Fall $2500 Behind in CS and lose Passport

Bill would keep deadbeat dads at home; Unpaid child support means no border crossings
By Carol Bronson, lifestyles@pratttribune.com
Published: Monday, July 30, 2007 12:43 PM CDT


Parents who owe child support may be prevented from traveling outside the country, even if they currently have a passport, if bills introduced by Kansas legislators are successful.

On July 13 Senator Pat Roberts introduced S. 1788 to allow a passport to be revoked if a parent owes $2,500 or more in child support payments. Similar legislation was introduced last January in the House of Representatives by Reps. Dennis Moore (D-KS) and Jerry Moran (R-KS). A current law already restricts delinquent parents from receiving a passport.

In his testimony, Roberts conceded that the bill will not impact a large percentage of children and families receiving support, but the impact on a single family could be significant.

The Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services supports the bills. The department looks for "ways to crack down" on delinquent parents, said Abbie Hodgson, director of communications. Some divorced parents see the payments as going to a former spouse, not providing basic quality of life for their children, she noted.

The Kansas Legislature approved measures to restrict hunting and fishing licenses for delinquent parents during the last session. More common methods of enforcing court-ordered child support payments include garnishing wages, collecting income tax refunds and withholding any lottery winnings. Since 1996 all states have required employers to report new hires to child support enforcement authorities and to enter into agreements with financial institutions to match records with parents who are delinquent in their payments.

SRS does not have the authority to negotiate the amount of court-ordered payments, but can set up payment plans for parents who become delinquent, Hodgson said.

There are 131,000 child support cases open in Kansas, Roberts testified, and last year the Kansas Child Support Enforcement Program collected $156 million in payments.


h t t p://w w w.pratttribune.com/articles/2007/07/30/news/03.txt