Child Support Effort Targets State Licensees

Licensed workers became the latest targets of a crackdown on deadbeat parents Monday as officials began trying to match the names of 250,000 child support evaders with state licenses for a variety of occupations and businesses.

Under a new state law, state agencies are empowered to withhold or suspend professional licenses for failure to pay child support.

Eloise Anderson, director of the California Department of Social Services, said officials will try to determine if any of the 250,000 parents found to be in arrears for child support payments also hold licenses with the State Bar or agencies such as the departments of real estate, consumer affairs, corporations, insurance and motor vehicles. Action will then be taken, she said, whenever a parent applies for a new license or a renewal.

“Child support evaders will be surprised with the efficiency and thoroughness of this new program,” she said. “We think businessmen, professionals and workers will make arrangements to clear up their accounts rather than put their livelihoods at risk by not supporting their children.”

Once a parent is found to owe child support, he or she will only be eligible for a 150-day temporary license. At the end of the 150-day period the parent will lose the license unless child support obligations have been satisfied or arrangements have been made with a district attorney to pay off the debt in installments.

State officials said the names forwarded to the licensing agencies included only those parents who had been in arrears for 30 days or more. They said most parents on the list--about 90%--were fathers and most have children who are receiving welfare.

Kathleen Norris, the department’s public information officer, said as it becomes feasible the state will forward the names to other licensing agencies. Eventually, she said her department hopes to be able to match the names of delinquent parents with driver’s licenses so that those licenses can be subject to suspension or forfeiture for failure to pay child support.

At present, only parents who hold commercial licenses, such as bus and taxi drivers, can lose driving privileges for non-payment of child support.

The licensing law is one of several new enforcement tools the Legislature has given agencies in an effort to beef up child support collections. As dwindling tax collections make less money available for social programs, lawmakers have turned to child support enforcement as a way to reduce welfare costs.

The effort has been led by the Women’s Legislative Caucus, which complained that California--with one of the lowest collection rates in the nation--had become a haven for deadbeat parents.

Last Father’s Day, Gov. Pete Wilson announced his support for the child support legislation and said enforcement would be a top priority of his Administration.

Anderson said officials do not know how much additional child support will be collected because of the law, but “we expect the effect of this new program to be dramatic.”

“The additional collections should help many children in single-parent families who are not benefiting from the financial support of both parents,” she said.