Mom, not getting all the child support that Dad is paying? Maybe it's because the state is skimming off the top

How would you feel about a inmate paying for there keep or contributing to it?

Non-custodial father = prison inmate.

That sounds about right.

The concept i.e. an administrative fee is the same!

Bruce is correct, Tom. Any parent who is current on child support, which likely means the state isn't involved with collection, can successfully avoid the administrative fee. And it's not just fathers who will paying the fee - it's the non-custodial parent.

If the custodial parent is receiving any kind of government assistance, the government IS involved in the collection process even if the custodial parent is current and always has been. My friend Larry had his tax return seized and paycheck attached and informed he owed 17 years of back support. It seems his ex got on the state while going through the divorce and a few months thereafter, during which time he paid to the DHHS, then she got off and he paid her directly. Unfortunately for him, she got back on after a few months and never mentioned it to him. Fortunately for him, he had copies of every check. Unfortunately for him, when he went to a DHHS hearing, they showed him that his divorce decree stated "Pay the DHHS X dollars per week" and assured him they didn't care how much he'd paid her. At this point he got a lawyer and they reached a settlement AFTER religiously paying his child support for over 17 years. No charges were brought against his ex for 17 years of fraud. This happened over 20 years ago, but the mindset's the same.

If the custodial parent is receiving any kind of government assistance, the government IS involved in the collection process even if the custodial parent is current and always has been.

Mike is correct. Also, some parents will ask the DHS to handle the payments, because it's been easier.

Pine Tree Legal strongly encourages custodial parents to use the DHS for collection:

What if I don't want to use DHHS services?

You may always use the court system on your own, or with the help of a lawyer, to establish, amend or enforce a support obligation. Depending on the nature of your case, this can be hard to do on your own.

Should I Use DHHS's Child Support Enforcement Services?

Gee, Pine Tree Legal is a force behind this taxation of non-custodial parents! Who would have seen it coming?!

By the way, studies I've seen do not show higher collection rates between DHS collection and direct paying.

The DHS has been pushing to become the main collector of child support for years, even offering free legal services to the custodial parent (although they will deny it - they DHS says increasing the amount of child support is beneficial to the STATE, so they are not actually working FOR the custodial parent. Typical DHS rationale.)

Now that they've captured a large part of the child support administrative market - surprise! They want to start charging a fee for that.... just a "little fee" to start, only $2 a week! (Over $100 a year.)

And I've been predicting this will happen. Go figure!

Hey, we all know there are deadbeat dads, and maybe you like the idea of those deadbeat, abusive dads who abandoned their kids paying a few more bucks. Serves them right.

Wait a minute - look carefully at the law... this fee only applies to parents who are paying all of their child support.....

It is TARGETED at the people who ARE doing the right thing!

It doesn't have any effect on those who are NOT paying!

Amazing! Only the "best and the brightest" could come up with this stuff!

No charges were brought against his ex for 17 years of fraud.

Why should the state bring charges? They weren't out a dime.

Hey, how many child support collections does DHS do? I used to know, but maybe someone could look it up.

Let's say 15,000.

That's $30,000 a week or 1.5 million a year - coming out of non-custodial parents pockets... and NOT going to the kids!

But, wait... it's "for the kids"!

Just not the money! The bureaucrats keep that!

That is just what struggling parents need nowadays. Our gubbermint at work.

The concept i.e. an administrative fee is the same!

Wait a minute - Who is getting the main benefit of the service - the custodial parent or the non-custodial parent?

Set a spell, and I'll tell you a little story.

Years ago I used to read all the child support laws, did all the research, and watched all the proposed laws. Once I even called DHS on a mistake they'd made in a law they'd submitted and the legislature rubber-stamped, and the DHS fixed it through an emergency bill in the legislature within a week or two. (Oddly, there was a mistake in THIS law, and I called the DHS about it, and they will be fixing it in July. I don't know whether they figured it out by themselves, but I heard they were going to fix it AFTER I called.) I went to Augusta to testify many times, and was very involved in the political-legal aspect of divorce, custody and child support.

After much heat and critisim from all fronts on the child support issue the DHS thought they might look to redo some of their systems, and look at some of the laws.

They put out a notice for all "stakeholders and partners" who wanted to be involved in the process to come forward and be a part of it.

So I called the DHS, and said I was a "stakeholder or partner" and wanted to make sure my input was heard.

"Oh," the DHS worker asked me. "Are you a lawyer?"

"No."

"Are you a non-custodial parent?"

"No."

"Are you a social worker?"

"No."

"Are you a women's advocate or domestic violence worker?"

"No!"

"Then how are you a stake holder?"

"I'm a non-custodial parent. I'm the guy who PAYS the child support."

"Oh! Well, let me put you on hold for a minute." A minute later. "We're not going to be inviting obligators to the meetings."

"Wait a minute. You're going to have meetings about the future of child support, and you don't want to hear from the guy who is PAYING the child support?"

"Yes, sir, that's correct."

Ehhhh.... I'm from the DHS, and I'm here to HELP you!

And Governor LePage racks up another point for the harpies!

You can trace most (if not all) child support related issues back to the usurpation of child suport by the federal government back in 1975. Ever since then the states have been given incentives to be more vigorous in establishing and enforcing support orders. First it was only for cases involving welfare, then by application for non-welfare services, finally culminating in all support orders "passing through" the state, unless there has been a specific request to opt out. I observed the evolution almost from the beginning. The growth of government is not a pretty thing.

Al Greenlaw

As I read this thread, there are comments made about dead beat Dads. We need to get away from that thinking. Watch a lot of the court settlements and who they are going after now. You hear a lot about dead beat Moms or abusive Moms and that is the reason why fathers have gotten out of these relationships, to protect the kids.

I know of one such case where the father is the nicest guy and the most caring father and he left a verbally and physically abusive wife and mother. He filed for divorse. She has to pay child support and has supervised visits, but getting her to pay was another story. She was another dead beat Mom.

A judge has since ordered her to pay weekly and have the money taken directly out of her paycheck as to which she pitched a fit. The judge even went to the extent to tell her that if you get fired or quit a job intentionally to avoid your child support payments, you will be thrown in jail. The father was fine with that and she has managed to keep a job during this whole time since.

Since we can swear and and degrade here I won't even get started on the DHHS and that buncha ....... puke ........ !

Why do we need a DHHS. If people would act in honest and moral ways then there would be fewer wrong marriages, fewer, divorces and way fewer kids in single parent situations. All this expensive government programs is because some folks should never make children, or get married in the 1st place. As a person who has been married to the same lady for 54 years I know how it should be done and most aren't doing it. That is obvious! So why should I have to pay for their poor judgements?

The guy I mentioned above was going to let his ex live in his apartment over his house until he found out she had seven extra-marital affairs. He became very bitter towards her at that point because he had always loved her and had always been true to her. He has said he will never marry again because women can't be trusted for nothing even after they say they will stop because even after he found out and she said she would stop, she had three more affairs. If I had been in his shoes, I would not blame him.

won't even get started on the DHHS

Fun fact: If you remove the transportation budget, 49% of all state spending when all funds are included is, yup, the DHHS.

49%? Wow.

BTW - did the DHHS ever figure out where the missing $148M went? (Approximate figure - the money was deemed to be spent 'properly,' but DHHS could never say where or how).

Isn't most of that our generous Medicaid program?

Can't remember if it was 19,000 or 24,000 people that they were giving benefits to that were not entitled to them when they realized it. Could that be the money you are talking about?

I think they said at one time it was 19,000 and then within a month or so they discovered another 5,000 people.

Typical government regulation, the agency whose job it is to apply the program doesn't understand it.

Of course, we commoners are expected to understand it precisely.