Audio Paying their debts (story audio) Photos Parking lot support group Johnson: "We get a lot of guys discouraged" Attorney Waggoner: "Courts are overloaded" View full slideshow (4 images) Your Voice News Forum: "Child support guidelines are too high in Minnesota. They do not take into account tax advantages for custodial parents, or the cost of taking care of the kids when they are with the noncustodial parent."

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Paying their debts
by Jeff Horwich, Minnesota Public Radio
August 19, 2003

David Carson, left, listens to a support group for at risk-fathers at the Minneapolis-based Employment Action Center. With five kids and a background that made it hard to get a job, Carson once found his child support bill nearly impossible to pay. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

Minnesota is easily the best in the nation when it comes to collecting child support. Last year the state collected more than $2,100 per open case, more than twice the national average. But many who pay child support -- especially those with lower incomes -- say the system can actually make it harder for them to meet their obligations. Rather than helping them get back on their feet and hold a steady job, they say it encourages a spiral of debt and unemployment.

St. Paul, Minn. — Marcellus Mitchell is waiting for work on an early morning at a St. Paul day labor office. He works regularly as a carpenter, as a plumber, and at a hospital. Mitchell says he comes here on his days off so he can make enough to support himself and pay his child support. He says he wants his two kids in Chicago to know their father is working hard and paying what he owes.

But Mitchell also knows the system can be unforgiving.

"You lose a job and that's when you start falling behind," Mitchell says. "It shouldn't be like that. You lose a job, they should at least give you a certain amount of time to, you know, find another job."

Mitchell hurt his hand three years ago on a roofing job and couldn't work for seven months. Soon overdue child support started to mount, including the standard 20 percent interest.

Mitchell was able to get to court and halt the situation before it got out of control. By working seven days a week, he'll be out of child support debt in about two months.

	Attorney Waggoner: "Courts are overloaded"

But the state's director of Child Support Enforcement says the persistently tough job market has undoubtedly created new situations like Mitchell's. Wayland Campbell says a change in income can create real trouble for someone paying child support.

"People who had their obligation set when they maybe had a very good job maybe have a very modest job or minimal job right now, and they're needing all their money to make their house payment and clothe and feed themselves," Campbell says. "I'm sure there are lots of situations like that."

Of all the men and women who fall behind on their child support, Campbell believes only a small number are so-called "active evaders." The rest are caught up in circumstance, and they would like to get back on-track if they could.

But Campbell says helping these people is simply not the focus of the state child support system. The principle mandate of child support workers at the state and county levels is collecting money.

"We actively try to collect everything we can," Campbell says. "We submit arrears for federal tax refund offset, state tax refund offset, we use credit bureau reporting, we threaten to suspend driver's licenses and other licenses. We take every enforcement mechanism that we can."

Another man at the day labor office, who gives his name as Rob, says officials suspended his driver's license when he lost his job and fell behind on child support. But if they want to help him work again and make his payments, he says that's about the worst thing they could do.

"I've been to college, I've also been trained to work as a painter, and if I had a license and a car I could be making 22 bucks an hour and make that child support payment," Rob says. "I can't make that payment if I can't get back and forth to work."

	Johnson: "We get a lot of guys discouraged"

Adjusting a child support order can only be done through the courts. But advocates say many people are slow to understand the system and get help filing a motion. Family courts in the Twin Cities are backed up as long as four months with requests to lower child support. Child support bills continue to mount while the request is pending.

"There's no question the courts are overloaded," says Minneapolis attorney Pamela Waggoner. Waggoner works with parents on both sides of child support and custody disputes. "It is very difficult to get a hearing date."

Even once they get to court, substantial reductions are rare, according to Kirkland Johnson. Johnson has worked with hundreds of non-custodial fathers as director of the Young Dads Program in Minneapolis.

"It can be anywhere from $25 to $50 a month, which can be a victory for the guys, because $25 to $50 will help you get more groceries in the refrigerator," Johnson says.

Minnesota state law does not give judges much flexibility. An unambiguous grid known as "the guidelines" lays out the percentage of income that must go toward child support. And judges are told to consider earnings potential, not actual income. Johnson says the fact that jobs are scarce hardly enters the picture.

"They don't look at the job market or the depression of the economy right now," Johnson says. "Basically, you get punished if you don't do what you're supposed to do."

	Parking lot support group

The average wage of men Johnson works with is $10.50 an hour. Johnson says once men get more than a thousand dollars behind -- which may take as little as three or four months -- a domino effect starts to set in. The interest starts to mount; men may lose their license, and then get arrested trying to drive to work without it.

"We get a lot of guys discouraged and they may turn to a street life to escape everything," Johnson says. "So we just try to get the guys to realize what they've done in the past, and pretty much just suck it up and get through it."

On a recent evening, 40 men roll office chairs into the parking lot of the nonprofit Employment Action Center in Minneapolis. This is a weekly support group for at-risk fathers. Johnson leads them through a true-false quiz:

"When non-resident fathers pay child support, their children are more likely to be healthy. Is that a fact or a myth?"

Thirty-seven-year-old David Carson is watching intently. Carson earned his tough position by making plenty of mistakes as a young man. But he's also the strongest proof that targeted help with employment and child support can halt a spiraling child support situation. Carson has five children between eight and 14, by three different mothers. He is a former gang member who says he emerged from prison ready to live a different life. He was working temporary jobs, trying to pay his child support and reconnect with his kids.

"I was making $9.00 an hour, and actually I was making less than $1.50 an hour after they took child support," Carson says. "So it was like, unnecessary to work. I tried to find work with unreported income. So my child support kept backing up, more and more, spiraling out of control."

Carson says it was the last thing he wanted to do, but he was almost desperate enough to ditch his $52,000 child-support debt and go back into crime to support himself. But Carson qualified for a Hennepin County program called "The Father Project," one of a few small programs that offer temporary relief from child support payments.

"Child support didn't hit my checks for maybe a year, so they let me get a chance to get an apartment, accumulate some things," Carson says. "It's still tough, but I feel like I have air to breathe, you know. I'm making it, I'm staying positive."

Carson got steady work as a metal-plater and resumed his child support. As a result, the mother of two of his children recently agreed to give him partial custody.

Another program called "Parents Fair Share" provided counseling and child support relief in Dakota, Ramsey, and Anoka counties. It was popular with county officials, but state lawmakers cut funding for it this spring. Wayland Campbell, state director of Child Support Enforcement, says Parents Fair Share didn't give taxpayers a good "bang for their buck" because it didn't boost collections as much as expected.

Campbell doesn't expect programs to help those who owe child support will see much funding in the near future. There's not much state money to go around, and federal priorities also favor collections over rehabilitation.

"The federal government will fund regular child support activities (and) makes up 66 percent of the cost then," Campbell says. "But with these other programs, unless there's a special grant, you don't get that same match."

Lawmakers toyed this spring with fundamental changes that would lighten the load on many non-custodial parents. Some lawmakers want to consider both parents' incomes when setting child support. Another proposal would give non-custodial parents monetary relief for whatever time they do take care of their children.

As in previous years, child support reform was left to another legislative session. But parents who've hit hard times say its a debate that needs to happen sooner rather than later.

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