Call to Duty Spells Child Support Woes

Call to Duty Spells Child Support Woes
by Dianna Thompson, Columnist and Executive Director, American Coalition for Fathers and Children

TAP EXCLUSIVE!!

July 9, 2002

Columnist Dianna Thompson As thousands of Americans await their call-up orders in our war against terrorism, many would-be soldiers ready themselves for service. For those in the Reserve and National Guard, defending freedom means a heavy financial burden.

In recent months, numerous news articles have focused on the hardships faced by families of those in the National Guard and reserves. While some financial guidance and assistance are available to those called to active duty, men and women called to service face the reality that most often their military pay falls far short of their civilian pay. Nowhere is this cut in pay felt more than in the homes of service men and women who live apart from their children.

For non-custodial parents, going off to fight a war means leaving children behind while child support bills mount. In families of divorce, 90 percent of non-custodial parents are fathers. These parents - both men and women - must pay court-ordered child support that was calculated based on their much higher civilian pay.

Failure to pay child support for any reason - including service as a military reservist and the drastic cut in pay that comes with call-up orders - can mean jail time. Because of this sad reality, more than 7,815 non-custodial parents who are among the 81,403 reservists may face incarceration, simply because they answered their call-up orders as military reservists and subsequently could not pay their court-ordered child support.

According to the Family Support Act of 1988, non-custodial parents who have a reduction in income can request a decrease in their child support. Yet, many non-custodial parents are unaware of this law, and few state agencies honor requests for reductions in child support. The reason why is simple: State agencies receive federal incentive money for each dollar of child support money collected. Since 1967, state agencies have spent more than $40 billion tracking so-called "deadbeat dads," whose child and spousal support orders are often in no way connected with actual earnings.

In an August 2000 child support study by The American Coalition for Fathers and Children (ACFC), 55 percent of child-support payers had billing errors by a child support agency. Incredibly, 61 percent were unsuccessful in getting the agency to fix the error. Of those errors, 43 percent resulted in punitive measures such as the revocation of driving and business licenses or the seizure of assets. Courts and bureaucrats for whom no measure is too punitive in their war against "deadbeat dads" have devastated millions of child support payers.

Such was the case with Bobby Sherrill, a divorced father and Lockheed employee who was captured in 1990 and held hostage nearly five months by Iraq. After his release, he returned home to his joyous family in North Carolina. Their elation turned to horror when, the night after his return home, the sheriff arrested him for not paying $1,425 in child support while he was held hostage.

In Afghanistan, non-custodial fathers and mothers face child-support obligations back home. Many of these men and women may become criminals if they cannot pay the full amount of their court-ordered child support. As fighting continues in Afghanistan, reservists will watch their past-due child support bills mount while state agencies add penalties and interest to the point where they cannot possibly keep up. Worse, past-due child support cannot be forgiven, even if the amount owed exceeds a reservist's military pay, thanks to the Bradley Amendment of 1986.

David Usher, a legislative analyst with the ACFC's Missouri affiliate, realized this during the 1990 war in Kuwait and helped change Missouri State law. Statute 452.416 was passed by the Missouri Legislature in early 1990, requiring an automatic adjustment of support for reservists called up for active duty. Reservists living in other states were not so lucky. Such was the case in Georgia, as reservists returning home from the war in Kuwait were arrested on federal criminal nonsupport charges as they stepped off the plane in Atlanta.

Reservists can find some financial help. Under provisions of the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act of 1940, reservists may be able to qualify for reduced interest rates on mortgage payments, a reduced interest rate on credit card debts and protection from eviction. Despite these protections, the act does not offer assistance to reservists with child support determinations or debts.

President Bush and the U.S. Congress have committed themselves to offering our military any assistance it needs to fight this war. Given that assurance, the President and Congress must intervene immediately to protect non-custodial parents who are among the more than 81,000 reservists now serving in Afghanistan from child support abuse. The Congress must then pursue a realistic course of action in reforming the child support system to meet the standards of fairness so long overdue for the men and women of this great nation. ***

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Dianna Thompson is the executive director of The American Coalition for Fathers and Children, and a nationally recognized expert on families, step families and divorce related issues. She has been featured in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, and television programs -- including the Today Show on NBC, FOX News, Montel Williams, CNN, and on Court TV. She has been mentioned in national news publications, including TIME Magazine, Redbook, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Washington Times. She has been on hundreds of radio shows -- including National Public Radio, Radio America, Talk America, The Jim Bohanan Show, and The Tom Leykis Show on KFI 640 in Los Angeles, and may be reached by e-mail at dthompson@american-partisan.com.

Photo of Dianna Thompson courtesy of the author