Daniels Announces Plan to Collect More Overdue Child Support

Press Release

Daniels Announces Plan to Collect More Overdue Child Support

Governor Mitch Daniels today announced a new effort to increase collections of overdue child support by suspending hunting, fishing, and driver's licenses of those who refuse to pay.

"We've increased child support collection a lot in the past four years, but more than four of every ten dollars still goes unpaid. Our goal is not to suspend licenses but to let welchers know Indiana is serious about them doing their duty to their children," said Daniels, who was joined by several county prosecutors as well as officials from the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council (IPAC).

Eight counties will participate in the initial phase of the program, which will target the most extreme cases, non-custodial parents (NCPs) who have not made a child support payment for at least one year and who owe more than $25,000 in arrearages. An initial warning letter will be mailed this week in Allen, Kosciusko, Lake, Marion, Monroe, St. Joseph, Tippecanoe, and Vanderburgh counties. The Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) and the corresponding county prosecutors estimate there are about 4,000 delinquent child support cases in these counties that meet these criteria.

The program is a partnership among IPAC, DCS, the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Family and Social Services Administration.

The prosecutor's office in each county will administer the process, which will consist of three notifications sent to delinquent non-custodial parents demanding that he or she contact the prosecutor's office to set up a payment plan or pay the existing arrearage in full. If there is no response after 60 days, suspension proceedings will begin on the individual's hunting, fishing, and/or driver's license until a payment plan is established.

"Our goal is not to suspend licenses and inconvenience Hoosiers, but rather to make sure that our fellow citizens follow the laws of this state and be responsible for their families," said Pat Harrington, prosecutor of Tippecanoe County.

The governor said the project will eventually be rolled out to all counties and that the qualifying threshold will be lowered to an arrearage of $2,000 and a three-month minimum of nonpayment in accordance with Indiana Code. DCS estimates there are more than 76,000 cases above this threshold representing more than $1.3 billion of unpaid child support.

Collections of child support payments have increased in recent years. DCS estimates that to date in 2008, more than $580 million in current and overdue child support payments have been collected in the most recent reporting period, an increase of $45 million from 2007 and the largest one-year increase in state history.

"Every single percent means 7 million more going straight to a home with children who really need it," said Daniels.

Other examples of states that have implemented similar programs to increase child support collections include:

* Maine began an initiative in 1993 that encompassed all license suspensions including professional, driver and hunting that has resulted in the collection of more than $116 million since 1999. Approximately 3,400 licenses were revoked.
* Washington implemented a similar program in 2001-2002 and collected nearly $60 million in child support payments. Approximately $15.5 million was received after the initial warning letters were issued and $44 million was received after a notice of intent to suspend the NCP's driver's license was issued. More than 15,300 licenses were initially suspended, but later the suspension was canceled on nearly 9,000 of them after payments were eventually made.
* In 2000, Tennessee took steps to revoke the drivers licenses of 1,372 people who collectively owed more than $13 million in past due child support.
* During Fiscal Year 2007, Mississippi collected more than $3.2 million while suspending 13,978 licenses.

Source