Columnist Sandra Thompson: Collecting child support huge task

Sandra Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or through e-mail at [email protected].

Last year the Clark County District Attorney's Family Support Division collected close to $60 million in child support.

The unit is running slightly ahead for this year, averaging about $5 million a month. April's tally was $4.5 million.

But there's still a long way to go. According to ACES (the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support), 156,902 children in Nevada are owed $407 million in support. Nationally, it's estimated that 30 million children are owed $50 billion in child support.

It's not known how ACES arrived at those figures, or if they include ongoing payments as well as arrearages. Messages left with the Reno office of ACES were not returned.

Although child support laws differ widely from state to state, there are federal guidelines and requirements. For example, states are required to cooperate with each other in child support issues, such as locating the noncustodial parent who owes support. Usually, though, states give their own cases priority and the out-of-state cases are placed on a back burner.

The number of cases is just as staggering as the dollar amounts owed. In Clark County, one caseworker handles about 1,300 cases, according to Lee Wastell, assistant director of the Family Support Division.

One-third of the cases are "routine," where the noncustodial parent pays regularly. Another third involve only periodic lapses in payments. The last third -- the most time-consuming and labor-intensive -- involve noncustodial parents who don't pay.

About one-third of all the cases are state-assisted, where the family that's owed the support was, or is, on welfare. A portion of the monthly support payment goes to reimburse the state.

To get a better handle on all the cases and to increase collection efforts, Wastell hopes to lower the caseload to 650-750 per worker. The division aims to hire 10 new caseworkers by Sept. 5. Also, 20 caseworkers, who have been pulled out of the unit to work on NOMADS, will return shortly. NOMADS, an overhaul of the state's welfare computer system, has cost more than $100 million -- five times the projected cost. The system would provide information to agencies, including child support data.

In another move to improve service, the division is making adjustments to its phone system, which has frustrated callers. Some callers to the payment line wait more than an hour before their call is taken, Wastell says. Because of the high volume of other calls, caseworkers usually have their phones on voice mail. Wastell says they try to return the calls within 48 hours. However, some callers say it takes weeks for a return call.

New programs are going into effect to increase child support collections. After July 1 Clark County will be part of a nationwide insurance company program that would intercept claims paid to insureds who owe child support.

Some states are part of a "bank account match system" authorized by Congress. Wastell says Clark County is not part of the program, which would require a change in state statute to participate. Under the program, the Department of Health and Human Services sends a computer tape with the names and Social Security numbers of delinquent parents to multistate banks and brokerages, which in turn search their records to find a match. States then seize those bank accounts.

Some states also charge interest on child support arrearages. Nevada does not.

Child support is an obligation that should not be taken lightly. Parents should support their children. However, there are people who use the legal system to skirt that obligation and their children suffer. On the other side of the coin, one Las Vegas man says he has been ordered to pay support for a child that a paternity test proves is not his.

We'll examine a few of those cases, how difficult it is for custodial parents in one state to get another state's attention and why experts say parents who have a relationship with their children are more apt to pay support than those who don't have visitation.

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