Working With Families Missing Child Support:

An Interview with Gail Thomas

Aired January 5, 2000

David C. Barnett–Joining us in the studio is Gail Thomas, executive director of Child Support Rights, a local organization that serves children and their families who do not receive adequate child support, many of whom are at risk of poverty-related problems. Gail Thomas, good morning.

Gail Thomas–Good morning.

DCB–Does Bonnie Newell's story sound familiar to you?

GT–Yes. We hear it every day in our office. We are an advocacy agency that works on behalf of children and their families and trying to get their court-ordered child support. We provide education to parents who do not understand the child support process. We will also go with them to court if need be, and the story that we just heard is something that we are hearing constantly, especially now since welfare reform is going to be unveiling itself come October 1st. In Cuyahoga County, there are approximately 8000 families that will be coming off of welfare, so, what does that mean for Cuyahoga County? Does it mean that all 8000 adults are going to have jobs? I don't think so. Does it mean that all of those families are going to have child support coming into their homes, if they have child support orders? Probably not. So, our job as advocates is to try to help those families and working in partnership with the local child support enforcement agnecy. We have been doing this process of education parents who are receiving public assistance benefits for the past three years, preparing them for October 1st, 2000.

DCB–One of the thing I heard, we did a story yesterday on Urban League's Rising Tide initiative, and one of the folks in talking there said that he didn't believe that the welfare recipients really understand the reality of that October 1st deadline.

GT–Let me just say that the parents who are receiving welfare, mainly the moms, who have been asked as part of their self-sufficiency contract to either do 30 hours of volunteer time or look for a job. They realize it, OK, because they are going to be the ones affected by-- child support is not going to solve all of their financial problems, but you know if that child support was coming in on a regular basis, like this lady who had to take the umbrella into the bathroom, maybe she wouldn't have to live in that type of environment.

DCB–What do you think about these deadbeat posters? Obviously those are the worst of the worst. Is that an effective method?

GT–So far, it has been. As she stated, when someone sees someone on a poster, whether they do in a post office or on television, you know, what have you, it makes people say, "oh, I know him," or "I have seen her," because we do have some moms who have given up their rights as custodial parents to be the non-custodial parent, and there are some moms who are on those posters, so yes, indeed, they are effective.

DCB–Well, of course, another thing that she's saying is you can't put up enough posters.

GT–No you can't, and I think that if every place, business here in Cuyahoga County would open its door and help with this effort, I think that we could get the message out besides just in your county buildings or in the post office.

DCB–Well, now another aspect of Rising Tide, which we talked about yesterday, was pointing out that, yeah, there's a whole lot of absent fathers, but they need help, too. A lot of them do, a lot of them would like to do the right thing, but they just can't.

GT–Children Support Rights also provides a monthly educational session for the Rising Tide program, the guys who go through that program, and, yes, what I hear from them, they want to be involved in their children's lives, but for whatever reason, those circumstances have caused them not to be, and if they had jobs that could support them and their children., they would pay their child support. I want to say that it's not just a common person or parent that makes minimum wages that are trying to avoid paying child support. I think the biggest criminals, if I can say that, are those parents who can afford to pay child support and know how to manipulate the system and not pay child support.

DCB–Do you have an idea of the relative proportion that we're talking about here, that the people who want to do the right thing versus the people that are just abandoning the responsibility?

GT–No, I--

DCB–What would you imagine? From your experience dealing with the single moms and hearing the stories about the fathers, are you hearing more it seems like it's negligent fathers or...

GT–I would say in dealing with the clients that call our office, because it's probably half and half, half of those moms who are on public assistance and who are working moms who live in your suburbs whose ex-husband or boyfriend, whomever it may be, just avoid paying child support because they know they can, and they can work the system, whether it be someone in high position or what have you.

DCB–Gail Thomas knows a whole lot about the system and how people are working it and how she's trying to reform it as executive director of the Children Support Rights Agency. A number people can call, to find out more about you?

GT–The number that they can call, our hotline number is (216)-575-1020.

DCB–Thanks for joining us this morning.

GT–Thank you.