TN Enforcement Of Child Support

 A child is born into this world innocent, and completely free of sin. He or she knows nothing and relies heavily upon it's parents for guidance and its very own survival. Why does it involve outside(parents) intervention to enforce the caring and nurturing of a child? Do we not have a moral obligation as parents to care for our young as compared with any other mammal in the Animal Kingdom? As to many this may seem a no brain er, but unfortunately this is a issue that effects many children in our country. 

 The State of Tennessee under the Title IV-D of the Social Security Act in 1975 formed the Department of Human Services(DHS). This allowed the state to set and enforce child support cases in which the noncustodial parent was absent, including the establishment of child support payments to be paid. This proved to be no simple task as many noncustodial parents(usually the fathers) were and still today are not offering any type support to the mothers, thus doing a major disservice to the children being effected.  According to the CWLA's Children at a Glance, the state poverty level combined for children under the age of 18 is currently at 26.3%. This proves to be a problem as the state poverty level is only at 17.7%.(http://www.cwla.org/advocacy/statefactsheets/2012/tennessee.pdf). Why such staggering numbers regarding the well being of our children? As parents it is our duty being that of the mother and of the father to provide everything the child needs to grow up in a healthy environment. This includes food, shelter, clothing, education, and other essential thing needed. To ensure a child is provided these things measures are taken to make sure that equal support from both parents is given.

Local and state governments receive over 4 billion in funding annually from the federal government to its CSE programs. For the fiscal year of 2010 CSE's as a whole collected over 26.6 billion in payments and served nearly 15.9 million cases. Although these numbers seem to be very promising, it only collected on 62% of the total money owed in child support payments(Urban Institute). What about our local government and its performance? According to the Department of Human Services annual report for fiscal year 2010-2011(http://www.tn.gov/humanserv/pubs/DHS-AR.pdf), the State of Tennessee had a all-time state high in child support collected at 628 million. They showed an increase in cases under order from 67.11% in June 2010 to 70.08% in June 2011, while only showing an increase for child support collection rate for current support from 51.83% to 52.61% within that same year's span. This is a difference of .78% which is very disappointing. It has been stated that the state of Tennessee has roughly about 2 billion dollars owed in child support payments  that are in the arrears and only about 8% of that  was collected and dispersed. This leaves much room for improvement. Davidson County and Shelby County, which is home to the two largest cities of our state have been subject to examination and scrutiny. A news reporter(Erin Holt-Child support issues plague TN) for the city of Nashville interviewed a judge that often hears child support cases in Davidson county in which he also expressed his concerns with the current performance of our CSE program and the collections of payments.(http://www.wkrn.com/story/16048058/child-support-issues-plague-tenn). Memphis located in Shelby County has not been spared either as many single mothers have expressed their dis-pleasures concerning the lack of engagement from the agencies in helping locate the non custodial parent so that payments can possibly be retrieved.(http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13511869)

Many methods have been implemented to help enforce child support being owed by the noncustodial even if they are in the arrears or not. These methods include; the interception of taxes, suspension of licenses, wage with holdings, the $50 dollar payment disregard, presumptive guidelines, voluntary in- hospital paternity establishment programs, and up to and including incarceration. We seem to only focus on the problem at hand on the back end, instead of focusing on the problem on the front end. How much sex education are we providing to our younger generation? How much are we focusing on the idea of abstinence? Are we as parents and teachers promoting the use of condoms, and safe sex if engaged in sexual activity? Are Community leaders being able to recognize the seriousness of teenage pregnancy and taking the necessary steps to receive the proper funding for non profit organizations that help out with this issue? These are the questions and issues that need to be addressed as well instead of placing most of the attention on policy implementation and enforcement.





Sorensen, Elaine and Halgermn, Ariel( 04/15/2000). Child Support Is Working Better Than We Thought. Urban Institute(http://www.urban.org/publications/309445.html)

CA.gov. California Performance Review--HHS10 Align State Law Regarding The $50 Dollar Child Support Disregard Payments(http://cpr.ca.gov/cpr_report/Issues_and_Recommendations/Chapter_2_Health_and_Human_Services/HHS10.html)

Child Support Recovery Service(http://www.childsupportrecovery.com/serviceLocations/view.cfm?State=TN)

 

                                     

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