Is Child Support Actually Support?

Is Child Support Actually Support?

Massive numbers of non-custodial parents who are accused of non-payment of child support now are being separated from their children, plundered for everything they have, publicly vilified and incarcerated without trial. The existing model and law do not adequately nor fairly serve the population for which they were created.

The model

Calculating the amount that parents are ordered to pay as child support involves the use of a rigid formula known as a "child support guideline." The amount determined by use of a state's guideline is legally presumed correct in all child support cases.

The Tennessee Child Support Guidelines are based on an Income Shares Model. This model presumes that both parents contribute to the financial support of the child in proportion to the actual income available to each parent. The Income Shares model differs from the Department’s prior Flat Percentage model, established in 1989, which calculated the amount of the child support award based upon the net income of the non-custodial parent and which assumed an equivalent amount of financial support was being supplied to the child by the custodial parent".

Although federal law requires consideration of only the income of the non-custodial parent, under the Income Shares model, both parents’ actual income and actual additional expenses of rearing the child are considered and made part of the support order. "The Income Shares model, which is used by over thirty other states, is generally based on economic studies of child-rearing costs, including those of David Betson, Erwin Rothbarth, and Ernst Engel".

The model is not economically realistic.

With the Income Shares Model there are underlying assumptions:

• "The household is intact.
• The custodial parent cares for the children 100 percent of the time and the non-custodial parent has no parenting costs.
• There is additional income when a child is added to the family to bring the standard of living back to its previous level.
• Tax benefits attributable to the children are not cost offsets; are not negative costs.
• For Betson-Rothbarth based Income Shares guidelines the method of estimating child costs is to compare household consumption levels of alcohol, tobacco, and adult clothing before and after having an additional child. For Rothbarth Income shares versions implemented after 2001, the comparison is with just adult clothing"

In most child support cases these assumptions are not applicable which makes the payment for the non-custodial parent impossible, especially with the downturn of the economy.

The Law

A major issue for custodial parents, children and society is created when a parent refuses to pay his or her court ordered child support. This is a serious problem of national dimensions. A recent study found that less than half the parents awarded child support receive payment in full. In 1989 alone, four billion dollars that was owed in child support was not paid. This failure on the part of non-custodial parents - usually but not always fathers - is a major cause of poverty in children. This not only affects the families but has an indirect impact on the society who must finance poverty programs to assist those in need. Laws are enforced in either black or white but circumstances are in the gray.

If a non-custodial parent does not pay child support, he or she is subject to enforcement measures in accordance with Federal and Tennessee child support law to collect regular and past-due payments.

• "Automatically withholding of wages and other income
• Seizure of assets identified by the Financial Institution Data Match (FIDM) program
• Intercepts of federal tax refunds
• Denial of passport applications using the IRS Treasury/Administrative Offset program
• Revocation driver's licenses, professional licenses, and various other licenses
• Reporting of child support debt to the credit reporting agencies
• Placement of liens against real or personal property
• Non-paying parents could end up in jail"

This is not an effective solution because there is no system to ensure that the person fulfills his or her parental duties. Instead, there should be more post-arrest supervision and a well-thought-out payment plan. This will create a better environment for parents as well as their children. Non-paying parents need to work but if a person is incarcerated how they pay.

Across the United States there has been a spike in modification cases. In explaining why they can no longer pay as much per month, the parents, typically fathers, cite layoffs, cutbacks in work hours and the loss of homes to foreclosure. Presented with documentation of falling incomes and rising expenses, judges often have little choice but to grant the downward adjustments, even in the face of protests from mothers struggling to support children.

Source : http://www.guidelineeconomics.com/fightcase/incomeshares.htm

Source: TN Child Support Guidelines

Posted by: Laurita V. Hoskin