email : Webview : $500 Million in Debt Removed After New Reforms to CA's Child Support System

The California Department of Child Support Services has issued new guidance on eliminating uncollectible child support debt, relieving 62,000 California parents from $500 million in burdensome debt. The California Truth and Justice in Child Support Coalition applauds this guidance, which is a necessary step to enable low-income parents to focus on reuniting with their children and comes after years of advocacy. The Financial Justice Project is a proud member of this statewide coalition, which seeks to advance child support reforms to better support low-income children and their families and to reduce child poverty in California.

Read the Coalition’s Statement Here

Requiring parents to pay the government for their children’s time in foster care is harmful to families and delays reunification by an average of six months. Government efforts to collect this debt from families are also costly to Californians, bringing in only 41 cents for every dollar spent trying to collect child support debt. The state should instead invest these resources in supporting families with reunification.

This new guidance directs local child support agencies to examine all cases of foster care debt and eliminate that debt if arrears are deemed uncollectible. Debt is deemed uncollectible if a parent’s current annual income is below $100,000 or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level, whichever is greater. Eliminating child support debt owed to the government for time spent in foster care is critical to advancing financial justice for those who are struggling the most.

These new reforms follow two of the Coalition’s 2023 legislative wins: the passage of SB 343 (Skinner) and AB 1148 (Bonta). SB 343 requires child support orders to be based on a parent’s ability to pay, enabling parents to have an adjustment to help them make ends meet. AB 1148 extends the amount of time a formerly incarcerated parent receives before reinstating child support orders, extending the time from less than one month to ten months. These bills support low-income California families and improve our broken child support system.

Learn more about this issue by watching the brief video below featuring W. Kamau Bell and Robert Reich.

Video

W. Kamau Bell and Robert Reich share why we need to change California’s unjust child support policies. https://truthandjusticeinchildsupport.org/the-truth-about-child-support-video/

We thank the Truth and Justice in Child Support Coalition, California Senator Nancy Skinner, California Assemblymember Mia Bonta, the California Department of Child Support Services, and Governor Newsom for advancing these important reforms that will support families.

Yours in Financial Justice,

Michelle, Cecilia, and Neha

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