Kenya N. Rahmaan
Along with every other state, Ohio mandates that a non-custodial parent (NCP) meet a specific standard before the officials can waive permanently assigned arrears. According to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services or ODJFS, the director or administrator of the Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA) may elect to accept a request or compromise permanently assigned arrears. Problems arise because legislators have granted public employees the authority to preside over cases usually reserved for magistrates and judges. The transfer of command may be a direct reason there are so few successful debt compromise examples available. Since the child support enforcement agency’s primary purpose is collecting money, there is often no sympathy for the personal situations occurring in a parent’s life.
Another reason for the lack of approved compromise of child support debt is that the criterion is so strict, officials rarely grant waivers. One way that the director could compromise arrears is if there is a lack of income received over some time. For instance, according to ODJFS,
a director or administrator may elect to accept a request to waive or compromise permanently assigned arrears when the CSEA determines that the request is in the best interests of the state of Ohio and the director may take into account whether the gross income of the obligor has been, for at least the twelve months preceding the date of the request, less than two hundred twenty-five percent of the federal poverty level for one person.
Based on this guideline, more people qualify for debt compromise programs because they live in poverty; however, the debt will build on these low-income parents.
Criteria and information meant to help these financially less fortunate parents seem to be lost when researching the compromised arrears statistics in the state of Ohio. Out of the eight counties in Ohio that offer some form of debt compromise programs, there is no data available that describes the effectiveness of these programs or the results. These programs are paid for by federal grants paid to the states and then to the counties to assist parents with accumulated debt supposedly. It is impossible to determine the success or failure of the programs without empirical evidence.
An administrator can erase child support if the permanently assigned arrears accrued when the obligor was incapacitated, unemployed, underemployed, or incarcerated (ODJFS). By this merit, Ohio should automatically excuse tens of thousands of parents from the child support debt without prerequisites or consequences. Unfortunately, this is not happening in Ohio or in any other states that supposedly help those in trouble with child support debt. Underemployment is widespread across America in the post-recession era. On the surface, the CSE makes parents believe that the reasons listed are not acceptable grounds for debt compromise.
According to ODJFS, the obligor may have been eligible for a modification of the child support obligation had a modification been pursued for periods when a financial hardship occurred. Regrettably, most parents suffering through such circumstances report resistance from caseworkers assigned to their cases who are reluctant to offer assistance. The obligor needs to be given the opportunity to present mitigating circumstances as to why no such modification was sought (ODJFS). Caseworkers refuse to follow specific regulations relating to debt compromise programs, either by choice or instruction. Legislators should never have granted the power to determine life-altering decisions to child support caseworkers.
Again, directors and not official law professionals make the choices, leading to bias results in termination requests. The bias decision may stem from child support officials being employed only because of the child support system. Without open child support cases, the entire agency would be closed. Enforcement workers make a living from child support, which is another segment of the system that depends on these children as a source of revenue. It is nearly impossible to believe that the assigned decision-makers will not be more concerned with their livelihoods than the parents and the children the government has hired them to serve.
As long as the government hides information from the most affected citizens, the parents, it will remain nearly impossible to change a child support order or compromise the debt. The child support guidelines seem to offer some remedy, but the officiators feel it more beneficial to keep people blind to the laws that govern child support. Unfair and unconstitutional laws are harmful to families and especially to non-custodial parents. As long as civil servants are permitted to make decisions usually reserved for elected judges, the faux rulings will not be impartial to the parents. It is time to reform the system so that the children are the actual beneficiaries of child support, not the government and its employees.
Reference:
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. (n.d.). OCS: Request to waive or compromise arrears rules. Retrieved May 12, 2014, from
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