- Target:
- Board of elections
- Region:
- United States of America
In 1950, Congress passed the first Federal child support enforcement legislation requiring State welfare agencies to notify appropriate law enforcement officials when it became necessary to provide aid to dependent children who had been abandoned or deserted by a parent.
Amendments to the Social Security Act in 1965 allowed local and state welfare agencies to obtain information from the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare regarding the address and place of employment of a non-custodial parent who owed support under a court order for support.
The next big year for child support laws was 1984, when the Child Support Enforcement Amendments were established requiring major improvements in both state and local Enforcement programs. First, all States were required to develop mandatory income withholding procedures as well as expedited processes for establishing and enforcing support orders (such as income tax refund interceptions and property liens.) In addition, states were allowed to report delinquent parents to consumer credit agencies.
One of the most significant changes in support enforcement policy in recent years has been the shift towards addressing men's roles as fathers. Legislation enacted in 1996, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, contains significant revisions in child support legislation that call for the development of a number of social services programs aimed towards working with fathers.
Under this Act, states can apply for grants in the range of $50,000 to develop programs that provide mediation and counseling services and encourage child visitation in families where the parents do not live together. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act also allowed for the creation of the New Hires database, which requires all employers to report information about newly hired employees. This allows child support enforcement officials to track down deadbeat parents, even across state lines and retrieve payments through income withholding.
These laws have been in place to establish financial support for a child, but neglecting the child’s emotional and physical relationship with the non custodial parent which in most cases is the father. These laws are teaching society that the maternal parent is the only parent who deserves a full time relationship with children. Fathers can be denied time with the child based off the mothers mood. Father who are willing to take care of their children should not automatically be assigned child support, the laws are not in favor of parenting and the moral aspect of raising a child, Fathers are not treated fairly or equally.
Child support has become a multi billion dollar business that is now benefiting the government .According to Title IV-D, state child support collection agencies receive a huge financial bonus for the child support arrears they collect. I raise to change the child support law to be Profamily and to have the monetary business be dealt with only if absolutely necessary e.g. Father in prison or Abusive parent. Let our father be Fathers and not be forced into an unethical financial situation.
We, the undersigned call on the Board of elections, the government, the statehouse, Job and family services and child support enforcement agency to give equal rights to involved Fathers and strike down child support laws that are not favorable to men that physically want to take care of their child/children.
For centuries men have been forced to pay for their children with the idea that when a family is not together as a whole the man is "free" from financial obligations, thus creating the mother and child to become impoverished. Neglecting the fact that the father and mother could SHARE the responsibility for the child rather it be financial or emotional or physical in more a natural manor such as shared parenting. Often times the word visitation is used when giving the non custodial parent (usually the father) their so called rights after a child support order is given.
The word Visitation should be reserved for an informal setting amongst two people- not to describe a relationship or time shared between a child and their parent. Forcing men to pay child support does NOT benefit the child... it benefits the political view that family law is PROfamily... this view exists to disguise the more obvious agenda. The government has found a way to take something as sacred and wonderful as raising a child, and turn it into another profitable industry.
We are asking you to make a difference in Fathers lives as well as the children who are connected to them, and support change to make laws favorable for men by dealing with the natural relationship as a parent oppose to automatically having to pay for something that is rightfully their own already. Children cannot be bought, and what makes one child worth more than the other?
Children need both their parents in their lives- Lets fight for fathers to be treated equally so children can have a chance at a more stable well rounded life.
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