Post by John Doe on Jul 24, 2013 17:58:32 GMT -7
nationalparentsorganization.org/blog/21042-child-support-commissioner-current-system-adds-up-to-debt-and-discouragement
this is the first bit of common sense i have heard on the topic of child support. imagine helping a non custodial parent find a job instead of a jail cell. who would have thought it.
Back in 2006, the Office of Child Support Enforcement issued a brief report on child support obligors and related topics. It was notable for its honesty and clarity. Gone was the typical bureaucratic obfuscation of the realities of child support debt and the process of collecting it. What replaced it were not only some hard facts, but also a rather plaintive tone. “We’re destroying people’s lives; maybe we should reconsider,” is a fair summary of the gently-delivered message.
That document informed readers that some 63% of child support debtors reported earning less than $10,000 in the previous year. The plaintive voice came at the end when the report gave the opinion that maybe, just maybe, there’d be fewer non-custodial parents behind on their payments if family courts would in the first place issue orders they could actually pay. That struck me the first time I read it. After all, wouldn’t you think state courts would know that? Shouldn’t we take for granted that they don’t tag non-custodial fathers with child support bills they can’t pay?
Of course we should be able to take that for granted, but we can’t, as the OCSE document made clear. Many of those unpayable orders come about from the practice of imputing income. So, if a man’s out of a job, his income is zero, but courts ignore the fact. They look back at what he was making when he had a job, or at his work experience or what “he looks like on paper,” i.e. his education, licenses, etc. So, never mind that he has no income; if he made $40,000 as a truck driver three years ago, the court may use that as his imputed income and set child support accordingly.
The problem is that the courts impute income, but they don’t impute payments. A father’s income may be imaginary, but his payments have to be the real thing. In the real world, i.e. the place not occupied by family court judges, it takes real money to make real payments, and, whatever the fantasies of the judge, a man without income is a man who’ll fall behind on his payments.
Now it seems the OCSE is making renewed efforts to correct some of the stupider child support enforcement practices we’ve come to know and loathe over the past 30 years or so. Here’s a good article about that effort (Governing, 7/16/13). Reading it and the remarks of the OCSE commissioner, Vicki Turetsky, made me slap my face in disbelief. Most of what she says is so commonsensical. I didn’t think that was possible when the subject is child support.
That document informed readers that some 63% of child support debtors reported earning less than $10,000 in the previous year. The plaintive voice came at the end when the report gave the opinion that maybe, just maybe, there’d be fewer non-custodial parents behind on their payments if family courts would in the first place issue orders they could actually pay. That struck me the first time I read it. After all, wouldn’t you think state courts would know that? Shouldn’t we take for granted that they don’t tag non-custodial fathers with child support bills they can’t pay?
Of course we should be able to take that for granted, but we can’t, as the OCSE document made clear. Many of those unpayable orders come about from the practice of imputing income. So, if a man’s out of a job, his income is zero, but courts ignore the fact. They look back at what he was making when he had a job, or at his work experience or what “he looks like on paper,” i.e. his education, licenses, etc. So, never mind that he has no income; if he made $40,000 as a truck driver three years ago, the court may use that as his imputed income and set child support accordingly.
The problem is that the courts impute income, but they don’t impute payments. A father’s income may be imaginary, but his payments have to be the real thing. In the real world, i.e. the place not occupied by family court judges, it takes real money to make real payments, and, whatever the fantasies of the judge, a man without income is a man who’ll fall behind on his payments.
Now it seems the OCSE is making renewed efforts to correct some of the stupider child support enforcement practices we’ve come to know and loathe over the past 30 years or so. Here’s a good article about that effort (Governing, 7/16/13). Reading it and the remarks of the OCSE commissioner, Vicki Turetsky, made me slap my face in disbelief. Most of what she says is so commonsensical. I didn’t think that was possible when the subject is child support.
this is the first bit of common sense i have heard on the topic of child support. imagine helping a non custodial parent find a job instead of a jail cell. who would have thought it.