Leading child support advocate urges Congress to add more armies to the child
support enforcement battlefield
AUSTIN, Texas (May 19, 1998) -Congress needs to make more enforcement weapons
accessible to the private sector and to locally funded child support
enforcement agencies so that more armies can be added to the child support
battlefield, the head of the nation’s largest private child support enforcement
firm told a House subcommittee Tuesday.
Casey Hoffman, president of Supportkids, urged stiff penalties for delinquent
child support payments and said non-custodial parents who fail to support their
children should pay court and legal costs for the enforcement process.
Hoffman also urged the Human Resources Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means
Committee to allow the private sector and local child support programs greater
access to federal databases that assist enforcement specialists in locating
noncustodial parents.
“What I am proposing today is a bold new federal initiative that will result in
enlisting more troops and providing them with the weapons to join in the war
against nonpayment of child support,” said Hoffman, who for five years was
director of the Texas child support program. He is a family law attorney, a
former assistant district attorney and served as President of the Massachusetts
State Bar.
“It is a moral outrage that 14 million children live in poverty in this country.
It is a moral outrage that any child ever goes to bed hungry for lack of
financial support from a parent who can afford to pay” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said from his unique perspective as a former child support program
director, attorney, prosecutor and state bar president he sees the need for
greater collaboration and closer partnership between the public and private
child support enforcement sectors.
His proposals, he said, would help reduce caseloads in the overburdened
government child support programs and could save taxpayers money.
“How can we reasonably say ‘no’ to providing another option for custodial
parents, millions of whom are in despair over ever collecting the child support
owed to their kids?” Hoffman asked the subcommittee.
“How can we reasonably say ‘no’ to the federal child support caseworker who
wants one less case to work, one less complaint to answer, one less criticism
to face?” Hoffman said.
Among Hoffman’s proposals are the following:
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Greater access for the private sector to the Federal Parent Locator Service,
which contains all new hire information and includes a national registry of
child support orders.
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Private sector authority to withhold child support payments from unemployment
insurance benefits and similar authority to intercept state and federal income
tax refunds from noncustodial parents who owe child support.
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Private sector access to the use of passport sanctions to enforce child support
orders.
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Private sector ability to report child support delinquencies to consumer credit
reporting bureaus.
Read the full text
of Hoffman’s written testimony to Congress.
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