Make the Jerk Pay: Tracking Down a Deadbeat Dad and Getting Child Support

Description

This book takes a hard look at the reasons why the government bureaucracy has failed as the nation's bill collector for child support....and how families get their money in only about one in five cases.It's a national scandal that millions of fathers don't pay and get away with it. Their ex-wives and children often end up on welfare at taxpayers' expense. Nationally, $50 billion is owed in back support.This book is valuable to single parents who need help in getting the child support they are entitled to. It offers help on how to obtain support, so that your family won't end up victims of a deadbeat dad, or in some cases, a deadbeat mom. The book is also meant for grandparents, who often must help support their daughter's children.Make The Jerk Pay goes beyond just explaining how to use the child support enforcement system. It tells how you can track down a missing spouse by using your own skills and available public records and the Internet. Beyond that, you will learn how to do some sleuthing to uncover money, property and other assets of the deadbeat.Men may take offense at the book's title. But we consider it justified because nine out of ten deadbeats are men. For the custodial fathers trying to collect from deadbeat moms, this book is for you too.Many men don't want the responsibility of being a father, so they end up divorcing their children as well as their wives. They run off, often moving from state to state. Some create new identities for themselves by changing their names and getting new Social Security numbers, new credit cards and driver's licenses.They go to great lengths to conceal their assets from the families they abandon, sometimes putting property in the names of others. Many arrange to be paid under the table so their earnings cannot be traced or attached. Often they will flout court orders to pay child support-knowing they're likely to get away with it. The tactics of deadbeat dads add up to a nightmare, financially and emotionally, for the mothers and children. Too often the mothers are left to fend for themselves at a time when they are least able to cope.Many women will not even seek child support. They may fear hostility from their ex-husbands, or feel that asking for child support is like asking for a handout. Others shy away because they fear it will be costly, time-consuming and too much of a hassle to deal with the bureaucratic child support system. If you are such a victim, you may feel abandoned and cheated. That's natural. Some women strike back by denying visitation rights to the father. That's a mistake. It hurts the child and gives the absent father an excuse for not paying child support.But you need not feel that you are powerless. There are laws and state and county agencies which are supposed to help you. It's the responsibility of prosecutors and judges to aid you in getting support orders and enforcing them. You can turn to support groups whose members know exactly what you are going through and can help you cope with the system.In the end, it's up to you to help find him and make him pay. Because you have the most at stake, you may have to become a squeaky wheel and pester child support officials to get your case moving.There are countless mothers who have made the system work for them. You will read vignettes about some of those women and how they triumphed, often by the force of their will.About the Author: Co-authors Lou Rose and Roy Malone are retired investigative reporters at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who have won awards for stories involving public corruption and social issues.Includes indexMetadata comments: Includes index.