Jobless struggle to pay child support

WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- Widespread unemployment has put the squeeze on parents trying to make child-support payments, social workers say.

As a result, more parents can't pay, more have gone to court to try to reduce payments and more rely on unemployment to cover child-support payments, USA Today reports. And parents with custody of kids have been seeking higher child-support payments because their income's declined.

San Mateo County, Calif., reports contempt orders against parents who owe child support increased 129 percent, from 180 to 413, in the six months ending in March compared with the same period a year ago, the newspaper said.

"It's the economy, simply put," said Iliana Rodriguez, director of Child Support Services in San Mateo. "These are people who have never been unemployed in their lives."

The pinch has been felt nationwide.

Child-support payments have declined in Ohio, New Hampshire and Minnesota. In Arkansas, the number of parents who got approval to reduce payments rose 47 percent, to 4,000, from July through March, compared with the same period a year before, USA Today said.

"When those numbers start to go up, you know people are losing their jobs," said Dan McDonald, director of the Office of Child Support in Arkansas.