Give gift of child support at holidays

Story Link here

You might believe that parents separated from their kids might do a little extra during the holidays. They'd want their offspring well fed, in warm clothes against the cold. And that either because of parental love or guilt that they're absent, the child would have plenty under the tree on Christmas.

In many cases you would be 100 percent wrong.

Instead, according to the Virginia Department of Social Services, some folks purposely skip paying child support in November and December. They know the state will intercept their tax refunds early next year. So in their selfish little minds, parents count on children getting the support. Just not now.

Merry Christmas, kid.

Veteran child support employees are familiar with the trend.

"It's a phenomenon that repeats itself every year," said Nick Young, director of child support enforcement for the DSS.

Young has heard it all: Parents get distracted. They've moved on to the second or third families and forgotten about the first.

But more than likely, the parent who has custody of the child is counting on the support to go holiday shopping.

"What are they going to do?" Young asked, "Buy them Christmas gifts in February?"

Last month, Young sent 150,434 Social Security numbers to the Internal Revenue Service and the Virginia Department of the Treasury. Updated biweekly, the numbers belong to parents who are $500 or more behind on their child support.

"If they have money coming back, we'll get it," Young said.

In 2006, "tax intercepts" collected $33 million from federal returns and $2 million from the state. The money was forwarded to the children to whom it was owed.

In a state where 484,000 children receive child support, DSS has implemented new programs and is rethinking old ones in their effort to snare support scofflaws.

Good. The state needs to use all its resources to fight for Virginia's children. If it doesn't, the debt falls to us. One-third of parents who do not receive child support end up on public assistance to meet their families' basic needs.

In the year ended June 30, Virginia collected more than $608 million in child support, a nearly 4 percent increase from the previous year. In Virginia, 88 percent of adults paying child support are men; 12 percent are women.

That sounds like a lot of money. But it's a small proportion of the total due: About 268,000 delinquent Virginia parents owe $2.4 billion in child support.

Last month, Virginia received a southern regional award for implementing a first-in-the-nation program that targets scofflaws through their cellphones. Since the state created the program two years ago, more than a dozen states have established it.

Young and his staff came up with the idea after realizing that cell-phones, which about 70 percent of Americans possess, could be a useful collections tool.

After exhausting every other method of locating a delinquent parent, the state subpoenas cell-phone companies to determine if the parent is a customer and has a billing address.

Twice a year, social services sends a list of names to the largest cell-phone companies that operate in Virginia. Officials request only an address, but some companies send the address and the person's cell-phone number. Companies do not send a list of phone numbers the person has called.

The practice has drawn rumblings in a state where people celebrate privacy. The idea of companies' releasing information for government use leaves me queasy, too.

But the idea of a parent refusing to take care of his or her child leaves me even queasier. In this case, I'm willing to ask the cell-phone company to give up the digits.

"Look, we're going to use all available means to find them," Young said last week. "I just want the address. ... I'm into, 'Where are you?' "

In addition to the cell-phone initiative, DSS began its "Early Intervention" program. That program meets with parents as soon as they receive an order to pay.

Case workers emphasize parents' responsibilities and ask if they face any issues that might hinder them from paying. For instance, if the person is jobless or underemployed, officials direct them to existing agencies in the community to help.

As young employees join the staff, child enforcement increasingly has gone high-tech. Caseworkers scope out MySpace and Facebook pages to track scofflaws.

"We've had people who say, 'I can't believe you found me off my blog,' " Young said.

Many people are familiar with the infamous "Most Wanted" deadbeat parent lists.

Just last week, Young and his staff discussed whether they will continue to use it as a poster or scrap the paper version after 19 years in favor of an online-only version.

Using the posters, the state has found 140 people, Young said.

As technology changes, Young said the state is willing to consider different ways of tracking delinquent parents.

"What we're trying to do is convince people to modify their behavior," Young said. "If you're going to live in the great state of Virginia ... we need you to take care of your kids."