Deadbeat Parents is a term referring to parents of either gender refusing or unwilling to pay court/agency ordered child support. The equivalent of deadbeat parents in legal terms is parents who are "not in compliance" or parents who are "criminally not in compliance."
Deadbeat parents are becoming a growing problem in the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, "47.3% of custodial mothers received all the child support they were owed and 77.5% received some". Additionally, "46.2% of custodial fathers received all the child support that they were owed and 74.5% received some".
One of the main reasons single mothers go on welfare is that fathers have failed to meet their responsibility towards their children.
Congress found that dads are more likely to be delinquent on their child support obligations when they crossed state lines. In 1998, President Bill Clinton signed a new law that will make it a federal crime to cross state lines in order to avoid child support payments. The Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act entails felony punishment for a parent who moves to another state, or country, with the intention of evading child support payments if the debt has remained unpaid for over a year or is great than $5,000.00.
According to the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act, a deadbeat parent is somebody who:
1. Is ordered to pay child support by the courts;
2. Is aware of the child support obligation;
3. Has willfully chosen not to pay child support for twelve months or is at least $5,000 in arrerage towards their child support payments.
There are also many other sanctions that can be applied to a parent who is "not in compliance" or "criminally not in compliance". Some of these are:
- Suspend driver's license/professional license
- Deny passport
- Garnish paycheck
- Intercept federal/state income tax refund
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