MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - More than three-fourths of Missouri's "deadbeat" dads and moms are dodging federal and state legal requirements to help pay for their children's support.
"The growing problem of parents not paying child support has taken its toll on the family and on the state's Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program," said Rep. Pat Dougherty, D-St. Louis.
Dougherty is chairman of a special legislative committee looking for ways to toughen the state's child support enforcement laws.
"It is now our job to examine plans that will encourage these parents to pay the support and pay it on time."
While Missouri has had a child-support enforcement program for several years, in recent years, the federal government has imposed its own set of requirements on the states for these kind of programs.
The committee was established to prepare a legislative package to bring the state into compliance with those federal requirements as well as improve the state's support enforcement efforts.
States are federally mandated to either identify the father 75 percent of the time or be penalized in AFDC funding. Last year Missouri established paternity in just 46 percent of its cases.
"Establishing the father's identity is important for many reasons," said Dan Joyce, deputy director of internal operations with the Child Support Enforcement Division.
"Beyond the obvious financial obligations and benefits involved, it gives the child a parent and allows an emotional bond to grow. The mother and child also have a reference for important medical information."
Last year, Missouri's 1,100 caseworkers at the Child Support Enforcement Division were able to identify and locate the absent parent 42 percent of the time in AFDC cases and 56 percent of the time in non-AFDC cases.
Further, the division was able to secure child support payments in only about half of the cases in which the absent parent had been located - meaning that less than 25 percent success rate in getting payments from "deadbeat" parents.
State officials attribute the low rate of parental-support collection to several factors. One is case-load growth. The number of cases handled by the division has doubled in six years, limiting the time caseworkers can devote to individual cases. In addition, once found, the non-custodial parent often is unable to afford child support.
Another problem is the lack of an automated tracking system nationwide. Interstate cases make up 30 percent of Missouri's child support case load, and although states combine efforts to solve interstate cases, it is difficult to locate delinquent parents once they cross state lines.
Welfare bills under consideration in Congress would establish an integrated network linking all states to information on the location and assets of parents. This expanded Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) would combine state's databases nationwide.
Findings and recommendations from the committee's investigation will be delivered to the House by Dec. 1.