Child Support

Via the Watcher of Weasels we have a rant from Raging Dave at Four Right Wing Wackos about the worst aspects of the child support enforcement program as it exists in many states.

I agree with Raging Dave that the system is broken - no doubt about it. I'm quite sure that there are many stories like that of Mr. Pierce, a man goat-roped into fatherhood (and hence, child support payments). I know that there is a perverse incentive for some states to go after anyone with money, assuming that they must be the father of any child whose mother is a candidate for The Jerry Springer Show (The Father Of My Child Is One Of These 42 Men That I Slept With In Less Than Two Weeks!). Everything that Raging Dave rages about is accurate.

But it is only half the story of why the system is broken. Contrary to the popular belief that only men get screwed under the system, there are instances of women who get the short shrift also. Let me explain by way of personal experience.

First, I believe that any man who fathers a child has automatically signed up for 18-25 years of supporting that child (time depending on whether or not the kid goes to college). If you were man enough to do the deed with Mommy, your man enough to live up to your obligations as Daddy. Period. End of statement. No questions. You're a father, you have an obligation. I don't feel sorry for you and you had better not sit there and ask me to feel sorry for you. Some decisions have long term consequences. Deal with it.

Several times on this site, I've mentioned that I have three kids. Clarification is in order. My other half has three kids. I have none that biologically mine. I support these three and love them like they're mine, but in the end it is only because I'm me. I am not linked to them via DNA. So they're my kids, they're just not MY kids.

The State of Florida is a state that does not take out a cut on child support payments. Awfully nice of them, especially considering the fact that the payments can get down as low as $35/week for a teenager (actually perspective on the cost of raising a kid is something the courts here should get a better grip on). Benefit comes in that without there being a cut taken, there is no incentive for the State to "create" fathers, quite possibly incorrectly. It is also a problem in trying to get the State to enforce child support collection.

The State of Florida also has another quirk (at least in the mid '90s they did. I don't know if the law has changed since). If the mother and father are not legally married at the time of birth, the father cannot be listed on the birth certificate - even if he concedes fatherhood and wants to be named. Paternity can only be established by a DNA test. Sounds all nice and fair, right?

Wrong. Getting the courts to order a DNA test is near next to impossible. Our youngest is already in elementary school. I've been with my other half for over five years, nearly six years, now. We have received exactly one - 1 - payment of $25 towards supporting that child - and the bum had the audacity to ask for it back as a loan! She has gone and asked a judge multiple times to order a DNA test so that his paternity could be legally established and so that she could get a court order for the support payments (she knows that we'll not actually see the money, but he'll at least end up in jail, hopefully working prison labor, which might start to send some money our way). The judges, so far, have refused. This same bum is the father of the middle child. He is listed as the father on her birth certificate (from another state). Over the same time frame, we have seen exactly the same $25 support.

The oldest one, her father has done a little better. Ordered to pay at the whopping rate of $35 week, he is close to, if not over, $2500 behind. Last year he had a decent income tax refund coming, but the State forgot to send in the paperwork to intercept it. From him we at least get the odd $35 check or maybe an occasional $100 check if he was feeling generous. But nothing consistent or meaningful in supporting his child.

We have tried every different avenue we can think of for getting some kind of support for these kids. Both me and my other half have struggled jobwise, and we're, between the both of us, not even making what I was alone just two years ago. It is a fairly constant struggle to make ends meet, which is part of the reason why I'm working two jobs right now. Getting a little, even token help, with support would be very welcome.

But when she's gone to the courts, she gets told she has to use a Department of Revenue attorney. Remember, the DOR doesn't make anything for collecting these payments, all of the money is sent on to the custodial parent. So to say that their interest in taking on another deadbeat was low would be an understatement. They have absolutely no interest in helping her to gain the support she needs and is rightly entitled to (and not in the negative sense of the word "entitlement," it took two people to create this child, yet only one is doing anything to care for the child). They are only interested in processing another case and getting off the docket for now.

The system does fail people like Mr. Pierce by not exercising proper due diligence or by using a presumption of innocence. But it also fails legitimate parents who are trying to play by the rules. The system is in need of a complete overhaul, taking into account the needs of both non-parents and real parents in true need of assistance.

I don't have the end-all solution, but there is more to the story than just the horror stories of the wrongly accused. We need to find a better and more efficient way to screen the alleged parents to better protect the innocent while also holding the real fathers to account.