MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
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JEFFERSON CITY - Some divorced parents complain that legislative efforts to toughen enforcement of child support is missing a major problem -- whether the court-ordered payments are fair in the first place.
Scott Field, president of the National Congress for Men and Children St. Louis chapter, said that the biggest problem is that everyone assumes that the amount of support is right.
He cited his own case as a non-custodial parent. He said that he pays all the support even when his daughter is with him. He said that the state does not count when the children live with the non-custodial parents.
"Missouri charges as if my daughter would live with the mother 365 days a year," Field said. "But between holidays and weekends she spends 120 days living with me. It's not fair I had to pay support for those 120 days."
He also said that there are other problems that are not being taken into consideration, as the age of the children or that the amount charged is base in national data and not in each particular state.
Field complains that the law is more favorable for women - nationwide, 90 percent of the custodial parents are women - because it assumes that the woman needs the help of the non-custodial father to raise the children.
David Riley of Cape Girardeau, voices the same complaints.
In 1993, he got custody of his three children from his ex-wife who had had custody since 1986. At the beginning, he said, they both agreed that she would not be required to pay support.
But Riley said he changed his mind last year because "the children are a responsibility of both parents."
Riley said that the always paid his support when he was the non-custodial parent. He said that she had to start to pay support last December, but that she has not paid anything yet.
"I cannot understand how she can turn the back to their own children," Riley said.
On the other hand, his former wife, Vickie Rogers of House Springs, said that she is not working now because she has to take care of the two children that she has had in her new marriage. "I were happy to pay if I would have the money," Rogers said.
She said that she is looking for a job now, but that she thinks that is unfair for her to pay the support when her former husband is earning $5,000 per month.
Riley answers saying that she admitted that she did quit her last job not to pay the child support.
But the Director of the Missouri Child Support Enforcement Division, Teresa Kaiser, argued that her agency is increasing efforts at talking with parents before instituting formal action.
"What we want to do is sit down face to face with those folks who are not paying and try to understand why they are not doing it," Kaiser said.
The division will help deadbeat parents who do not have a job to find one. There will be available two choices. For those who do not have the job skills to get a good paid job, there will be a special program that prepares people to get those skills. And for those who already have the job skills but cannot find a job, the agency will send them to job placements organizations.
"There will be a couple of benefits for the non custodial parents," Kaiser said. "Because Missouri is emphasizing not just a financial support, but also an emotional support."