According to an article in the Chicago Sun Times today, Illinois children are owed $3 billion in back child support. Meanwhile the state takes in only about 58 percent of current support due.
One part of the problem, according to Mark Lopez, Cook County Circuit Court associate judge, is that many parents don't contact child support services or seek legal action to have the child support amounts reduced after losing a job or having income reduced. When a non-custodial parent loses a job, or otherwise has decreased net income, that parent can be eligible to have the support lowered.
“The arrearage is caused because they didn’t know enough to come into court to ask for a modification,” Lopez said. “They lose their job, and quite often a couple of years will go by before they ever go in. They’ve got two years of arrears now, but they are still unemployed or marginally employed, and they just don’t have the means to make up the difference.”
To find out more, follow this link: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/4205457-418/3-billion-owed-in-child-support.html
If you have recently lost a job or some other major change in your circumstances has occurred, hire an attorney to help you modify your child support now. Don't wait, or the arrears will pile up.
Andrew Hawes
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