the previous
year; less than four percent of the overall
national child support debt is owed by those
earning $40,000 or more a year. According to the
largest federally-funded study of divorced dads
ever conducted, unemployment, not willful
neglect, is the largest cause of failure to pay
child support.
The inflated
arrearages are created in large part because the
child support system is mulishly impervious to
the economic realities working-class people
face, such as layoffs, wage cuts, unemployment,
and work-related injuries. According to the
Urban Institute, less than one in 20
non-custodial parents who suffers a substantial
drop in income is able to get courts to reduce
his or her child support payments. In such
cases, the amounts owed mount quickly, as do
interest and penalties.
For example, a
recent Urban Institute study found that only 25%
of California's $14.4 billion child support
arrearage will be collected over the next decade
because the support amounts demanded of
noncustodial parents are not realistic. The
average arrears owed per debtor is $3,000 higher
than the median annual earnings of employed
child support debtors. Those in the poorest
category have a child support debt amounting to
their full net income for seven and a half
years.
The “Most Wanted
Deadbeat Parents” lists put out by most
states demonstrate this problem. In the past
few months, “deadbeat parents” have been the
targets of highly-publicized law enforcement
actions in Virginia, Texas, Kentucky, and
Arizona. Yet Virginia’s “Most Wanted” list is
topped by a laborer, a carnival hired hand, and
a construction worker, who collectively somehow
owe over a quarter million dollars in child
support. Of all the parents on Texas' and
Kentucky’s lists, only one appears to have an
education, and the most common designation for
occupation is "laborer." Near the top of
Arizona’s list is a maintenance man who owes
$90,223, an unemployed man of no known
occupation who owes $54,298, and, best of all, a
roofer who owes $240,581.
This week
Abbott boasted that he had arrested one of
the "deadbeats" on his "Most Wanted"
list--Charles Silva, who owes almost $40,000 in
child support. Yet it's doubtful that Silva will
be writing a five figure check any time
soon--Silva's occupation is "general laborer." Far
from being lists of well-heeled businessmen,
lawyers, and accountants, the vast majority of
the men on these lists do low wage and often
seasonal work, and owe large sums of money which
they could never hope to pay off.
Child support
enforcement agencies are notorious for their
abusive tactics towards such men, as well as
their mind-numbing incompetence, waste, and the
incessant computer errors which lead to the
persecution of innocent citizens.
It is true, as
critics of the cuts say, that the amount of
child support collected by child support
enforcement programs has increased from $2.4
billion in 1977 (2004 dollars) to nearly $22
billion in 2004. However, most of this increase
has nothing to do with enforcement. For one,
there are far more children receiving child
support now than there were in 1977, in part
because of welfare reform, which has obligated
the fathers of children on welfare to pay child
support to the states. Also, the amount of child
support demanded from noncustodial parents rose
sharply during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition,
whereas most child support used to be paid
directly from the noncustodial parent to the
custodial parent, today most child support goes
through the state systems, creating the illusion
of increased collections.
For too long
child support policies have been determined by
politics instead of common sense; the mantra of
“help women and children” has allowed
large-scale abuses and waste to go unchallenged.
The proposed cuts won't interfere with efforts
to collect legitimate child support, but they
will save
taxpayers $15.8 billion over the next decade.
They will also force some discipline and
restraint onto an area of government which
sorely needs it.
This column
originally appeared in the Las Vegas
Review-Journal (12/17/05) and the
Riverside Press-Enterprise (12/16/05).
Jeffery M. Leving
is one of America's most prominent family law attorneys.
He is the author of the book Fathers' Rights:
Hard-hitting and Fair Advice for Every Father Involved
in a Custody Dispute. His website is
www.dadsrights.com.
Glenn
Sacks' columns on men's and fathers' issues have appeared in dozens of America's
largest newspapers. Glenn can be reached via his website at
www.GlennSacks.com or
via email at Glenn@GlennSacks.com.
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