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Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich announced last week that child support collections increased by ten percent in the state of Illinois to just over one billion dollars in 2005. These 2005 child support collections surpassed the national average by approximately three percent. According to the governor, over $100 million of these funds were collected in cases where child support was “severely” overdue.
Nearly 57 percent of the increase in child support collections was collected through the New Hire Initiative. This program uses employment information to find parents that may be failing to provide court-ordered child support. Under the governor’s initiative, employers in Illinois must report new hires to the state’s Department of Employee Security within 20 days.
“We are continuing to find new, innovative ways to enforce child support law and as a result, more children are getting the financial support they deserve,” says Governor Rod Blagojevich.
According to a 2001 US Census Bureau report, only 45 percent of all non-custodial parents provide child support as mandated by court order. To improve this devastating reality that leaves children without the care and resources they need, many states have developed strategies to locate parents who fail to provide child support as required. Every state has a specific set of strategies to address the multi-billion dollar problem of unpaid child support in the United States.