State to implement fee on child support

Many of Michigan’s single parents will have one more financial concern beginning in September, when the state will start deducting a $25 annual fee from most child support payments.

The fee will be deducted from payments to custodial parents who receive more than $500 yearly in child support, have never received cash assistance and do not currently receive food assistance, said Marilyn Stephen, director of the Department of Human Services’ Office of Child Support.

The fee will affect about 240,000 of Michigan’s 942,115 child support recipients. The Federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 requires all states to collect the fee.

“The fee has to do with the overall budget structure of the federal government and the need to find additional ways to fund services to citizens,” Stephen said.

Two-thirds of the money collected will be sent to the federal government to fund national child support programs and the rest will pay for operational costs for Michigan friend-of-the-court programs.

Any child support recipient who has been paid more than $500 since April will have the fee deducted from their September support check, Stephen said. The 2008-09 fiscal year will begin Oct. 1 and recipients will pay the fee again once their payments after that date reach $500.

Jackson resident Missy Shean, a student at Douglas J Aveda Institute, 331 E. Grand River Ave., collects child support for her 4-year-old son. Shean said she was angry when she received a letter last week notifying her about the fee.

“My son’s dad is over $5,000 behind in child support,” she said. “Now, once he does pay me $100 or whatever, I’m only going to get $75. It’s just not fair.”

Ingham County Friend of the Court director Shauna Dunnings said the county currently has more than 24,000 child support cases. She said she expects to hear complaints once recipients begin seeing the fee deducted from their checks.

“I’m not sure the public is quite aware of it yet,” she said. “Once it starts coming out of the payee’s check, they will say, ‘hey, where did that $25 go?’”

Leann Harris, an administrative assistant for the MSU Family Resource Center, said the program would affect many student-parents at MSU.

“The students are so financially strapped anyway,” Harris said. “Even if you’re not receiving financial support, it doesn’t mean you can afford (the fee).”

The university does not maintain records of the numbers of student-parents at MSU, but Harris said between undergraduate and graduate students, the number is significant.

Shean said $25 is not much, but it does make a difference to parents who rely on the money to provide for their child.

“That’s a day of daycare, or that’s diapers or formula,” she said. “It’s a minimal amount I get per year, and now here’s another chunk taken out.”

Published on Thursday, August 7, 2008