# Steal Stimulus Money ✅ Arrest Non-Custodial Parents ✅ The Child Support Hustle Is REAL

- Link: https://thechildsupporthustle.com/steal-stimulus-money-%e2%9c%85-arrest-non-custodial-parents-%e2%9c%85-the-child-support-hustle-is-real/
- Published: 2024-05-06T14:23:34+00:00
- Author: MsRockMon

⌊\"\"⌉⌊\"\"⌉June 28, 2020

Kenya N. Rahmaan

As the country struggles to rebound from CoronaVirus, the second-class citizens 
of America are being stolen from and punished for being poor.   Starting with mass
layoffs and furloughs, already vulnerable non-custodial parents (NCPs) were forced,
like everyone else, to stop working abruptly.   If eligible, they could file for
unemployment benefits which were subject to child support garnishments. While the
rest of the country experienced financial relief from bills such as rent, mobile
phone, and utility payments,   The government denied NCPs any relief pertaining 
to the suspension of child support obligations during this difficult time. When 
parents approached child support officials about granting some relief or break during
the pandemic, most responded that parents needed to file for a downward modification
immediately.   That is if they responded at all.

 

The United States has and continues to experience catastrophic financial conditions
both in the business world and within individual households. Unemployment numbers
spiked during the pandemic to numbers that we have not seen in decades.   According
to Sarah O’Brien of CNBC (2020), about 22 million Americans filed for those benefits
in the four weeks ending April 11. Some NCPs have yet to receive a payment, while
others have complained about being garnished too much.   As for the overpayments,
Missouri, Arizona, and Oklahoma have reported absurd amounts of child support deducted
from NCPs’ unemployment benefits.   One mother from Arizona told Laura Gomez of 
the AZMirrior (2020) that her child support obligation is $80 a month for her 16-
year-old son and 15-year-old daughter.   However, the state is charging her $295
a week for child support.

 

In Missouri, a father typically paying less than $50 of his unemployment benefit
noticed a larger deduction for a child support payment.   Shawn Kennedy said that
the $291 deduction that mistakenly showed up on his claim status page was taken 
out of his payment (Emma Jones, 2020).   Another father in Oklahoma claimed that
child support enforcement has been making double deductions from his unemployment
benefits.   Based on an article written by Taylor Adams (2020), John Cochran said
that the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) and Child Support Services
have plucked hundreds of dollars a week from his traditional unemployment and the
pandemic unemployment assistance.   

 

To add insult to injury, Mr. Cochran says that his ex has only received one payment
over two months of overpayments.   The Oklahoma Child Support Office offered a flimsy
statement that failed to address the overpayments and who had possession of the 
money.   Arizona officials explained that overpayment issues are part of the policy,
which mandates that 50% of unemployment payments be garnished when a parent owes
child support.   According to Gomez, the Department of Economic Security or DES,
Brett Bezio,

 

> _the Social Security Act requires states to have automated processes for withholding
> child support payments from UI benefits. Fifty percent will be withheld from Federal
> Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) payments._

 

While every state has its own guidelines about what percentage of unemployment compensation
can be deducted for child support, Arizona is the highest. California garnishes 
25%, but the Department of Labor (DOL) rules are clear. According to a program letter
released in April 2020, child support obligations must be deducted from FPUC payments
in the same manner and to the same extent as these obligations are deducted from
regular Unemployment Compensation (UC). Unfortunately, even when an NCP is current
on their payments, having an active support order triggers the automatic deduction
from unemployment benefits in every state. Arizona and Oklahoma have at least attempted
to answer questions posed by overcharged parents, Missouri child support officials
failed to respond to questions submitted by KSHB Channel 41 Action News.

 

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housholds-child-support.jpg.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/taxoffset-300x170.png\")

Regrettably, the financial abuse executed against NCPs occurred early during the
pandemic when the Federal government began issuing stimulus payments to struggling
individuals and families. Failing to consider that NCP fell within the parameters
of out-of-work employees forced to stay home and forego earning a living, the government
declared that the government would offset stimulus payments if NCPs owed child support.
This new mandate was and continues to be devastating to hundreds of thousands of
parents forced out of work and finding themselves indebted even deeper to the unconstitutional
child support system.   When the government declared payments of $1,200 to citizens,
there was a sigh of relief from many around the country.   Then the news was released
that, according to the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) (2020),

 

> _the economic impact payments made to eligible noncustodial parents who owe past-
> due child support and who are subject to intercept under the Federal Income Tax
> Refund Offset Program will be offset by the amount of past-due child support. 
> Because these economic impact payments are treated as a tax refund offset, and
> not an administrative offset, the Act does not provide states the option to suspend
> federal tax refund offset in cases meeting the eligibility criteria under section
> 464 of the Social Security Act and 45 CFR 303.72._

 

This new regulation meant that already struggling NCPs would not receive a stimulus
payment even though other government owed debt, such as student loan debt, would
be exempt from garnishment or offset.   What made matters direr for NCPs was that
states were not offering any relief, such as child support payment suspension, during
this economic catastrophe.   Instead, many agencies advised NCPs to file for downward
modifications if they were under or unemployed due to Covid-19.   Although that 
same letter stated that NCPs had to meet specific criteria to offset the payment,
mainly being $150 past due on the child support, hundreds of payers have reported
being current on the payments and still having the stimulus payment snatched by 
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

 

Although the agency has admitted to sending incorrect amounts, primarily attributed
to garnishing the refunds of insured spouses, the only remedy offered is to complete
Form 8379, an Injured Spouse Allocation document, and submit it to the IRS.   By
filing this document, Karin Price Mueller (2020) reports that it allows the spouse
who is not responsible for the child support to get back their share of a joint 
refund.   This process is not guaranteed to work out in the innocent spouse’s favor.
If it does, the innocent spouse may receive the original payment amount lowered 
to cover unwarranted processing fees charged by the government  . Either way, the
child does not receive the total payment amount, and neither does the parent.   
The government, of course, receives something out of every offset, whether legal
or not.

 

Not only are these payments due every month, and the only remedy offered by child
support officials is to file for a downward modification, child support agencies
and courthouses have been closed for months due to Covid-19. Traditionally, modifications
have taken months, sometimes years, even to be reviewed by a child support caseworker.
And once reviewed, it is up to their discretion whether the downward modification
is approved or denied. The OCSE stated that Federal law obliges states to review
an order upon either parent’s request if the requesting parent demonstrates a “substantial
change in circumstances. Indeed, the health pandemic that has immobilized the country,
the economy, and the world, along with utterly halting child support employees from
working at all, should qualify as a substantial change in circumstance. However,
the child support payments continue to accumulate, and the debt balloons out of 
control.

 

Unfortunately for the NCP, no time restrictions mandate how long a child support
agency can take to process a modification. Parents have reported waiting several
months to several years before receiving any response to applications requesting
a downward modification. In the meantime, the child support order remains the same,
despite the changed circumstances. The Bradley Amendment prohibits states from retroactively
erasing child support arrears. Specifically, under current law, no matter the circumstances,
a State cannot modify delinquent child support obligations (Douglas Reid Weimer).
The amendment guarantees that any debt accumulated during the modification process
is the responsibility of the NCP if and when the child support caseworker denies
the application.

 

While these horrible child support policies continue to wreak havoc on the second-
class citizens of the US, there is yet another problem on the horizon. For a couple
of parents, the situation has already presented itself. The public asked child support
officials to suspend child support payments and all enforcement practices during
the pandemic. Significantly few states responded and only one state implemented 
a mandate suspending child support enforcement. Chief Justice of South Carolina,
Donald W. Beatty, suspended all active bench warrants issued for failure to pay 
child support debt. The order states, in part, that according to the South Carolina
Judicial Branch (2020),

 

> it is so ordered, that any and all unexecuted bench warrants issued by Family 
> Courts of this State, for the non-payment of child support and alimony, shall 
> not be executed and no person subject to such bench warrants shall be arrested,
> for a period of thirty (30) days from the date of this order.

 

Although Beatty only issued the order for 30 days, there was at least an effort 
by a government official to suspend arrests. Unfortunately, two states, in particular,
are failing to extend this courtesy to struggling NCPs and not embarrass or arrest
them during a time when the nation is still fighting for financial survival. The
sheriff’s department in Dutchess County, New York, believed it would benefit NCPs
and their children to release the names, birthdays, and birthplaces of parents who
allegedly owe child support debt—posting the list of over a hundred parents on Facebook.
The since-deleted post had the caption which read that, due to the National Pandemic,
the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office would like to extend the opportunity for those
with Family Court warrants’ for FAILURE TO PAY CHILD SUPPORT, to make good, (Saba
Ali, 2020).

 

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housholds-child-support.jpg.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/DutchessCountrySheriff-
175x300.jpg\")

The post was a poorly camouflaged attempt to assist NCPs in catching up with child
support payments.   The fact that the department reverted to an old enforcement 
tactic of public shaming is highly disheartening. Public shaming poor parents in
an attempt to collect a debt during such an economically strenuous time display 
the callousness and absolute disregard that those in control of child support enforcement
have for non-residential parents.   The original post was deleted and replaced with
a statement reiterating that opportunities are afforded to NCPs to pay child support,
minus any consideration to all adverse conditions caused by Covid-19. The department
or the state failed to make an effort to forego any enforcement punishments due 
to non-payment of child support.   Releasing personal information by law enforcement
needs to stop before other states follow suit.

 

Traveling to North Carolina, the police department decided to conduct a child support
arrest roundup dubbed Operation ‘Pay Up.’   According to an article written by Stacia
Strong (2020), Craven County Sheriff Chip Hughes says that finding and arresting
those who fail to pay their child support is a priority for his office. The officials
seem to have ignored a new executive order issued by Governor Roy Cooper just one
day before the mass arrests.

 

Executive Order No. 147 is an extension of the Phase 2 order and new measures to
save lives in the Covid-19 pandemic (State of North Carolina, 2020).   This order
will undoubtedly delay parents returning to work and hinder their ability to pay,
which means they are not ‘willfully’ failing to pay child support.   Willful failure
to pay child support is the foundation of how the government justifies incarcerating
NCPs for failure to pay child support.    This foundation is contrary to a statement
made by Hughes, who inferred that,

 

> _These people you see here have been avoiding apprehension, if they put a quarter
> of the time in effort into paying their child support and meeting their obligations
> as they have in avoiding detection and apprehension by us, they probably would
> not be a board right now  __(Strong)._

⌊\"\"⌉⌊\"\"⌉Other barriers plague the state that was present before Covid-19 and
that still exists today.   The North Carolina Justice Center reported that amid 
an economic recovery that has taken nearly a decade to bring poverty back to pre-
Recession levels, poverty in North Carolina is still worse than in 35 states.   
Yet, police departments are blaming low-income, unemployed NCPs for the inability
to pay. In contrast, custodial parents can apply for cash and food benefits courtesy
of the government during their hardship.   In the city of New Berns, where Operation’
Pay Up’ was conducted, the unemployment rate reached 10% in April compared t0 4.3%
reported just one month prior (BLS, 2020).    This city also has a higher amount
of people living in poverty. 

 

The poverty levels, while high for the entire state was reported at 18.5% in New
Bern in 2019.   Child support officials must consider these factors before issuing
arrest warrants and arresting parents for child support debt.   Instead of sharing
assumed financial information attempting to justify charging unemployed, low-income,
poverty struck, and desperate NCPs, state officials should use their resources, 
including funds that would best assist both children and parents during these difficult
times.   Personal experiences, statistics, and numerous studies have proven that
arresting parents who cannot afford to pay is counterproductive and damages the 
parent/child relationship.

 

Society needs to ensure that all citizens are protected, financially and otherwise,
while we recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. While all others out of work have some
sort of safety net to assist with bills, food, rent, etc., NCPs are left to fend
for themselves. They are now, once again, being robbed, hunted, and jailed for owing
a debt that they cannot afford to pay. Not only is this practice illegal and unconstitutional,
but it is also immoral and unethical. Our government should NEVER treat non-custodial
parents as second-class citizens.

 

References:

 

_Adams, T. (2020, June 11). OESC, DHS facing backlash after child support payments
taken out twice from unemployment benefits. KFOR.com Oklahoma City. https://kfor.
com/news/local/oesc-dhs-facing-backlash-after-child-support-payments-taken-out-twice-
from-unemployment-benefits/?fbclid=IwAR2-7vqUBE\_GX0FyN1ZmUiJGu2aPln-HSYKJzYUgkXB8O1GYWA8phgW2TkA_

Ali, S. (2020, March 19). Dutchess Sheriff’s office discloses child support warrants,
encourages social distancing. The Poughkeepsie Journal. https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.
com/story/news/local/2020/03/19/coronavirus-dutchess-sheriffs-office-discloses-child-
support-warrants/2878821001/

Beatty, D. W. (2020, May 7). SC judicial branch. SC Judicial Branch. https://www.
sccourts.org/whatsnew/displayWhatsNew.cfm?indexId=2497

Department of Labor. (n.d.). Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 15-20. ETA
advisories, employment & training administration (ETA) – U.S. Department of Labor.

Gomez, L. (2020, May 13). DES overcharges parents paying child support, leaving 
them with little unemployment aid. Arizona Mirror. https://www.azmirror.com/2020/
05/13/des-overcharges-parents-paying-child-support-leaving-them-with-little-unemployment-
aid/

Jones, E. (2020, June 11). Kansans report child support unemployment deduction error.
KSHB. https://www.kshb.com/news/coronavirus/kansans-report-child-support-unemployment-
deduction-error

Mueller, K. P. (2020, May 12). Some stimulus payments wrongly withheld for back 
child support, taxpayers say. nj.com. 

North Carolina Justice Center. (2019, December 17). Fight poverty, promote prosperity
for North Carolina. https://www.ncjustice.org/publications/how-fighting-poverty-
promotes-north-carolinas-prosperity

Office of Child Support Enforcement. (2020, April 13). Economic impact payments 
under the coronavirus aid, relief, and economic security (CARES) act DCL-20-02. 
Administration for Children and Families.

Office of Child Support Enforcement. (n.d.). COVID-19: Frequently asked questions
for child support programs. Office of Child Support Enforcement | ACF. https://www.
acf.hhs.gov/css/covid-19-faqs-for-child-support-programs#enforcement

State of North Carolina. (2020, June 24). Executive Order NO. 147. Government of
North Carolina. https://files.nc.gov/governor/documents/files/EO147-Phase-2-Extension.
pdf

Strong, S. (2020, June 25). 27 arrested in child support roundup ‘operation pay 
up’. https://www.witn.com. https://www.witn.com/2020/06/25/27-arrested-in-child-
support-roundup-operation-pay-up/?fbclid=IwAR3sqllFvRWSoJJR9jOgF41pRlVL2DNgpMgHcIriJDAtaDL1wCA7kXC5Ung

U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. (2020, June 19). State employment and unemployment
summary. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

U>S> Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020, May). New Bern : Southeast information office:
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

United States Census Bureau. (2019, July 1). U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: North
Carolina; New Bern city, North Carolina. Census Bureau QuickFacts. https://www.census.
gov/quickfacts/fact/table/NC,newberncitynorthcarolina/PST045219

Weimer, D. R. (n.d.). The Bradley amendment: Prohibition against retroactive modification
of child support arrearages. Congressional Research Reports. https://congressionalresearch.
com/RS20642/document.php?study=THE+BRADLEY+AMENDMENT+PROHIBITION+AGAINST+RETROACTIVE
+MODIFICATION+OF+CHILD+SUPPORT+ARREARAGES

YCharts. (2020, May). North Carolina unemployment rate. https://ycharts.com/indicators/
north_carolina_unemployment_rate