NH reports decrease in child support payments:

[February 21, 2010]


NH reports decrease in child support payments: More families turn to government help

Feb 21, 2010 (The Eagle-Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Child support collection by the state Division of Child Support Services dropped 6.7 percent in 2009, after several years of steady increase. Officials say the economy is to blame.

"It's definitely an unusual drop for us, compared to the past," director Mary Weatherill said. "We had been steadily increasing our collections until that drop." The division collects only a portion of the child support paid in the state. Many parents make payments directly to one another. Weatherill said she didn't know what percentage of total child support payments made in the state are made through Child Support Services.

But Judge Edwin Kelly, administrative judge of the state's Family Division, said he thought there was a "pretty fair correlation" between the payment trends at Child Support Services and private payments.



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The drop in child support collection comes after years of increases, Weatherill said. From fiscal years 2005 to 2008, the amount of payments being made increased steadily each year, from $84.7 million to $90.6 million. That figure dropped to $84.6 million in fiscal year 2009.

"We believe that it is attributable to the economy," she said.

Unemployment seems to be a common reason people are not paying, Weatherill said. If an unemployed person is behind in payments, the state will withhold a portion of the individual's unemployment benefits. The amount being withheld from unemployment checks increased sharply in 2009, from $304,355 to $963,288.

"It does seem to show a trend of the economy impacting the population that we serve," she said. "All parties are impacted -- both the person responsible for paying support and the family on the receiving end." The state also has seen an increase in the number of people asking to have child support payments lowered, Kelly said. He said the court could not provide hard numbers on payments, but he recently took an informal poll of all the state's family courts.

"They're all experiencing what they describe as a pretty large increase in the number of petitions to change court order," he said.

That's the legal term for having a court adjust the amount of child support a parent is ordered to pay. Kelly said he had no doubt the increase was due to the economy.

And, more often than in previous years, Kelly said, both parents are agreeing to the lower payments.

"The former spouse knows the other is out of work or that they've been laid off," he said.

If a parent simply ignores child support payments, he or she can be arrested, Kelly said. More often, people want to make their payments, but are having a hard time doing so, he said.

"Generally speaking, people really do try to live by the rules," he said. "They love their kids and they're concerned about them, so they try to do the right thing." The loss of or decrease in child support payments can further burden struggling families, Kelly said.

"The overall impact to everybody involved -- the kids, the families -- is that there's less money that goes around," he said.

To make up for that loss, families may lean more heavily on government aid programs.

Terry Smith, director of the state Division of Family Assistance, said the number of New Hampshire residents receiving food stamps has increased 50 percent since June 2008. When child support payments stop, families are eligible for an increase in food stamp benefits, he said.

"In the food stamp program, if child support is reduced, that's less income in the household and more food stamps are provided as a result," Smith said.

Children who "face a deprivation" -- the loss or absence of a parent included -- may be eligible for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, Smith said. The state's TANF caseload has climbed 28 percent since June 2008.

In a family that is receiving child support, the state takes that support in exchange for a TANF grant that is worth more. Under those circumstances, the Division of Family Assistance, rather than the parent, collects the child support payments.

Like Kelly, Smith said most people want to pay. That includes people whose missed payments lead the other parent to rely on government aid.

"It's important for people to recognize that a divorced parent isn't necessarily a bad parent, or a bad person, because his wife or her husband is on TANF," he said. "Rather, they don't have the money to contribute." To see more of The Eagle-Tribune or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.eagletribune.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2010/02/21/4633836.htm