Georgia law enforcement officials are sending a clear message to the state’s divorced parents: pay your child support payments or expect trouble. State workers declared 2011 the year they will crack down on child support payment dodgers, and enforcement officials have shown that they mean business.
For many divorced parents, child support payments form a vital part of their income. This extra revenue allows them to protect the best interests of their children by ensuring that all their needs are properly cared for. Georgia State child support workers claim that thousands of absent parents are either failing to submit regular payments or using legal loopholes to avoid paying the full amount mandated by the court. This is a problem enforcement officials are determined to fix.
Since the beginning of the year, many absent parents received a legal order directing them to submit their outstanding child support payments. State workers sent the orders through the mail, and occasionally asked local sheriffs to hand-deliver them to a parent’s door.
If absent parents choose to ignore the orders, Georgia State enforcement workers have a variety of resources at their disposal to encourage them to reconsider. For example, workers are allowed to place a suspension on an absent parent’s driver’s license, suspend their vehicle tags, refuse to approve passport applications, and even garnish their bank account.
In the words of one child support worker, Georgia parents who avoid paying for child support will be subjected to “nasty business” from state workers until they submit the appropriate payment. Do you approve of these child support enforcement measures or do you think that state workers have adopted an overly aggressive approach?
Source: Examiner.com, “Atlanta cracks down on child support evaders.” Khalidah Tunkara, 9 March 2011.