Moms Can Be Deadbeat parents Too…
Society knows all too well about the fathers who don’t pay child support. They are labeled “deadbeat dads” and are the subject of late night jokes and work place gossip. “Deadbeat moms”, or moms that don’t pay their child support, tend to escape the public eye but they do exist!
Mothers are more consistently awarded custody of the children by the courts. Even with this fact, the percentage of “deadbeat moms” is actually higher than that of “deadbeat dads”. In a recent child support census, 57% of moms required to pay child support, 385,000 women out of a total 674,000 provide some sort of payments on the support owed. This leaves 289,000 “deadbeat mothers” not paying any support. In comparison, the census showed that 68% of dads pay something toward child support. In addition, the census did show that men in general pay more court ordered support than women. On average, custodial mothers get 60% of what they are owed in support while custodial fathers only get 48%. Not only do fathers pay more in support if they don’t have custody, they generally work more hours. Studies have shown that 24.5% of single custodial dads work more than 44 hours a week while only 7% of custodial moms work over 40 hours a week. In addition, custodial dads get less government help than moms.
In our society, the issue of “deadbeat dads” dwarfs “deadbeat moms”. There are many more men who are ordered to pay support in comparison to women ordered to pay support. This makes the overall number of fathers who don’t pay their child support much greater. They are put more in the spotlight based on numbers and statistics. However, it appears that mothers are no less responsible in paying child support than fathers when ordered to financially support the child/children in the order. Society need to find a way to support both custodial parents regardless of gender in the collection of unpaid support.