Earlier this month, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced that the state helped to collect a record $1.14 billion in child support payments in the last fiscal year. “Before I became governor, the child support system in our state was the worst in the nation,” Blagojevich said in a statement. “But this program has turned around. … More Illinois parents than ever are getting the payments they are owed so their children can have the childhood they deserve.”
In 2001, Illinois ranked dead last of all the states in collecting child support payments. Only 38 percent of the money that was owed that year was in fact collected. But that record has improved. Last year, the state collected 53 percent of the money that was owed.
One caveat: Even with a better collection rate, the total amount of child support in arrears has risen to $2.8 billion. So the collection rate since 2001 has improved significantly, but the total amount owed has also grown.
It’s good that the collection numbers are moving in the right direction. Some of the credit goes to a federal law mandating that states designate a clearinghouse for dispersing child support payments.
Since Blagojevich took office, the state also has pushed to hold employers more accountable to a law on the books for years. The law requires employers to report to the state the names and Social Security numbers of new employees. If a new employee is delinquent with child support, state officials can work with the employer to start withdrawing money from the parent’s pay.
Last year the state created a toll-free hot line as well as a Web site to make it easier for employers to report new workers. Pam Compton, state administrator of child support enforcement, said collections as a result of the so-called New Hires program alone jumped from about $1.5 million a month in 2004 to $3.8 million a month as of May. Other improvements include stepped-up efforts to establish the paternity of newborns and a deadbeat parents Web site–www.ilchildsupport.com/deadbeats/–that includes the names and photos of parents who are delinquent by $5,000 or more.
For its efforts, Illinois next month will receive a national award from a child support enforcement group.
Thousands upon thousands of children are still owed money. Most of those kids have custodial parents who struggle mightily to provide for those young people. Illinois has set a record, but it can still get even more meaningful results.
