Economic impact on child support

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - The economy is impacting people's ability to pay child support throughout the nation.

With layoffs, a lack of jobs and a tough economy people are having a harder time paying the custodial parent money they owe.

Lafayette Resident David Holsclaw was at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse recently hoping to get answers on why he is not receiving child support from the non-custodial parent of his children. But instead, he was disappointed.

"She was a no show.  So she got a writ for her arrest for not paying her part of child support," said Holsclaw.

Holsclaw said he relies on that money to buy essential items for his children.

"I have 5 kids at home.  So I kind of rely on the child support payments to buy their shoes, their clothes, to help feed them," said Holsclaw.

Tippecanoe County Juvenile Magistrate Faith Graham sees similar cases all the time.  She sits on the bench for hundreds of child support hearings each month.

"It's even more important when the economy is bad to continue to enforce and collect child support," said Graham.

Graham said many people hit by the economy come to court wanting to modify their child support payments.

"When we do have a non-custodial parent ordered to pay support who has been laid off, or has lost employment at higher wage rates and taking other employment at lower wage rates, I think the thing we have seen is really an increase of the number of motions to modify the amount of child support ordered to be paid.  That is certainly something that is increasing rapidly.

Even so, Tippecanoe County is faring better than most counties in Indiana. State-wide collections were down 1.02% in 2009, but Tippecanoe County's collections were up point .49%.

"We didn't make any great gains in the amount of child support we were able to collect, but we held our own and gained a little bit.  So we're bucking the trend nationally and weathering the economy better than most places," said Linda Nearing, Supervising Deputy Prosecutor of Child Support.

While that's good news for some, Holsclaw said he will keep on working to better the lives of his children, and hopes others can find a way to make sure they pay their child support.

"I went back to school to do maybe a better job or whatever. I'm not saying the non-custodial parent could do the same thing but that's another idea you could do.  Because you get loans and everything. Then you can actually use that to pay for your child support," said Holsclaw.