The State Journal in Frankfort, Ky., looked at
how child support payments drop when the economy contracts:
Franklin County Attorney Rick Sparks said the poor economy has meant that child support payments are down 1 percent.
"Simply put, people just aren't working," he told The State Journal. "We have seen a lot of requests to modify, reduce or hold child support payments in abeyance."
County attorneys work with the state to help collect arrears by filing criminal or civil suits. Several local factories have closed in the last year and put hundreds out of work, including Bendix, Certified Tool and Topy.
Sparks said collections would be down more if he had not been able to intercept federal stimulus tax rebates.
A total of about $1.4 billion in child support payments are owed in 325,000 cases across the state. In Franklin County, 72 parents owe a total of approximately $890,000.
I have seen similar stories in other parts of the country,
including El Paso, Texas.
WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio, says there has been an increase in the number of
parents who are trying to have their child support payments reduced:
Parents who have been ordered to pay support can petition to have their payments reduced if their incomes shrink significantly or disappear, and that's what a growing number of central Ohioans are doing.
In the past year, the number of Franklin County (Ohio) residents seeking reductions in their child-support obligations has jumped by 80 percent. In December 2007, the county received 146 such requests; last December, it got 263.
The January number isn't in, but the pace is "still picking up," said Susan Brown, director of the county's Child Support Enforcement Agency. "It's not very surprising, given the state of the economy and the number of employers that are closing their doors," she said.
Brown said her agency has seen a bigger surge in calls from worried parents who don't yet qualify for a so-called administrative- adjustment review.
"Even if they haven't already lost their jobs, they see the handwriting on the wall," she said. "We're getting a lot of calls about what-ifs."
Left out of all of this are the parents who depend on child support payments to make ends meet.
I am so very tired of all the reporting about...
