Growing Breed Of Collectors Track Down Deadbeat Parents : Law: As child-support delinquencies increase and state offices become backlogged, more people turn to private agencies.

Gloria Granat says she has spent years muddling through the legal system trying to force her ex-husband to make monthly child-support payments for their son, now 11.

But after receiving only a fraction of the more than $10,000 she claims she was owed, Granat did what many bankers and car dealers do when confronted with deadbeats: She hired a private collection agency.

“It was an act of desperation . . . but I’m glad I did it,” said Granat, 43, after finally receiving a $135 check from her former husband, divorced in 1989.

Thousands of other single parents with custody--about 95% of them women--have turned to this new breed of debt collectors as child-support delinquencies grow and state agencies become increasingly backlogged.

The most recent government data said these accumulated debts totaled $19 billion by the end of 1989.

The lack of support has financially stung millions of single-parent households and placed an economic burden on states by forcing them to increase social services.

The Clinton Administration wants to create a nationwide database on deadbeat parents and enlist the Internal Revenue Service in collecting overdue child support, but the plan remains on hold.

Currently the IRS is only permitted to divert tax refund checks to state agencies; it has collected $3.2 billion since 1981.

Collection agencies say they can ease the burden on local governments.

“It’s a sad situation that we had to come into existence,” said Charles Drake, who runs Children’s Support Services, a San Antonio, Tex., collection agency, and himself a product of a single-parent household.

Nonetheless, business has expanded so much that a year ago Drake and Norfolk, Va., debt collector Jim Jones formed the American Child Support Collection Assn., a trade group. Nearly 50 agencies belong to the network, and they often help each other on multi-state cases.

Once the objects of scorn and abuse, debt collectors say the new business has helped improve their image. Their services don’t come cheap.

Collectors usually keep 15% to 25% of what they recover, in addition to a one-time application fee of $25 to $50.

Child-support advocates warn consumers, however, to avoid agencies that charge substantially more.

“You can find a reputable agency, but there are also shysters out there. Some shut down within six months,” said Beth McKinney, executive director of the National Child Support Advocacy Coalition in Hendersonville, Tenn.

“I think that the intentions may start out to be good, but ultimately they’re seeing dollar signs. There’s billions they could be collecting and millions they could be making.”

McKinney says she has received an increasing number of inquiries from single parents about collection agencies in the last year. She says she usually advises them to work through the system first, but concludes: “Seventy-five percent of something is better than 0% of nothing.”

Those about to hire a collector are urged to check references and listen carefully to what the agency says it can do.

“Many of these cases require legal work,” said Linda Ann Hammond, an assistant staff director for the American Bar Assn. Center on Children and the Law in Washington. “Anyone who hires a private collection agency should determine whether there is legal staff available, or additional charges, and what the staff will and will not do.”

Jones, who operates Child Support Services Inc. in Norfolk, says clients give his agency a limited power of attorney in recovering court-awarded child-support payments.

He said his clients are owed an average of $14,400. He claims a success rate of about 40% and expects to collect about $1 million this year alone for his 1,600 clients, including $11,000 he recently secured from a deadbeat dad tracked down in Britain.

Drake, who expects to recover around $2 million this year, including back payments for Granat, claims a success rate of around 60%. He said he usually gets results within 30 days.

Deadbeat dads “will claim that they’re broke or hide money in their girlfriend’s business,” Drake said. “Many hold a grudge. They feel their ex-wives got the house, car and kids and they were left with nothing.”

Collection agencies say they use many of the same tactics in tracking down deadbeat parents as they do in getting people to pay overdue bills. That includes letters and phone calls.

Granat’s husband, who agreed to be interviewed by telephone on condition that his name not be used to protect his privacy, said Drake’s collection agency did that and more.

“They not only harassed me . . . they tried to irritate me by constantly saying things that are not true,” he said. “They called my job several times, threatening my accountant at work.

“When I called them back to explain, they automatically said I was lying. They said I was scum.”

Drake said he wants deadbeat parents to feel uncomfortable.

“It takes a lot of work to extract money out of these guys,” he said. “These guys in my opinion are criminals. They’re stealing from their own kids.”