Growing Numbers of Parents Ask Courts to Reduce
Child-Support
Megan K. Scott of the Associated Press shares the story of
David Vandenberg, who owns a prosperous acupuncture clinic in a white-collar
suburb of Washington D.C. Vandenberg
owed a $433 child support payment, an amount which gave him no
trouble - until 2008.
Vandenberg’s business began to sputter, and he filed for
unemployment protection. At age 50, he
was unable to find a new job, and Vandenberg moved back home to Arkansas to
live with his parents, who also graciously offered to make his child support
payments.
"I didn't have any recourse," Vandenberg says.
He tried (unsuccessfully) to have a court
reduce his monthly payments. After
making his child support payment, he receives just $100 a month from
unemployment.
Statistics show that men have been affected more by the
economic downturn. 9.8% of men
are unemployed, versus 7.5% of women, and men make up most noncustodial
parents. As a result, a growing number
of unemployed dads find themselves responsible for child support payments based
on incomes they no longer have.
A survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers
reported that this year, 39% of participants saw an increase in
modifications being made to child support payments, and another 42%
witnessed a rise in the number of changes made to divorce cases regarding modifications of alimony.
Glenn Sacks, executive director of Fathers & Families,
an organization that advocates for family court reform, says he sees it every
day.
"You have all these guys losing
their jobs, having to take lower paying jobs or part-time work and they are
flooding the courts to get downward modifications. The courts have improved to a degree, but
they move much too slowly."
The custodial parents involved in these cases also feel the
pinch. Delaine Moore is a separated
stay-at-home mom of three in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Her husband had worked on an oil field and
paid $6,500 a month until this March, when he lost his job. His payments dwindled down to nothing. Moore says there are fewer movie trips and
visits to restaurants as she adjusts to the loss of that income.
"I think my children are still feeling very
loved and most importantly I'm here for them, [But] I don't know what's going
to happen."
Patricia Macias, a family court judge in El Paso, Texas,
says she evaluates a parent's situation carefully before deciding on a
child support reduction.
- Are they
unemployed or underemployed by choice?
- Are they actively seeking a new job?
- Do they have non-essential assets that should be sold to make payments
possible?
"I believe that family court
judges as a general rule are very empathetic to the economic situation," Macias
says. "But our primary focus is what the
kids need. So that it's not good enough
to say, 'Judge, you understand. We're in
hard economic times.'"
Some have found that the economy is a great incentive to
work these sort of reductions out between the two parents, though the court
still needs to have the court order updated. Flexibility and good-faith efforts will benefit everyone in the long
run, even the children, who benefit from stable relationships between parents
more than they do trips to the movies.
Source: The
Associated Press
