Money for nothing: states are finally collecting money from deadbeat dads. Now, if they'd only get it to the moms

Washington Monthly, Oct, 2002 by Sandy Bergo

They succeeded, at least in part. Centralized payment centers were established in each state, to take control from inefficient or ineffective local officials and to lessen the burden on employers, who had previously been charged with deducting wages and getting the payments to a bewildering array of county offices. Thus armed, state agencies began cracking down on a wider pool of deadbeat dads. As collections rose, so did expectations. Federal, state, and local laws were changed to get tough on delinquent parents. Federal tax refunds were seized--state refunds, too, in some states. Prosecutors began to publicize their efforts to track down and punish deadbeat dads, winning them public acclaim and the parents better enforcement.

Eventually, former welfare recipients also began to benefit. When Congress decided to implement stricter welfare standards in 1996, they also changed the rules to allow former welfare recipients to Seep a larger share of child support collected by the state. Congress also passed legislation that improved collections across the board. Some fathers, for instance, had frustrated collection efforts by switching jobs, staying one step ahead of wage deduction orders. Under the new law, authorities could much more quickly find out when delinquent parents switched jobs and ensure that wage deduction orders got to the new employers. States also got better access to information on bank accounts and began to seize the assets of deadbeats.

As the states got better at roping in recalcitrant parents, state agencies began collecting enormous amounts of money. Instead of the $1 billion collected back in the late 1970s, state agencies brought in a total of $12 billion in 1996. In 2001, with enforcement powers further enhanced, they brought in a whopping $19 billion.

"It's an imperfect world"

But there was a catch: The very reforms that boosted collection have overloaded the systems designed to deliver those funds to the families entitled to them. As a result, the more money states collect, the more goes undistributed. The dollar figure reported by the states to the federal government is a snapshot of the money held, undistributed, on one day--September 30 of each year. This figure has climbed rapidly over time. In 1999, the states reported $503 million in undistributed support. In 2000, it was $634 million. By 2001, it was $738 million. "The irony is, the better the collections, the bigger this problem will be," says Vicki Turetsky, senior staff attorney for the Center for Law and Social Policy, an advocacy group for low-income families.

In Michigan, a massive effort to link all counties through a statewide computer system had the perverse effect of freezing payments, including those to Jane Baker and hundreds of other mothers. When state officials decided last year to switch over to the new computer system to meet an Oct. 1, 2001, federal deadline--rather than pay a $49 million penalty--they soon discovered that the software didn't include the capabilities necessary for distributing some of the funds. In total, $9.3 million ended up frozen in the old county computer system for months. Many Michigan women who no longer get welfare and are desperate to get any child support they can will have had to wait almost an entire year for their full share of their child support. "While it's a wonderful system," concedes Wayne County official Jane Varner, "we've had our hurdles."