Guest Commentary

By PAMELA FISH,

Porter County Clerk

In difficult economic times, it is even more paramount that the children relying on Child Support actually receive that support. 

What is even more difficult to imagine is the fact that there are cases where support has been paid, but lies waiting in an account undistributed due to the fact that the children receiving it can’t be located.

There are several factors influencing this dilemma: custodial parents move without a forwarding address, incorrect addresses are submitted to state agencies and the custodians of children can sometimes change. All these factors and more can affect whether or not children receive the child support awaiting them.

In September 2008, Child Support staff members from County Clerk’s Offices around the state gathered in Indianapolis for a yearly conference.This year’s hot topic was un-dispersed child support. Indiana ranked 44th highest out of 50 states in un-distributed child support.  

Diane Fike and Tammy Clemmons of the Porter County Clerk’s Office along with Lori Fix and Erin Strickland serving under Bruce Dumas of the Prosecutor’s IVD Division took on that task.  “Our original goal was to reduce our un-dispersed funds in this county by approximately $50,000.00” said Fix. 

On January 1, 2008 Porter County had un-dispersed child support totaling $78,525.15. As of January 7, 2009 that number had dropped to $30,424.72, a decrease of $48,100.43.  They accomplished this in only three months and will continue working to reduce the remaining balance. 

The avenues sought by these departments to assist them in the reduction include working with Welfare Agencies, BMV, in state and out of state Sheriff’s Departments and Post Office Address Verification Departments.  

Those staff members in the Clerk’s Office and Prosecutor’s Office should be commended for their efforts on this project. 

They took on this quest while keeping up with an already full list of daily responsibilities. 

The important thing is that children receive the child support that they need and deserve.   

Posted 2/12/2009