It’s no shocker that single parenting costs more than having a partner to share the “overhead” costs like housing, utilities, transportation, childcare, food and entertainment. Making up the difference and keeping the children stable during and after a divorce is what child support payments are for.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau Statistics, most of the $41.7 billion in child support paid each year goes to children younger than 21; the average child support payment in the U.S. is $430 per month; the vast majority (85%) of child support providers in the U.S. are men; 60 percent of child support providers pay for one child; 30 percent pay for two children; and 10 percent pay for three or more children.
Many parents depend on these payments to get through the month.
“Without child support, I can’t afford our two-bedroom apartment,” says Heidi S., a 40-year-old mother of two boys from eastern Pennsylvania. “We would have to share a one-bedroom or move to a cheaper neighborhood and change schools. Even though I work full-time, if my ex skips even one payment, I can’t pay my bills.”
That’s the stark reality for many parents who rely on child support payments, but when the economy went into a tailspin in 2008, many child support providers found themselves unable to keep up with their mandated child support payments.
State agencies tried to compensate for the recession. In fact, as unemployment rates climbed, some child support agencies and courtsrearranged the equation used to calculate child support lowering the provider’s calculated income hours from 40 to 30, for instance, or temporarily delaying payments while the child support provider looked for another job.
Pulling together for the good of your children during a financial crisis is fine, but what happens when your ex stops paying child support altogether?
“The first step is to talk to your ex,” says Chris Seaton, an attorney with Quest Collaborative Law in Knoxville, Tenn. “You need to think about the kids and try to work things out between the two of you.”
Best-case scenario? Your ex didn’t realize he or she had missed a payment, or did realize it and is willing to reimburse you for the missing child support as soon as possible. Of course, most of the time, there is more to it than simple oversight. Maybe your ex just lost their job or had their work hours reduced and cannot come up with the full amount that month. Or maybe your ex is using child support as a weapon in your fight over custody hours or parenting decisions. Whatever the case may be, Seaton says, finding an arrangement that keeps some child support flowing and doesn’t completely destroy the communication between you and your ex is always preferable to the more drastic measures of recovering child support payments.
“If talking to your ex doesn’t work, the next step is fairly punitive. Tennessee will usually start out with the mildest end of the punishment scale, which is suspension and then revocation of a driver’s license,” Seaton says. “But this can become an issue for people who are trying to make child support payments. I live in Knoxville and we have public transportation, but for people [in rural areas or with shoddy public transport systems], they can’t get to work. Essentially, it cripples people who are trying to make child support payments.”
Other measures used to recover child support back payments include wage garnishment, federal income tax refund deductions and confiscation of lottery winnings. Noncompliant parents may also be denied a passport if they owe more than $2,500 in child support.
Wage garnishment is probably the best-known method for recovering owed child support payments. However, under federal guidelines, if you receive a judgment against your ex for wage garnishment, the government is only allowed to take no more than 25 percent of his or her income after taxes have been taken out. This means that, if your ex brings home $2,000 a month and owes $600 a month in child support, the government can garnish no more than $500 out of his or her wages to reimburse you for lost child support payments.
After wage garnishment and license revocation, the next steps in the child support payment collections process are even more punitive, with threats of stiff fines and prison time for repeat offenders and/or parents who owe more than $5,000 in back child support.
Some states consider nonpayment of child support a criminal matter. North Dakota, for instance, classifies nonpayment of child support as a Class C felony, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.
Although child support payment is a state matter most of the time, the federal Office of the Inspector General (OIG) may get involved if the parents live in different states or if the noncustodial parent goes to another state to avoid paying his or her child support. The OIG’s penalties for nonpayment of child support include:
- First offense (typically when the parent has failed to pay for more than one year or owes more than $5,000): a fine and/or up to six months in prison.
- Second offense: (nonpayment for more than two years or owing more than $10,000): fine of up to $250,000 and/or two years in prison.
Despite the seriousness of the matter, most judges realize that imprisoning a child support provider does little to better the custodial parent’s situation, so they will typically give the nonpaying parent ample chances to catch up on his or her payments, Seaton says. However, in some states, even imprisonment does not excuse you from having to pay your child support.
“Some states have a clause in their child support statutes if you’re imprisoned then child support payments are waived,” Seaton says. “But Tennessee doesn’t do that. If you’re in jail, you have to have someone pay for you.”
Statistics show that most people who are considered “deadbeat” parents who willfully refuse to pay their child support payments for more than a year are struggling financially. According to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report, 40 percent of nonpaying child support providers quote an inability to pay as the main reason for their noncompliance. In a California study of child support nonpayment, 76 percent of “deadbeat” parents were not able to pay their mandated child support due to financial reasons: On average, these parents owed $9,447 in back child support but earned a median annual income of $6,349, far below the poverty level.
For people who are struggling to pay their child support payments or who are withholding child support for other reasons often because the paying parent feels his or her payments are not going toward the child’s immediate needs Seaton has some advice: “Feel free to buy all the diapers, clothing or baby wipes that you want, but know that those things are considered gifts and don’t take away from your child support obligations. Don’t concern yourself with what the other person is spending the money on. Instead, think of this as an opportunity to provide for your child. Remember, this is about the children.”
RESOURCES:
Want to find your state’s child support agency contacts? The federal Office of the Administration for Children & Families provides an updated, interactive map here.
Looking for a guide to child support payments and collections? Check out the Office of Child Support Enforcement’s Child Support Handbook.
Federal government’s Q&A on how to get, change or enforce a child support order.
What child support guidelines is your state following? The National Conference of State Legislatures has a handbook on various states’ child support guidelines.
