# States Receive Grant Money For Enforcing Child Support

- Link: https://thechildsupporthustle.com/states-receive-grant-money-for-enforcing-child-support/
- Published: 2024-05-06T14:23:35+00:00
- Author: MsRockMon

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Kenya N Rahmaan

January 28, 2018  

The state and federal government collects billions of dollars from the child support
system.  Besides the incentive money that states collect from the federal government
because it meets or exceeds the performance measurements, certain states/counties
can also earn grant money.   The Health and Human Services Administration for Children
and Families (ACF) has awarded nearly $4 million to state-run child support agencies
around the country in an effort to better understand individuals’ behavior and decision-
making ability when it comes to paying child support (ACF, 2014).  The money has
been distributed almost equally among certain state child support agencies  The 
Office of Child Support Enforcement Agency or OCSE (2014), announced that it awarded
eight grants to state child support agencies under the Behavioral Interventions 
for Child Support Services (BICS).

 

The grants totaled 800,000, and counties in California, Ohio, and Georgia were among
the eight recipients.  Many can argue that the money could be better spent decreasing
the number of children living in poverty and the unemployment rates across the country
instead of spending tax dollars on exploring the reasons that child support is not
paid consistently and in full.  Sacramento County and San Joaquin counties in California
have been awarded $150,000 to fund the Dedicated Daddies Make a Difference program.
The platform was designed to explore ways to engage parents through fatherhood-based
programs (ACF, 2014).  This seems to be an unnecessary use of funds since it has
already been proven that child support collections and relationships improve when
parents are able to actually pay support.

 

The concept of Family-Centered Child Support Services is not a newly implemented
approach to improving the child support system.  In fact, the ACF recognized that
collecting support depends on responsive child support services and employment for
non-custodial parents.  There hardly seems to be a need to grant two counties over
$100 thousand to repeat what was discovered by the officials at least three years
ago.  The family-centered approach has recognized the need for cooperation between
parents and parents’ emotional connection with their children (ACF).

 

This, again, is nothing new, and grant money being paid to support agencies will
not alter the results that have already been discovered.  The grant money could 
be better spent by offering more employment opportunities to parents who are included
in the 7.3% of Californians who are out of work.  Using the grant money to assist
low-income parents and families would certainly decrease the 23% child poverty rate.
The government should not be permitted to throw away money to fund programs that
are repetitive and do nothing to impact barriers of low-income families on either
a short or long-term basis.

 

According to ACF (2014), the grantee, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia
Child Support Service Division, will be receiving $150,000 as it plans to explore
ways to right-size child support orders for the recently unemployed.  This topic,
too, has been explored and analyzed over the years and hardly requires another dime
to be paid towards researching this issue.  The OCSE (2014) reported that child 
support orders should be realistic and based on the noncustodial parent’s actual
ability to comply with orders.  Quite simply, if a parent is unemployed, the child
support becomes unrealistic no matter what the amount.   Unfortunately, instead 
of discontinuing the child support order while the parent searches for new employment,
the payments and late fees continue to accumulate.

 

The ACF (2012) wrote that increasing noncustodial parent involvement can have a 
positive effect on noncustodial parent engagement in the lives of the children. 
Perhaps reading previous reports about this issue could save both the government
and taxpayers at least $150,000.  Again, this money could be better utilized in 
finding gainful employment for the 7.6 unemployed citizens living in D.C.  The 27%
child poverty rate would surely decrease because, as previous reports have shown,
employed parents pay the most child support through income withholdings and income
tax refund offsets.  After the government collects the money, the remaining money
should (theoretically) trickle down to the children.

 

Georgia will be receiving its $125,083 grant, which will be divided between four
counties.  The Behavioral Interventions of Early Engagement for Georgia Child Support
Services hopes to increase child support payments by increasing communication and
engagement from the moment an order is established (ACF 2014).  Again, this dilemma
of realistic child support orders and parent participation has already been discussed,
and remedies have been offered across the country.  Because so many child support
orders are established by default, the payment amounts are almost always imputed.

 

The ACF (2012) shared that engaging noncustodial parents early in the order establishment
is more likely to result in setting realistic orders and avoiding default orders.
This information is hardly new and should be used instead of awarding grants to 
explore topics that have already been researched at the cost of taxpayers.  Engaging
noncustodial parents early also means that they may avoid the unnecessary build-
up over arrears, and it may increase parental communication and involvement (ACF,
2012).  The child support agencies, both state and federal, have no problem collecting
money to research topics that have already been researched and analyzed time and
time again. 

 

As with California and D.C., Georgia could be spending this additional money helping
its 7.7% of unemployed people find and keep jobs.  This would surely benefit the
27% of children living in poverty, especially since most people who have been mandated
to comply with child support laws have little or no income.  It is no secret that
the local, state, and federal governments collect billions of dollars from citizens
in the name of child support.  These grants are being awarded and justified as a
reason to explore situations and solutions for problems that have already been resolved.
This is just another piece of the child support hustle. 

 

As long as parents continue to suffer injustices in the name of child support while
the government agents continue to prosper, there will always be a need for reform.
The powers that be have already decided how to best keep parents in debt, but the
government offers some sort of solution to disguise the unconstitutionality of the
child support system.  Unfortunately, the officials are only repeating the same 
information but are not changing any of the policies and laws that hinder the economic
growth of children and families.  It is time to repair what is truly broken and 
not allow the government to keep funding these programs that do not produce any 
positive and substantive results.  These grant awards are only giving the illusion
that the government is interested in the well-being of children and families and
in revamping the child support system.

References:

Administration for Children & Families. (2012). _Establishing realistic child support
orders: Engaging noncustodial parents_ (1). Retrieved from Office of Child Support
Enforcement website: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ocse/establishing_realistic_child_support_orders.
pdf

Administration for Children & Families. (2014, October 7). ACF grant to explore 
link between psychology, behavior and child support payments | Administration for
Children and Families. Retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/media/press/acf-grant-
to-explore-link-between-psychology-behavior-and-child-support-payments

Administration for Children & Families. (2014, June 6). Grants | Administration 
for Children and Families. Retrieved November 30, 2014, from http://www.acf.hhs.
gov/grants/open/foa/view/HHS-2014-ACF-OCSE-FD-0822

Administration for Children & Families. (n.d.). _Family-centered innovations improve
child support outcomes_ (1). Retrieved from Office of Child Support Enforcement 
website: [https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ocse/family_centered_innovations.pdf](https://thechildsupporthustle.com/states-receive-grant-money-for-enforcing-child-support/\"https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ocse/family_centered_innovations.pdf\")

Office of Child Support Enforcement. (2014). _November/December 2014 Child Support
Report | Office of Child Support Enforcement | Administration for Children and Families_(
36/11). Retrieved from Administration of Children & Families website: https://www.
acf.hhs.gov/programs/css/resource/november-december-2014-child-support-report