MzRockMon's The Child Support Hustle®️

 

May 27, 2015 

Kenya N. Rahmaan

With the recent murder of South Carolina father, Walter Scott, who ran from the police because he had a warrant for failing to pay child support, The Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement Agency (OCSE) is trying to do damage control.  The office has released its March/April newsletter, which is comprised of articles discussing child support enforcement and incarcerated parents.  Nothing in the articles will be able to alleviate advocates of child support reform, even though great details are describing the relationships between prison administrators and child support enforcement agencies across the country.  The newsletter showcased states that allegedly offer assistance to incarcerated parents but fails even to mention possibly abolishing the laws that actually sentence parents to prison because they owe child support in the first place.  

OCSE (2015) states that one in two state prisoners are parents.  Instead of eliminating jail as a punishment for parents, states such as Indiana offer information as a viable resource for incarcerated parents.  The goal of the different agencies when implementing such programs is to help parents incarcerated in state prison facilities navigate the child support system and understand their rights and responsibilities (OCSE, 2015).  Information can be an essential tool when one’s freedom is not being threatened. 

However, children and parents could be better served by our government agencies when dealing with child support issues if tangible changes were made to not only eliminate prison as a punishment for owing child support debt but also ensure that 100% of the child support payment reaches the children.  Currently, Indiana retains all child support payments received in cases where the family receives Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits.  Not to mention, a parent who is convicted of nonsupport of a child can be found guilty of a Class D or Class C felony.  A Class D felony conviction can carry a three-year sentence, while a C felony can mean a parent spends eight years behind bars.  If convicted, the fines will add at least $10,000 to child support arrears, which will continue accumulating during incarceration.  Indiana parents do not need information more than they need to be excused from the debt that quickly adds up while incarcerated, accompanied by the elimination of the threat of being arrested once freed from prison.

The Child Support Report (2015) shares that after release, many owe an average of $23 thousand or more in child support.  Much of this debt results from interest, penalties, and fees that build during imprisonment.  Some parents may consider themselves lucky if they live in Kansas and only owe $23,000 in child support debt upon release.  This is because, according to the National Conference of State Legislators or NCSL (2013), Kansas can fine its parents who fail to pay support $100,000 and jail them for seven months if convicted. 

The state offers a couple of programs that may reduce state-owed arrears, but the amount excused is only a mere drop in the bucket when compared to the average debt owed by newly released prisoners.  Obligors can receive an adjustment of up to $2,000 on state owed arrears if they complete approved courses in prison (OCSE, 2015).  This amount will do very little to decrease the amount of arrears for most imprisoned parents in the state.  In 2013, $669,234,974 was the total amount of arrears owed in Kansas (NCSL, 2014). 

This astronomical amount can be attributed to the 8% interest that the state charges on late payments.  The arrears-reducing programs offer minimal benefits to incarcerated and newly released parents.  When the money for child support is collected, the excessive amount of arrears will always decrease the amount of money that will actually be paid directly to the children.  Arizona is a state that focuses on education as a means to reduce arrears for incarcerated parents. 

A group of agencies, Arizona’s Division of Child Support Services, has created a program that promotes three specific aspects of debt forgiveness.  The program, according to OCSE (2015), created a concept of a three-pronged arrears program which consists of

  • a hardship forgiveness program,

     

  • a consistent payer program,

     

  • and a Personal Development Initiatives program.

     

The idea of assisting parents with such programs may be a soothing solution for the heads of office who want to appease people who disagree with the child support system.  However, this plan may backfire.  The amount of money that may be forgiven is not significant when viewing the big picture of allegedly child support debt owed by parents. 

Source: BlackPast.org

For example, when a parent completes the GED program, they can apply for reduced arrears.  Unfortunately, debt forgiveness is not automatic.  According to the OCSE (2015), the child support office encourages noncustodial parents to complete a GED program to apply for a $1,000 waiver of state-assigned arrears.  It would be more beneficial to parents and children if other opportunities were offered after program completion, as well as guaranteed debt forgiveness. https://youtube.com/live/4CYD5I4vo9o

A thousand dollars could be quite significant for a noncustodial parent if they only owed a thousand dollars in arrears.  That is not the case in many situations.  As of 2013, the state of Arizona reported a total of $1,737,681,855, and there was only $402,671,342 owed in current support (NCSL, 2014).  These programs offer no substantial assistance to parents as they face reentry barriers after being released from prison.  The OCSE newsletter continues to describe a few other programs that are supposed to help incarcerated parents with maintaining and paying child support debt upon release. 

The best solution for these parents is to have zero child support debt owed upon release from prison.  The punishment of imprisonment for parents who owe child support debt should be abolished as it seems to lend only a minimal deterrent to parents.  This is especially true when they are simply unable to afford the payment.  One of the major misconceptions of the child support program in TANF cases is that the child support is supposed to repay the case award distributed to the low-income family. 

This award is a grant and not a loan.  This means that this money is not supposed to be repaid to the government.  This money has already been paid for through taxes.  Adding the interest, penalties, and fines on money that is technically not a loan is even more criminal than incarcerating poor people because they cannot afford to pay a debt. 

In this quest for child support reform, we must first rid parents of the threat of imprisonment as a punishment for failing to pay child support debt.  Parents like Walter Scott should not be jailed because they struggle to pay their bills.  And no person, parent or not, should be gunned down in the back while fleeing possible arrest for owing any type of debt in the United States.  This is 2015.  We should start living in the present instead of reenacting the debtors’ prisons and similar punishments of the past.

References:

National Conference of State Legislatures.  (2013, January).  Criminal nonsupport and child support.  Retrieved from www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/criminal-nonsupport-and-child-support.aspx

National Conference of State Legislatures.  (2014, May 20).  2013 State by state data on child support collections.  Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/2013-state-by-state-data-on-child-support-collections.aspx

Office of Child Support Enforcement.  (2015).  Child support report (47-3).  Retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/programs/css/march_april_2015_child_support_report.pdf

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