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Law pays off in quest to collect child support

State can withhold licenses until parents fork over past-due cash

BY SALINA ALI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

May 11, 2005 - One year after a federal mandate requiring Michigan residents to provide their Social Security numbers when renewing, replacing or applying for a driver's license, state officials say it has helped in the collection of overdue child support payments.

"The law is another important tool in our toolbox," said Allison Pearce, a spokeswoman for the Attorney's General's Office. "It's an effective way for parents to live up their responsibilities."

The federal mandate took effect May 3, 2004, and requires all Michigan residents to provide their Social Security numbers when requesting licenses.

The law helps authorities track deadbeat parents by combining the Secretary of State's Office database with others to find parents who owe three or more months of back child support and who have failed to contact Friend of the Court to make payment arrangements.

To date, there are 780,000 court orders in Michigan for child support payments and $8.7 billion is owed for child support, according to the Department of Human Services, formerly the Family Independence Agency.

"One out of seven people in Michigan are a member of a child support case. Either they are payee, payer or they are the child," said Marilyn Stephan, director of the Office of Child Support, a division of the DHS.

Initially, Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land and former Secretary of State Candice Miller opposed the federal mandate and asked the federal government for a waiver.

"We were trying to avoid unnecessary collection" of Social Security numbers, said Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State's Office. "We only started collection after proper safeguards were put in place to protect Michigan residents."

Under the law, if a nonpaying parent attempts to renew, replace or receive a license, a child support suspension order alerts the clerk at the Secretary of State's branch office, and no driver's license may be issued.

To clear the suspension, the applicant must contact Friend of the Court to address the child support delinquency then return to a Secretary of State branch with an order rescinding the license suspension, plus pay an $85 clearance fee. The state also can attach a nonpayment of child support to professional or occupational licenses, recreational and sporting permits.

"We have the ability to suspend a professional license for lawyers or a barber, contractor or psychologist or any other state licenses to practice," Stephan said.

After three months of nonpayment, the parent also is pursued criminally through the Attorney General's Office, the local prosecutor's office or sheriff's department.

Dan Diebolt, executive director of the Family Rights Coalition, said the laws are good for finding those parents who refuse to pay, but he said the laws don't do enough.

"The state will go to great lengths to enforce child support," he said. But "there's nothing the state is doing to enforce parenting time. It's a lopsided effort. It's imbalanced in the family arena.

"There is nothing supporting the relationships between the parents. The federal government has basically said, 'Show me the money.' "

In the last two years, Wayne County's Felony Non-Support Unit has arrested 2,000 deadbeat parents with 107 of those parents being convicted of felonies for nonpayment.

County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office and the Wayne County Sheriff's Office make up the unit, which has collected $6 million in past-due child support.

"Every dime of that goes directly to the children," Worthy said Friday.

Last Wednesday, the unit arrested its 2,000th deadbeat parent.

The parent in this case owed $9,654 in back child support.

When he was arrested, the man told officers he was unable to pay. However, he posted bail on Friday, shelling out a $2,000 cash bond to get out of jail.

Contact SALINA ALI at 313-223-4554 or ali@freepress.com.

HELP FOR PARENTS
Parents trying to collect child support payments in Wayne County should contact the county Felony Non-Support Unit at 313-224-0465. The Attorney General Office's child support division also handles cases. For information, call 517-373-1111 or e-mail the office at AGCSCD@michigan.gov.

Deputies Arrests Deadbeat Dads on Mother's Day

Exposing Deadbeat Parents

(Richland County) - Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott wanted to give a special present to mothers who are raising their children without the child support due to them. His gift; arresting the men known as "deadbeat dads."

During the early morning hours of Sunday, May 8, officers attempted to serve 107 warrants to capture the "deadbeat dads." Deputies arrested 21 men who owed a total of $293,834.65.

Each Tuesday night at 11 p.m., News19 profiles a deadbeat parent who's not paying their fair share.

Dads are invisible to marketers' eyes

By William J. McGee

SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST

May. 11, 2005 - I've been a single dad for most of the 11 years of my son's life, so you might think I'd have gotten over feeling slighted when men are left out of the child-raising talk. I believed I'd gotten over it - until I came across a poster touting Crown Theatres' new "Movies for Moms" (yes, that's a trademarked phrase), exhorting mothers to "Bring your baby to the movies!" Then I discovered that Loews Cineplex offers a "Reel Moms" program ("Stroller check is available; admission for grown-ups is regular ticket price, babies are free").

The Loews fine print acknowledges that some of those grown-ups may be fathers, but I couldn't help feeling excluded even as I realized that many other caregivers probably wouldn't care. Like other major retail organizations, Crown and Loews clearly aren't worried about offending 50 percent of the parenting pool. After all:

• When it comes to peanut butter, "Choosy Moms Choose Jif."

• Kix cereal is "Kid-Tested, Mother-Approved!"

• Robitussin is "Recommended by Dr. Mom."

• Kari Lee's cookie mix is "a mix that moms and kids love."

• The BIC Evolution coloring pencil is "for kids ... but moms will love it too!"

• And the American Dairy Association warns: "Hey, moms! Don't forget the power of cheese."

I probably don't need to remind you that single dads, custodial dads and just plain-old dads also purchase peanut butter, breakfast cereal, cough syrup, cookies and even pencils. Heck, I've even been known to buy cheese.

But I've given up expecting media recognition for dads' efforts. Just look at the contents of Parenting magazine: "The Mom Guide," "Moms Dish on How They Handle Misbehaving Kids," "How Moms Decide," "Embarrassing Mom Moments" and "Mom-Tested Secrets."

Now, you might be thinking that I'm suffering from a mild case of hypersensitivity. But generalizations like these affect the way we view both men's and women's roles - in an office, on a battlefield and in a courtroom. Terms excluding women have largely - and thankfully - gone away. Politicians and broadcasters now praise our "servicemen and -women overseas" or "the men and women of the police department." Women are acknowledged for roles traditionally undertaken by men.

But the reverse is not true.

Admittedly, there are plenty of fathers who perpetuate this. I once worked with a publisher who complained of having to spend the weekend "babysitting" his kids. How, I asked him, is it possible to babysit your own children?

Hollywood and advertisers often show moms struggling with the dual challenges of home and career, and in the movies that do portray men in nurturing roles, prepare for high jinks! Nothing generates laughs like a guy changing a diaper. (Witness "The Pacifier," in which Vin Diesel holds a bare-bottomed baby over a toilet bowl.)

Is it any wonder that it's so hard to find changing tables in men's rooms? Is it any wonder that so many judges consistently fail to recognize the rights of fathers in family courts?

Anyone who has spent time in family court can testify that there are plenty of terrible parents of both genders. But in a lot of courtrooms, fathers are seen as little more than the keepers of the checkbooks. (I recently Googled "deadbeat dad" and got 61,900 results; "deadbeat mom" returned just 5,030.)

Memo to Hollywood and the advertising world: I'm one of many caring dads out there. And I'm quite choosy, too. I just won't be choosing Jif.

-------------------------------------------------
William J. McGee is a Connecticut-based journalist.

Answer the Phone: Your Identity is on the Line

Beverly Hills, CA -- (ArriveNet - May 06, 2005) -- There hasn't been much good news in the battle against identity theft lately, with fraudsters staying one step ahead of the game. But don't panic, our old friend the telephone has come to the rescue.

We're all aware of the problem of identity theft, but did you know that your local pizza chain has had a solution for years? You recognize it as the system that prevents little Johnny from having twenty pizzas delivered to your door at midnight: the pizza chain calls you immediately after the order is placed to verify the validity of the order. Because little Johnny is afraid to be caught, he'll think twice about causing this pizza-related havoc.

TeleSign's patent-pending verification system has transferred this pizza concept to the high-tech world. It works like this: after filling out a form on a website, the user is prompted to enter his phone number. A robotic system then places a call to that number and speaks aloud a unique three digit code. Once that code is entered into the website, the authentication is complete. This system can be implemented at any point on a website: at registration, purchase, a specific time interval, or at the request of a user.

Email verification is the current standard for user authentication, but email may end up filtered, junked, bulked, or trashed. Because of spam, viruses, and phishing, email filtering has become so aggressive that even legitimate emails don't reach the inbox. But a telephone call cannot be stopped, making this the perfect time for the introduction of TeleSign’s solution.

The future of ecommerce is threatened by rampant fraud and lack of trust. TeleSign will force anonymous users to expose their faces by revealing their working phone numbers.

To try an interactive demo, visit (http://www.telesign.com/demo2/demo.asp) and have your phone ready.

For more information about TeleSign’s products and services, visit (http://www.telesign.com/demo2/) or email press2@telesign.com.

About TeleSign Corp.
TeleSign is a leader in innovative internet security solutions and provider of intelligent telephone-based verification solutions for any entity conducting business online where trust is essential and where fraud is a concern. TeleSign’s patent-pending Verification System provides a critical layer of security for the e-commerce world and is a proven deterrent against ill-intentioned web users. The company’s first product, the TeleSign Verification System, blends the latest internet, security and telephony technologies into a powerful new tool to combat fraud and enhance trust in e-business.

TeleSign Corp. seeks to provide simplified solutions for any company conducting business online where trust is essential and where fraud is a concern. TeleSign’s patent-pending Verification System provides a critical layer of security for the e-commerce world and is a proven deterrent against ill-intentioned web users. TeleSign’s Verification System is able to legitimize a web user’s claimed identification at a miniscule cost and with little inconvenience to all parties involved.

TeleSign’s Verification System is based upon the premise that ill-intentioned web users hesitate to disclose their working phone numbers. By placing a computer-generated telephone call coupled with a unique security code, we insist that a web user provide a legitimate telephone number or be rooted out. The company’s first product, the TeleSign Verification System, blends the latest internet, security and telephony technologies into a powerful new tool to combat fraud in e-commerce.

Visit http://www.telesign.com/demo2/ or call 310-276-5900 for more information.

TeleSign Corporation
Contact: Sam Gonen
Telephone: (310) 276-7843
Email: press2@telesign.com