The Economics Of Child Support

To put the economics of child support in proper perspective, it must be remembered that over $58 million is owed to custodial parents in the United States alone. This amount is what motivated the birth of the private child support collection and enforcement industry.

Today, the taxpayer is footing a bill of over $3 billion each year to operate a public child support enforcement and collection program that is collecting only a fraction of the total amount that is owed. There are a number of reasons that the public agency is unable to collect the money that is owed. The public agency:

• has more cases than it can reasonably handle
  
• is burdened by regulations and restrictions that make collections difficult
  
• is not properly motivated to collect money aggressively
  
• is required to concentrate first on obtaining current child support - not arrears
  
• is required to be "father friendly" - which means that it is unable to overly burden the non-custodial parent - regardless of the amount that is owed.

Profile of a "deadbeat" child support obligor

• approximately 90% of people who owe child support have poor credit ratings
  
• approximately 10% of the people who owe child support have sought bankruptcy protection from their creditors
  
• the majority of child support obligors have not held the same job for more than 3 years
  
• the majority of child support obligors have not lived at the same address for more than 2 years
  
• over 75% of child support obligors claim that they can not afford to pay what was ordered by the court - but still fail to pay anything at all
  
• over 80% of the child support obligors claim that they do not pay child support because their ex denies them visitation rights. The majority of the custodial parents deny this claim
  

Our experience in chasing down deadbeat parents indicates that most are irresponsible in virtually every aspect of their lives. When we hear the claim that they can not afford to pay the current child support amount, we ask them why they haven't paid something - and their answer is always blurred by some other excuse, such as visitation issues.

Obtaining court orders

Taking any deadbeat parent back to court is a gamble for the agency. The biggest obstacle that agencies face in taking a non-custodial parent back to court is a judiciary system that is extremely lenient on non-custodial parents. We have repeatedly seen hard core deadbeat parents walk out of the court room with only a slap on the hand. Judges seem reluctant to place a non-custodial parent in a position where he or she would have to make any sacrifices to pay the child support that is owed in addition to the current child support.

Before an agency will take a non-custodial parent back to court, the agency wants to be reasonably assured that it will be able to obtain an order that is beneficial - and that can be enforced. As a result, the agency will first investigate the court that would have jurisdiction over the non-custodial parent to determine if the court is taking the matter of unpaid child support seriously. An agency does not want to take a non-custodial parent before a judge that only slaps hands - and does not order substantial amounts of money to be paid toward the arrearage. It does no one any good if there is an arrearage of $20,000, and the judge will feel sorry for the non-custodial parent and require him or her to pay only $50 per month toward the arrearage. If interest is accruing on the arrearage at the rate of 10% per year, the $50 payment will not even cover the interest that accrues on the obligation - which means that the non-custodial parent will never be able to pay everything that is owed.

The financial abilities of the non-custodial parent must also be considered before legal action is taken. If the non-custodial parent is a drug addict or working at a minimum wage job, he or she is not a candidate for legal action. If he or she is only working part time jobs, the agency has to be reasonably assured that the courts will require the non-custodial parent to get a full time job before legal action can be considered.

Powerful factors that work against custodial parents

One would think that this issue is really quite simple. The payment of child support in a regular and timely manner is going to benefit children. Our entire society is based upon what is "best" and for the "good of children".

The biggest faction that is working against custodial parents and their children is the Federal Government. In years gone by, the government would claim that the payment of child support was necessary due to the fact that the earning capabilities of single mothers was so much lower than the earning capabilities of non-custodial parents. Today, the focus is changing - and the government now believes that children need both parents in their lives and are implementing programs that will make the public child support agency more "father friendly". This can result in reduced child support payments, and a less aggressive enforcement program unless the non-custodial parent is clearly able to "afford" the child support that has been ordered. Some states are already implementing programs that will give the non-custodial parent credit against the child support obligation for exercising visitation rights.

Who is behind this change of attitude? The people who are most adversely affected by child support - non-custodial parents. The bottom line in all of their arguments is that they want to pay less child support - or have child support completely done away with. They promote things like "joint custody" where each parent will have the child or children for equal parts of the year which means that no one will owe anyone any money. The biggest problem with that concept is that once a non-custodial parent has that type of arrangement, he or she can simply walk away from the children, and leave the entire financial burden on the other person.

Will non-custodial parents succeed in their goals to pay less child support?

Simply stated, yes. The reason for this is that custodial parents who have never received child support are concerned only with receiving what they are entitled to. They don't care if someone else is affected - until it begins to affect them. By then, it will be too late.

The studies quoted by non-custodial parents and the government, if taken at face value are very accurate. There is no doubt that children do benefit from the involvement of both parents in their lives. However, the government and policy makes need to look at the profile of deadbeat parents before they implement programs that will seriously impact the enforcement process for child support.

• The vast majority of these people are not fiscally responsible as demonstrated by their poor credit ratings which they earned by not paying their bills. Do we want this type of person teaching his children about responsibility?
  
  
• The majority of these people change jobs frequently. Do we want this type of person teaching his children about work ethics?
  
  
• Many deadbeat parents are drug and alcohol abusers. Do we want that type of person involved in the lives of his children.
  
  

The government's reaction to these questions is typical - and will cost the tax payer millions of dollars. Give these people job training so that they can get better jobs. Give them counseling to help them get over their substance abuse problems. Teach them how to balance his check book, and how to be financially responsible.

While the government is teaching the non-custodial parent all of these things - reduce his or her child support payment to $50 per month. The name of the program - already in place in some areas - is Fair Share. Whether or not this program will work is questionable. For the final picture, we need only look at all of the other social programs the government has started that have failed miserably, and at a great cost to the taxpayers.

There is little doubt that there are some non-custodial parents who have gotten a raw deal in the area of child support. However, these individuals are in the minority. We need only look at the millions of deadbeat parents who are not paying any child support at all to realize that these deadbeats will benefit from any changes in the laws or policies governing child support.

Essentially, to use an accounting term, the bottom line on the economics of child support is actually a question: Who is going to pay the child support?

If the government has its way, no one will.