"Indyguy1" wrote in message
...

The dearth of data is amazing because the "deadbeat dad" has been a =
high-profile issue in politics and the media for many years. Non-payment
=
of child support is a significant problem in the United States. =
According to the Federal Office of Child Support, in 2003, $96 billion =
in accumulated unpaid support was due to children in the United States; =
68 percent of child support cases were in arrears. An overwhelming =
majority of children, particularly minorities, living in single-parent =
homes where child support is not paid live in poverty. Yet, many =
questions about these fathers and why they fail to pay remain =
unanswered.

This baffles me too. 68% is an awfully high number. I wonder just how
accurate
that figure is.

The Federal Office of Child Support has a reputation for playing it fast and
loose with the statistics.

The Census reports 63% of the CS ordered amount was paid during 2002. The
reciprocal of that number shows 37% of all CS ordered was not paid. By
counting cases instead of money collected, the Federal OCSE inflates the CS
collection issue and ignores the fact the high-end orders are voluntarily
paid (not collected) without any effort by the government. If 68% of all Cs
orders are in arrears that indicates the government is a complete failure in
collecting the low-end orders.

The other figure in the above paragraph that is questionable is the $96
billion in accumulated unpaid support. The total cumulative support owed is
$34.9 billion per year as of 2002. How can it be possible the arrearage
amount of CS is 3 times the annual amount due? Most analysts believe the
Federal OCSE counts all the CS they could collect, if a formal orders
existed, as being an "uncollected" amount. Of course, the reason the CS is
"uncollected" is because the money is not going through the IV-D collection
process.