State keeps kids’ money

Unclaimed funds fail to make way to parents

Rachanee Therakulsathit / The Detroit News Geraldine Jensen founded ACES as an advocate for child support payments. “We have kids who go to bed hungry every night. Certainly some of the money is theirs.”

How to claim funds Complete and return a claim form to the Friend of the Court. The form is available by clicking here, or we'll send you a form if you mail a request with your return address to Friend of the Court, The Detroit News, 615 W. Lafayette Blvd., Detroit, MI 48226. If you believe you are owed money, you can call the State Court Administrators Office at (517) 373-7498 or check the website of the Michigan Department of Treasury at http://www.treas.state.mi.us/unclprop/unclindx.htm .

By Kim Kozlowski and Gary Heinlein / The Detroit News

    The Michigan Friend of the Court collected more than $18-million in child-support funds last fiscal year — but they weren’t distributed to the intended children because the court couldn’t find the custodial parents.

    Moreover, $303,000 of undistributed child-support money was funneled into the state’s coffers in that fiscal year, which ended last September, because it had sat unclaimed for more than a year, as prescribed by state law. Nearly $700,000 more went into the state treasury from October to December 2000 for the same reason.

    That brought to more than $1-million the total handed over to the treasury since October 1998, as far back as state officials could provide data.

    Officials said the amount shot up sharply in the first fiscal quarter partly because of new guidelines. But if the trend from the first quarter continues, more than $2.75-million of unclaimed child-support money could land in the state general fund this fiscal year.

    Although other states have similar policies, some state lawmakers find it disturbing that money collected from parents by the state on behalf of children could instead be spent on prisons, roads or legislative staff, and they plan to propose changes.Child-support funds that do go into the state treasury can later be claimed and paid for the intended children, officials point out. But the practice of sending undisbursed money to the treasury after just one year is still a point of outrage for many.

    “It’s just appalling,” said Geraldine Jensen, president of the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support, an advocacy group. “We have kids who go to bed hungry every night. Certainly some of the money is theirs. And the fact they don’t have a plan for finding the families who are owed this money is a travesty.”

    A year and a half ago, Carol Essenmacher moved from Calhoun County to Allegan County, in western Michigan. She said she filled out a change-of-address form at the Calhoun County Friend of the Court. Months went by, and no checks came. Essenmacher began to get angry with her ex-husband for failing to pay child support.

    After about six months, she wrote to her caseworker, but there came no response. Essenmacher telephoned and finally was told she had failed to fill out the change-of-address form. Eventually she received a check for $500 the Friend of the Court had been holding.

    “I realize these folks are impossibly swamped with an antiquated system and more delinquent parents than they can manage,” Essenmacher said. “But this is little consolation when the custodial parent is the one working, providing and caring for the children.

    “Why,” she asked, “are there no minimum standards for the Friend of the Court?”

    For their part, Friend of the Court officials say they do try to find custodial parents whose child-support checks couldn’t be delivered. They say that often the court doesn’t have a valid address, or the agency couldn’t determine why the money was received, or a judge had ordered a temporary hold on the money because of a legal dispute.

    Karen Smith, spokeswoman for the state Family Independence Agency, which keeps track of the statewide totals of unpaid support collections, said most of the $18 million that wasn’t distributed in the last fiscal year eventually would be paid to the proper recipients.

    Rep. Michael Murphy, D-Lansing, said poverty often results when children don’t receive child-support payments. He said he plans to introduce three bills this week that attack the problem.

    His proposals would:

* Require the Friend of the Court to make diligent searches to locate those owed the money and assist them in filing claims.

* Create a Children’s Trustee to oversee unclaimed, undisbursed child-support collections.

* Allow unclaimed money to fund a Child Support Assurance program, which would pay benefits to families owed support.

    “If the money was designed for child support, it shouldn’t go back into the state coffers to be used for roads or other purposes,” Murphy said. “It should go to children.”

    State Rep. Michael Switalski, D-Roseville, has agreed to co-sponsor the legislation because he can’t believe that money collected to support the welfare of children is lining the state’s pockets.

    “It makes you think, ‘Gee, does the state have a vested interest in not distributing this?’” Switalski said. “If people get the idea that they’re paying their child support and it’s not going to kids, that would destroy confidence in the system.”

    The legislation could garner bipartisan support, as Rep. Doug Hart, R-Rockford, recalls supporting the intent of the legislation in early discussions with Murphy.

    Paula Roberts, senior attorney with the Center for Law and Social Policy, which represents the interests of low-income families, acknowledged that sometimes parents fail to notify the Friend of the Court of a move. But she pointed out it is in the parents’ interest to ensure that payments follow them.

    “I think it is more likely people cannot get through to the court,” Roberts said. “And if they do get through, the information is not moved from intake to the case record.”

    But Roberts argued that turning over undistributed funds to the state treasury ultimately is bad policy.

    “By virtue of its own sloth, it earns money for the state,” Roberts said. “I don’t think you want to have a public system that benefits from its own inefficiencies. We owe it to people to get them this money. And we owe it to the people who are paying to get that money to their children.”

You can reach Kim Kozlowski at (313) 222-2024 or kkozlowski@detnews.com . You can reach Gary Heinlein at (517) 371-3660 or gheinlein@detnews.com .