Are Fewer Noncustodial Parents Being Threatened with Jail in Your Community?
If you work with noncustodial parents who owe child support, CFFPP would like to request your reply to the following questions: Are fewer noncustodial parents being threatened with jail time for non-payment of child support in your community? Have you seen changes, either positive or negative, in the last year regarding child support enforcement’s use […]
June 14, 2012
Survey Seeks Fatherhood Program Information
If you are a practitioner who runs a program for low-income noncustodial parents, or have run such a program in the past, please consider taking part in the Fatherhood Program Survey. This survey is being conducted by the Center for Research on Fathers, Children and Family Well-Being(CRFCFW) at the Columbia University School of Social Work […]
June 1, 2012
Access to Medical Care Decreases, but Some States’ Programs Still Open
The typical low-income noncustodial parent is not eligible for subsidized healthcare insurance, such as Medicaid or similar state-funded programs, in the large majority of states because such parents do not have a dependent child in their household. Practitioners working to find healthcare for noncustodial parents may want to consider the medical assistance programs that are […]
May 17, 2012
New Studies Recommend Improvements to Employment Programs
Two recent reports from MDRC provide recommendations that may be valuable for practitioners working with low-income noncustodial parents to find and maintain employment. The reports examine the final results from several demonstration programs in the past decade that aimed to improve employment among people facing difficult obstacles. “What Strategies Work for the Hard-to-Employ?” focuses mostly […]
May 4, 2012
Local Worker Justice Organizations Can Help Practitioners and Noncustodial Parents Fight Wage Theft
Wage theft and other workplace violations are “severe and widespread in the low-wage labor market,” according to a groundbreaking 2008 report titled “Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers.” The report surveyed thousands of low-wage workers and found that 26% were paid less than the minimum wage in the prior week, and that 76% of those who worked […]
April 18, 2012
FATHER Project Uses New Grant and Partnerships to Expand Services
Guy Bowling, the manager of the Minneapolis-based FATHER Projectsays he is often asked “When will you have a FATHER Project in our community?” His answer to that question is “Right now!”—in four new communities serving seven counties across Minnesota. The FATHER Project, a 13-year-old program run by Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota, is using its recent Responsible […]
April 5, 2012
Federal Benefits Could be Completely Garnished for Child Support Debt in 2013
Paper checks for some federal benefits will be eliminated in favor of electronic payments starting in March, 2013, due to a new Treasury Department policy. For noncustodial parents who owe child support, 100% of these benefits payments could potentially be garnished and seized by local child support enforcement authorities. The Associated Press reported that “Once […]
March 15, 2012
Economic Security Database Recommends Significantly Higher Wages
Practitioners working with low-income parents who owe child support often focus first on helping the parent get an income—any income—frequently at the minimum wage. A second goal is working toward self-sufficiency—increasing the parent’s income to a living wage. Lastly, the focus may turn toward building the parent’s economic security—increasing income so that the parent can […]
March 2, 2012
Legal Clinic Overview Presented by Fathers’ Support Center, St. Louis
The Fathers’ Support Center, St. Louis (FSC), operates a legal clinic that can serve as a model for practitioners seeking to provide legal services to low-income noncustodial parents. The clinic offers legal services related to paternity, child support order modification, visitation, expungement of criminal records, and custody if the child is at risk of placement […]
February 20, 2012
Hiring Veterans Promoted by Work Opportunity Tax Credit
Veterans are often among the low-income noncustodial parents that practitioners work with. Finding employers with job openings and placing parents into those jobs is typically a top priority for practitioners, whether or not “job developer” is part of their official job description. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) currently offers tax incentives to employers for […]