Louisiana child support collection efforts peak in December

December of 2011 saw law enforcement in Louisiana round up and bring to justice many individuals for their failure to pay child support.

Pairing local law enforcement with the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, the combined effort saw the arrest of 126 parents, recent data from the DCFS revealed. These non-custodial parents owed a combined $1.1 million in unpaid child support, robbing their children of money needed for everyday essentials.

Through the arrests, authorities were able to collect $33,302.93 in late payments. Some of the cases of unpaid child support were brought to completion. A total of $41,044.44 was collected from these cases, which are now closed. In total, the roundup of parents with arrears brought in over $74,000.

Like in most efforts of this nature, parents owing child support were rounded up and brought to local jails where officials were present and ready to collect as much money in unpaid child support as possible. Once the deviants were processed at the jail, each individual was assigned a court date. In court, those individuals will work out a new payment agreement that they are expected to stick to.

A secretary for the DCFS said that, in addition to collecting this greatly needed money, the effort hopefully sent a message to non-custodial parents that failing to stay current on child support payments is illegal and will be dealt with by authorities accordingly.

Custodial parents use the money brought in by child support payments to provide their children with things like food, shelter and medical and educational costs. When this money doesn’t show up, the child is robbed of these crucial things.

Prompt and full child support payments from non-custodial parents also ease the burden on taxpayers. Custodial parents who receive child support payments are not nearly as likely to be forced into Louisiana’s child welfare system.

Unfortunately, the most recent round up didn’t even put a dent in the total amount owed by non-custodial parents statewide, which now sits at $1.2 billion.

Source: Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, “December child support round-up accounts for more than $74,000 from delinquent parents owing more than $1.1 million,” Jan. 23, 2012