I am expressing my opinion not because I have either paid or collected. I have friends who have been harrassed by this system for years and your DHS Child Support Recovery Unit will neither give the people who owe the money a current and correct amount when they ask for an update nor will they issue receipts for what they collect. One friend was told several years ago that he owed $1200 now all of a sudden he still owes $13,000 after they just collected tax monies in an amount over $5000. Another friend has written to another county for proof of what he is paying and for whom and it turns out that somehow they have the records screwed up and he has not only paid for the children he owed for, but they now have his daughter, who he paid child support for, down as his ex-wife and the grandkid as being his kid and they are being nasty when he wants verification from them as to how they got this information all screwed up and tell him he is the one who has to pay a lawyer to prove this isn't money he owes. Tell me, where is the justification in this. I see none. If you are going to collect then give proof of where the money goes and the balance due. The other side of the coin is, how do you expect the person in question, whether it be a mom or dad, to get to work if you take their means to get there, the vehicle they drive, or their drivers license. Tell me just how you expect to get any money if the person can't get to work.

The child support recovery unit is using the same slight of hand that's been evident throughout the life of the federal child support collection program. Around 70 percent of child support was being paid before the collection program began, long before any of the collection measures mentioned were ever taken. The drop in compliance may be due to the difficulty parents have continuing their income once sanctions are applied. Taking credit for what parents pay to support their children as by calling them "collections" is one of the most dishonest practices we've ever seen in government.