New Jersey Offering Child Support Amnesty Week
Here’s some good news for divorced dads living in New Jersey! If you are behind on child support payments and facing possible jail time, it’s Child Support Amnesty week!
The week-long program allows parents who are behind on child support payments to go in to their local probation office and try to either make a payment, or come up with a payment plan that is feasible. Those who are able to do one of the two will have their arrest warrant dropped.
Even if you aren’t able to come up with a payment plan, you will be allowed to leave the premises without being arrested.
But what’s the reason behind the amnesty?
According to Camden County freeholder Scot McCray, 400,000 children in New Jersey rely on child support, and almost 60 percent of those parents paying child support are behind on payments. Since so many children rely on child support, the state wants to offer an opportunity for redemption for those many parents who struggle to make payments.
The idea of Child Support Amnesty weeks is not a new idea. New Jersey last had one in 2004, but other places have participated also. In 2009, Hamilton County in Ohio also offered amnesty.
New Jersey’s initiative agrees with the core of the men’s rights movement. Too often, divorced men are valued only for their money. Courts and judges think of them in terms of numbers, not as a father and parent.
Amnesty Week gives many parents, and often fathers, an opportunity to redeem themselves, and a fresh start to begin fulfilling the court ordered amount of child support so they don’t feel burdened by the amount of money they must pay.
What the initiative lacks, however, is a real solution to the problem. It is likely true that some fathers truly have the money, and don’t pay. But, many also simply don’t have the money.
If parents don’t have the money, then it is very difficult to simply come up with a reasonable payment plan. Making the situation worse, these fathers also don’t have the resources to request a modification in child support. Doing so requires a lawyer, and lawyers cost money.
While the initiative is promising and helpful to parents who are overwhelmed in the face of mounting child support payments, it doesn’t solve the root of the problem; it doesn’t solve for excessive child support orders.
I went from a husband working 70 to 80 hrs a week to a single father, that couldn’t work that and cook and clean and do homework or see my kids so I choose being a father was more important, but my child support was based on that. I was paying $1044.00 a month, but on 40 hours only made $2300.00. Thats $1300.00 a month to live on and feed 4 kids when I had them half of the time. I was 3500 behind instantly and lived in a tent. I went from a man that worked to death and still found time to be a dad to a man that work to death just to die. thats slavery, that made me angrier and filled with hate a nature feeling when you’re treated like a plow horse. My wife got rid of the support out of fear of losing her kids and for 2 yrs I had them 80 to 90 percent of the time, Now she isn’t working and has them 50% of the time, but I pay for everything except the food they eat at her house and still I am getting taken for support in Jan. I can’t live with my destiny and financial well being in the hands of a woman that could make or break me at any time, I shouldn’t have to beg and plead to please not take so much of my money and please allow me to have enough to survive. Its disgusting, I find that people men and women alike can see this happening and not see the slavery, the oppression and the blatant inhuman treatment of people in this horrible, shame on us all. I heard a woman preaching about this and I ask her if she thought her son should be stripped of his right, should work his life away with no chance to make anything of himself and she and many others said she would be fine with it. I don’t even want to be American if thats what it means to be American anymore.
The amnesty is a step in the right direction. I believe other steps to be taken are taking the father’s basic needs of life into consideration (food, medical, shelter, etc.), taking more control of child support out of mother’s hands, eliminating child support in any form of case where there is 50/50 custody, and establishing an accountability on how payments are spent. I am in the state of Missouri and have worked in child support while paying child support. All too often I had received calls from dads who had to choose between paying child support or eating. I guarantee my parents while I was growing up also made sure their needs were met as well. I also saw there was too much control in mothers’ hands. Despite having money order stubs, since my ex refused to file a paper that gave me credit I was still considered in arrears for those payments. This was despite the amount matched how much I was supposed to pay. For awhile I had my son 50/50 but I still had to pay child support just because his primary address was my ex’s. If a state government can setup blocks on WIC or food stamps, they can setup blocks or other forms of accountability regarding how money is spent.