elusive1

Clearly you have to do something, even perhaps jail if a person has the means to pay and refuses to. However, you must have a fair system for these guys to operate under. Child support often has many states involved in the same case. Errors are common as all resources are pointed towards collection first, the dads last.

underpressure

The really scary thing about this is that the custodial parent can file claims in 6 different states and it is up to the defendant to go and clear the mess up.

While I really don't have a problem with vigorous collection of child support; interference with visitation by the custodial parent needs to have the same kind of teeth. If a custodial parent is charged contempt of court for interference with visitation, it is a civil warrant. No extradition, no out of state arrest, no interference with passports, etc. It is genuinely a one way street.

jkhuggins

There is a subset of deadbeat parents for whom the problem with delinquent child support is not ability to pay, but willingness to pay. In other words: they have the means, and are simply choosing not to fulfill their legal obligations. Putting them in prison doesn't satisfy their debt, but it is one heck of an attention-getter. It's hoped that for the majority of those cases, simply the threat of prison gets them moving back into payment --- and for the others, imprisonment proves to everyone else that the threat isn't an idle one.

Okay, now the obligatory disclaimers ...

• This is true for a subset of deadbeat parents, not all. I'm sure there are some who are doing their best to meet their legal obligations and are failing for other reasons (e.g. the recession).
• All of this is assuming that the legal obligations on the support payer are, in fact, fair and just --- and that everything else in the relationship between the support payer, the support receiver, and the children, is fair and just. I suspect that most of the time, all is reasonably fair, but certainly there are exceptions.
• I have no opinion regarding the plight of the person described by the OP.

elusive1

Often the children are long grown up, it is the state that is seeking the back payments. The basis is that they paid the women welfare or some public assistance because the father never paid.

We Will Never Forget

It's ironic how we don't have debtor's prisons, but you can go to jail or lose your passport over child support.

I don't advocate deadbeat parents, but here's a novel thought: Don't have kids unless you can pay for them yourself.

On top of everything, some of the judgments I have seen are absolutely ridiculous.

TheRoadie

But credit checks for a new job, even one that doesn't directly handle money, are a new reality for job seekers. Bad credit can prevent you from getting the job you need to restore your credit. Catch-22. Same for renting an apartment or house, even if you get the new job.

GUWonder

Even those who don't have children may end up blacklisted and owing child support for other people's children. In various U.S. jurisdictions, even submitting scientific DNA evidence of not being a parent of/to a child owed child support won't get a blacklisted person off the passport blacklist or keep a person out of jail for debt.

The following person is unable to get a US passport (he's blacklisted) if he could even afford a passport:

http://news.yahoo.com/video/man-may-...203459828.html

The child, the mother of the child, the blacklisted man, and the scientific community all know he is not a parent of the child for which the state is claiming unpaid child support by pursuing the blacklisted man.

[While this thread is a handful of years old, the dynamic today is the same as it was then.]

Epod

If someone with this problem stumbles upon this rejuvenated thread looking for a solution, they might try the constituent service desk at their local Congressperson's office.

They might also see if they are eligible for a second passport from another country.

squeakr

The topic is PRACTICAL advice if you can't get a passport because of overdue child support. And it's a very old thread to boot.
SO unless you have some advice ..let it rest.

thanks

squeakr

co Mod TS/S

ucs75

Agree. I don't think this problem is going to go away outside of the legislative process.

jphripjah

Deadbeat dads aren't politically popular. There won't be a legislative change.

GUWonder

Some of the changes from the Clinton-Gore years aren't all that popular either. It's all sort of bundled together. But waiting for that bundle to be undone legislatively is probably a waste of time and the person would be better off seeking alternatives within the range of what can currently be done within the appllcable legal regimes.

squeakr

so closed it goes...

squeakr

co Mod TS/S