PARENT'S RIGHTS NOW!

Changes in how state governments are allowed to disperse child support payments to welfare families has put more money in the pocket of West Virginia resident Becky Salmons, allowing her to buy school supplies and medicine for her 17-year-old daughter.

West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington are among the states taking advantage o f changes in federal law that encourage states to stop using the money to reimburse state and federal welfare services and instead use it to help poor families get back on their feet. For some families, the change means hundreds of extra dollars a month.Until a year ago, most of the $225 Salmons' ex-husband paid each month went to the government. Now, she gets all the money."Moneywise it was rough," said Salmons, who moved in with her mother in southwest West Virginia following her divorce three years ago. "We just had to scrimp and save, but family members would help out as much as they could."The policy changes were a gradual philosophical shift for child support payment programs that began a decade ago and were reinforced by Congress in 2006, said Vicki Turetsky, commissioner for the Office of Child Support Enforcement in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

States had until Oct. 1 to at least take some small step toward putting more money into welfare recipients' hands.

Federal officials hope the money will help welfare families become more self-sufficient, thereby reducing the demand for food stamps and other government assistance. Turetsky said a pilot project in Wisconsin showed parents were more likely to pay child support and pay it in a timely manner if the money went to their children rather than reimburse government agencies. "The net cost to the government was minimal because parents were paying more and families had less need to receive public assistance," Turetsky said.

The federal Office of Management and Budget estimates the changes could result in $4.9 billion in savings nationwide over 10 years as more families leave assistance programs. The federal policy changes allow states to choose from a smorgasbord of options to funnel current and overdue child support collections to current and former families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. Many states have been slow to embrace all the changes, though, because of severe budget problems. Turetsky said West Virginia was the first state to implement all the options. West Virginia Child Support Commissioner Susan Perry said there is a potential to put $85 million in child support into the hands of about 18,000 families. Before, the federal and state governments split child support payments 80-20 for TANF benefits. Federal authorities agreed to give up their 80 percent, but states have been reluctant to give away the money. Budget concerns are keeping Minnesota from passing along all of the money to families." It is always a matter of competing priorities," said Beth Voigt, spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Human Services' Child Support Enforcement and Transition to Economic Stability Divisions.

Anyway, giving [sic] that Campbell’s elevator has always stopped several floors short of the top, it wouldn’t surprise in the least to learn that he may have missed a child support payment here or there – as is being alleged by several sources close to the law firm where his former wife is employed.

Jets star and former University of Michigan wide receiver Braylon Edwards is being sued for child support by a former contestant on "America's Next Top Model," the New York Post
reported Friday.

Edwards reportedly fathered a child with Nik Pace, who's suing for up to $70,000 a month.

The Post quoted Pace's lawyer, Raoul Felder, as saying Edwards tried to be recognized as the father in Georgia, where child support payments would likely be lower. Pace is suing in New York.

"Braylon had tried to get the case litigated in Georgia because they are traditionally less generous with child support payments," Felder told the Post. "It's a cold, calculated act to pay less money."

Edwards, 26, doesn't see it that way, at all. "Braylon is a proud father who has loved and supported his child since before he was born," Edwards' lawyer, Randy Kessler, told the Post. "He filed in June to declare himself the legal father and she objected."

She is alleged mistress #11 in the ongoing saga of Tiger Woods' apparent affairs and she's wanted by the Department of Social and Health Services.

The television show "Inside Edition" claims Tiger's latest alleged mistress is Joslyn James who could be seen dancing at an adult entertainment convention in Las Vegas last year.

Her real name is Veronica Siwik-Daniels and she appears on the "30 most wanted" list of Washington State's DSHS.

The Web site claims she owes more than $12,000 in child support for her 10-year-old daughter. It lists Daniels' hometown as Las Vegas.

Prisoners who use the telephone to maintain strong family ties will be better prepared to rebuild their lives upon returning home. Why then does Massachusetts allow price-gouging phone companies to drive prison rates for interstate calls sky high, isolating inmates from the outside world? It is time to end telephone price gouging in prisons. If phone companies in Florida, Michigan, Missouri and New York can provide inmates with reasonable rates, so can Massachusetts.

The case of Thornton v. Thornton, 328 S.C. 96, 492 S.E.2d 86, 96 (1997), held that each past due support payment is a judgment and interest on arrears begins to accrue from time that each payment becomes due. Judgment interest is fourteen percent per annum prior to December 31, 2000 and twelve percent per year as of January 1, 2001. S.C. Code Ann. § 34-31-20.

There is an unresolved issue as to whether support payments due on or after January 1, 2001 for orders issued prior to December 31, 2000 accrue interest at 14% or 12%. Because Thornton notes that each support payment becomes a judgment when due, my view is that support obligations after January 1, 2001 accrue interest at 12%, even if the order predates January 1, 2001.

There is another unresolved issue as to whether judgment interest is compound or simple. The general thinking in Family Court was that judgement interest did not compound. See e.g., Gardner v. Gardner, 253 S.C. 296, 170 S.E.2d 372, 374 (1969). However in Gardner the party awarded interest did not appeal the award of simple interest and no reported South Carolina case resolves the issue of whether interest under the statute is simple or compound. A couple of 19th century cases held that interest “per annum” or “annually” compounds. Carolina Sav. Bank v Parrott, 30 S.C. 61, 8 S.E. 199, 201 (1888); Bowen v Barksdale, 33 S.C. 142, 11 S.E. 640, 641 (1890). No cases since 1890 have ruled on the issue of whether interest compounds or is simple.

Dead people are the newest frontier in debt collecting, and one of the healthiest parts of the industry. Those who dun the living say that people are so scared and so broke it is difficult to get them to cough up even token payments.Collecting from the dead, however, is expanding. Improved database technology is making it easier to discover when estates are opened in the country’s 3,000 probate courts, giving collectors an opportunity to file timely claims. But if there is no formal estate and thus nothing to file against, the human touch comes into play.

You get to be the person who cares,” the training manager, Autumn Boomgaarden, told a class of four new hires.

For some relatives, paying is pragmatic. The law varies from state to state, but generally survivors are not required to pay a dead relative’s bills from their own assets. In theory, however, collection agencies could go after any property inherited from the deceased.

But sentiment also plays a large role, the agencies say. Some relatives are loyal to the credit card or bank in question. Some feel a strong sense of morality, that all debts should be paid. Most of all, people feel they are honoring the wishes of their loved ones.

“In times of illness and death, the hierarchy of debts is adjusted,” said Michael Ginsberg of Kaulkin Ginsberg, a consulting company to the debt collection industry. “We do our best to make sure our doctor is paid, because we might need him again. And we want the dead to rest easy, knowing their obligations are taken care of.”

Finally, of course, some of those who pay a dead relative’s debts are unaware they may have no legal obligation.

Scott Weltman of Weltman, Weinberg & Reis, a Cleveland law firm that performs deceased collections, says that if family members ask, “we definitely tell them” they have no legal obligation to pay. “But is it disclosed upfront — ‘Mr. Smith, you definitely don’t owe the money’? It’s not that blunt.”

A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.

Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.

Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.