Erase All Government-Owed Child Support Debt

Under former President Bill Clinton and with bipartisan support, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), not only was there reformation to the American welfare system, but the child support system also undertook significant restructuring. One of the changes required that any custodial parent (CP) applying for public benefits, specifically Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid, was mandated to sue the non-custodial parent for child support. Unfortunately, the CP was required to assign their rights and the rights of the children to any child support collected over to their respective states to allegedly recover welfare expenditures.

As you are aware, welfare benefits are grants and not loans. Therefore, those benefits do not require repayment by either parent. Not only are the benefits grants, but CPs are also required to participate in a work program in exchange for cash and medical benefits unless there is a good cause exemption approved on the case excluding them from meeting those requirements. Because of the child support assignment mandate, tens of billions of dollars in child support arrears or debt is now owed to state governments. Non-custodial parents are subject to punishments such as license suspensions, passport revocation, income withholdings, tax offsets, negative credit reporting, incarceration, and sometimes death based on insurmountable and mostly uncollectable debt. There are little to no debt relief options offered to parents, even after their children have reached the age of majority, which means they live their lives indebted to the government.

Uncollectable debt is not beneficial to parents, nor is it beneficial to children named on welfare-related child support orders. Based on the counter productiveness and the barriers, both financially and healthwise, high amounts of state-owed debt has on parents, we have launched an initiative requesting that you issue an EO forgiving all child support arrears owed to the state. According to the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) (2020), government-owed arrears were nearly $24 billion. Forgive these arrears, especially during this time of uncertainty due to the Coronavirus, because every American deserves as much assistance from our government as possible.

Owing child support arrears trigger enforcement tactics, such as the government offsetting Covid-19 relief payments to be sent back to the US Treasury. That is not helpful to American families and is harmful to children. This petition has been signed by Americans who support erasing arrears owed to the state. We are hopeful that you will do what is best for American families and guarantee a fresh start for all affected by Covid-19 and unfair and uncollectable child support debt.