REPORT TITLE:
Parents' Fair Share


DESCRIPTION:
Creates 3-year pilot parents' fair share program, led by
judiciary and assisted by the DHS and DLIR, that targets non-
custodial parents to enhance their ability to make child support
payments by providing certain services and support.  Appropriates
$     for FY 2000-2001 to the judiciary.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        2777
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

RELATING TO CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT.



BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that collecting child
 
 2 support payments from non-custodial parents, usually fathers, has
 
 3 always been difficult.  Many do not want to and many do not earn
 
 4 enough income.  In 1990, eighteen million children were
 
 5 potentially eligible for support from nine and a half million
 
 6 non-custodial parents but only forty-six per cent made support
 
 7 payments.  A significant portion of non-custodial parents is
 
 8 poor, unemployed, or underemployed.  Of such fathers, twenty-
 
 9 three per cent had incomes below the gross income standard for
 
10 food stamp eligibility and did not pay child support in 1990.
 
11 Although ninety per cent of these predominantly young and little-
 
12 educated fathers worked or looked for work in 1990, only eighteen
 
13 per cent worked full-time and year-round.  Their personal income
 
14 averaged only $8,956 (in 1998 dollars).  Despite this, few of
 
15 these fathers received any sort of public assistance in 1990.
 
16 Even fewer received means-tested employment-related services.
 
17      Child support enforcement agencies have naturally tended to
 
18 focus their scarce resources on collecting payments from fathers
 
19 with known and stable income.  Thus, the poorest families have
 

 
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 1 tended not to receive much support.
 
 2      Because of the regressivity of child support payment
 
 3 guidelines for low-income fathers, required payments often exceed
 
 4 the means of many non-custodial parents.  If a father does not
 
 5 earn enough to make payments, he may volunteer his true earnings
 
 6 information but this takes time and money.  On the other hand, if
 
 7 a father does not show up in court to establish his earnings
 
 8 capacity, the court usually imputes his capacity at a full-time,
 
 9 year-round minimum wage level and issues a default order.  Often,
 
10 this rate is too high for many fathers.  Since 1986, states have
 
11 been prohibited from reducing or forgiving past-due child
 
12 support.  The result is that many non-custodial fathers owe huge
 
13 amounts to the government, and not their children, because the
 
14 debt was accumulated while the children were on welfare.  In this
 
15 way, the child support system penalizes poor non-custodial
 
16 fathers and does not expect poor custodial mothers who actually
 
17 receive welfare with their children to pay any of their welfare
 
18 costs.
 
19      Parents' Fair Share programs were designed to go after hard-
 
20 to-find and low-earning or unemployed non-custodial parents in
 
21 order to improve the lot of their children.  These pilot programs
 
22 were intended to address many of the current weaknesses of the
 

 
 
 
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 1 child support enforcement system.  For example, when non-
 
 2 custodial parents make payments on behalf of their children on
 
 3 welfare, the entire amount goes to the government to offset the
 
 4 cost of providing welfare.  Non-custodial parents recognize that
 
 5 their financial contributions do not directly benefit their
 
 6 children, which gives them an incentive to avoid the child
 
 7 support system.  From 1984 to 1996, $50 per month of support
 
 8 payments was federally mandated to pass through directly to
 
 9 welfare families.  However, in 1996, Congress rescinded this
 
10 pass-through so that none of the support payment got through,
 
11 unless a state agrees to absorb the expense.  Currently, there is
 
12 no financial link between non-custodial parents and their
 
13 children on welfare, unless the state agrees to pick up the tab.
 
14      The Parents' Fair Share pilot programs were authorized by
 
15 the Family Support Act of 1988 and were intended to help non-
 
16 custodial parents of children on welfare to pay child support and
 
17 to increase child support collections.  The program involved
 
18 several key components including:
 
19      (1)  Occupational training and job search and placement
 
20           services, emphasizing on-the-job training rather than
 
21           classroom training;
 
22      (2)  Mediation services to help mothers and fathers overcome
 

 
 
 
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 1           disagreements that interfere with child support
 
 2           compliance; and
 
 3      (3)  Peer support and parenting instruction.
 
 4      The purpose of this Act is to establish a program to help
 
 5 children by targeting their non-custodial parents to enhance
 
 6 their ability to make child support payments and to support both
 
 7 custodial and non-custodial parents.
 
 8      SECTION 2.  Non-custodial parents; pilot program; job
 
 9 training and placement; assistance in establishing paternity;
 
10 mediation services; peer support and parenting instruction.  (a)
 
11 There is created a three-year pilot parents' fair share program.
 
12 The lead agency for the parents' fair share pilot program shall
 
13 be the judiciary and the departments of human services and labor
 
14 and industrial relations shall assist the judiciary to carry out
 
15 the purposes of this section.
 
16      (b)  The judiciary, assisted by the departments of human
 
17 services and labor and industrial relations, shall identify,
 
18 locate, provide and monitor services to eligible non-custodial
 
19 parents.  For the purposes of this section, to be an eligible
 
20 non-custodial parent, the person must:
 
21      (1)  Have a child receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy
 
22           Families;
 

 
 
 
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 1      (2)  Be unemployed or underemployed;
 
 2      (3)  Apply for a social security number for each member of
 
 3           the assistance group;
 
 4      (4)  Not own assets valued at more than $     , excluding
 
 5           the home, and one car not to exceed $      in equity
 
 6           value;
 
 7      (5)  Assign the parent's rights for child support to the
 
 8           child support enforcement agency under chapter 576D,
 
 9           Hawaii Revised Statutes, and further cooperate in
 
10           identifying, locating, and collecting child support
 
11           from any parent who is absent from the home because of
 
12           divorce, desertion, or abandonment;
 
13      (6)  Use the money for the benefit of the children; and
 
14      (7)  Attempt to support or help the children by accepting
 
15           employment when offered, or by accepting medical care
 
16           or vocational rehabilitation when needed or
 
17           appropriate.
 
18      (c)  The judiciary, assisted by the departments of human
 
19 services and labor and industrial relations, shall provide the
 
20 following services to eligible non-custodial parents:
 
21      (1)  Assistance to expedite the establishment of paternity
 
22           and assistance to expedite child support awards;
 

 
 
 
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 1      (2)  Job readiness skills, including skills that are
 
 2           necessary to search and apply for jobs in general;
 
 3      (3)  Job skills training, including on-the-job training in
 
 4           specific employment areas as jointly determined by the
 
 5           judiciary and the departments of human services and
 
 6           labor and industrial relations;
 
 7      (4)  Job placement, preferably in year-round full-time jobs,
 
 8           to ensure that the non-custodial parent achieves a
 
 9           reliable stream of income;
 
10      (5)  Educational support that is necessary to improve the
 
11           non-custodial parent's employability;
 
12      (6)  Work support, including the provision of child care;
 
13      (7)  Transportation services, including transport of the
 
14           non-custodial parent to and from job training,
 
15           education classes, and child care facilities;
 
16      (8)  Mediation services to defuse or solve parental disputes
 
17           and tensions, which may include visitation rights,
 
18           household expenditures, differing lifestyles, child
 
19           care, and school arrangements, that interfere with the
 
20           efficient payment of child support; and
 
21      (9)  Peer group counseling and support, including a
 
22           "responsible fatherhood" curriculum, to help provide
 

 
 
 
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 1           stability and encouragement to non-custodial parents to
 
 2           adopt responsible parental behavior.  This curriculum
 
 3           may include recreation, mentoring, and planned parent-
 
 4           child activities.
 
 5      (d)  The judiciary, assisted by the departments of human
 
 6 services and labor and industrial relations, shall have
 
 7 flexibility to provide the mix of services as described in
 
 8 subsection (c) that most effectively and efficiently carries out
 
 9 the purposes of this section.
 
10      (e)  During the operation of the pilot parents' fair share
 
11 program, the child enforcement agency may allow reductions of
 
12 support orders while eligible non-custodial parents are
 
13 participating in the program.
 
14      (f)  The judiciary, assisted by the departments of human
 
15 services and labor and industrial relations, shall submit to the
 
16 legislature an interim report no later than December 31, 2002, on
 
17 the progress of the program, and a final report no later than
 
18 twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of
 
19 2003.
 
20      (h)  This section shall be repealed on June 30, 2003.
 
21      SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
22 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $          , or so
 

 
 
 
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 1 much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2000-2001, to
 
 2 fund the first year of the three-year pilot parents' fair share
 
 3 program.  The sum appropriated shall be expended by the judiciary
 
 4 for the purposes of this Act.
 
 5      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval,
 
 6 except that section 3 shall take effect on July 1, 2000.
 
 7 
 
 8                           INTRODUCED BY:  _______________________