Change On Federal Benefits Payments Could Leave Child Support Debtors With No Income

[liberalhistorian]

16. That is what drives me crazy about the current

child support laws and enforcements. The system often makes no distinction between those who are willing but unable to pay because they're disabled or lost their jobs and cannot find another one despite diligent searching or are too ill, etc., etc., versus those who are perfectly able to pay but just don't want to or outright refuse. To the system, ALL child support debtors are bad deadbeats regardless of the reason for the arrears. That goes for women as well as men, I've known noncustodial mothers and some were deliberate deadbeats while others had fallen on hard times. Yet the law treated them all the same. And custodial parents with non-deadbeat debtors need to be a bit more sympathetic. If the debtor has lost a job and is unable to find another one or is ill or disabled, etc., and simply unable to pay, they need to not only be more understanding but realize that if they were still together, the financial situation would be the same.

While I cannot stand deliberate child support deadbeats who do everything possible not to pay while dumping all of the responsibility on the custodial parent, (and while often living pretty well themselves) there's a huge difference between that and someone who's fallen on hard times and simply cannot pay. Throwing them in jail doesn't do any more good than throwing any other debtor in jail. How in the hell are they supposed to pay when they're in jail? And being in jail makes them all the more unemployable when they're trying to find work so that they CAN pay.

My son's father was both a deliberate deadbeat and then permanently disabled. He had no problem paying support when our son was young, but when he remarried his wife resented my son's very existence, let alone having to pay any amount of support (and the amount was actually pretty small since he didn't make that much money to begin with) and he stopped paying, always quitting jobs just before child support caught up with him. But then he became disabled and simply couldn't pay and I felt bad for him because the system was treating him like before, like he was a deliberate deadbeat who was hiding a pile of cash and he just wasn't. He wasn't even able to work, let alone pay anything.

The problem with the system is that it's one-size-fits-all, whereas child support needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis because each one is different. And what's particularly infuriating is that the system often seems to go after those who are trying their best and who are not at all deliberate deadbeats, while leaving alone those who are thumbing their nose at the system and their own children, perfectly able to pay and often living well themselves. Often it's because the deadbeats have money and a position in the community, whereas the non-deadbeats have no such status or power.