When a debtor simply doesn't have the means to pay all that they owe, lenders typically agree to accept part of the amount owed. While governments have long used a similar approach to managing monetary economics, states have historically lacked the freedom to use logic in their efforts to collect overdue child support. In fact, many states spend much more money hunting down, prosecuting and even incarcerating parents who owe back support than they could hope to collect from them. Now, a study shows that a pilot program in Wisconsin that offered parents for some of their outstanding debt were more likely to make payments on their current and past-due child support.
Non-custodial parents owe over $100 billion in back support to families and states. According to Brett Burkhart, one of the researchers who studied the pilot program for the University of Wisconsin's Institute for Research on Poverty Families, most of that money would be considered uncollectible by a private lender. The bulk of it is owed by (Read More....)
