ALEX CHADWICK, HOST: This is MORNING EDITION. I'm Alex Chadwick.

New laws are supposed to force divorced parents to pay for their kids' needs. But too often, they still don't.

A study concludes that less than 20 percent of child support that's owed is actually paid. The delinquents are the parents who don't have custody, usually fathers. Their ex-spouses are frustrated not only by the refusal to pay, but also by the overburdened government agencies that are supposed to help them.

Susan Goodman reports on a support group for single mothers trying to collect the money that's owed for their children.

SOUNDBITE OF SINGLE MOTHERS SITTING TOGETHER IN A RESTAURANT SUSAN GOODMAN, REPORTER: The six women sitting around the table, black, white, and Hispanic, occasionally meet in this family-style restaurant in Suburban Maryland. The menu has a $7.99 special all you can eat, and it's on a major bus line, which is important because some of the women don't have cars.

What they all do have in common, though, is the problem of trying to get the father of their children to live up to their financial responsibilities. Patty Leshefsky (ph) has been waiting for 13 years for the money a court ordered her ex-husband to pay.

PATTY LESHEFSKY, SINGLE MOTHER: I have an arrearage of $160,000.

My arrearage goes back to April of 1984. I have two teenage sons that are now 21 and almost 18. And in that time, I've only collected about $1,000, and that in, like, '91 or '92, when he lost his job and they garnished his unemployment check.

GOODMAN: Federal officials estimate the accumulated debt-to- children is more than $40 billion. Most of the women are members of the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support, known as ACES, which helps custodial parents negotiate the maze that makes up the nation's child support system.

Bobbie Coles (ph) says she finally got fed up with the county child support office seven years ago, and decided to take matters in her own hands. She and a friend contacted ACES, which gave them information about federal laws.

BOBBIE COLES, SINGLE MOTHER: When we left there, our arms were loaded. We ordered books and they sent boxes of books to us. And we would stay up late at night and discuss how to best approach our cases.

So I guess we kind of like became a thorn in the side of the child support office, because every time we'd find out something new, we'd call them up and tell them about it, and they would say, oh well, we don't do that. Or we've never heard of that.

GOODMAN: But Coles persisted and finally got the county to write an interstate order, which she needed because her husband had moved to another jurisdiction.

But she was soon faced with another problem. Sometimes child support is deducted from a father's paycheck. But Cole's husband is self-employed.

COLES: I found out a little later on in the month that he had transferred his house, his car and his two trucks into his parents' name. So I reported this, and it was, like, boy, you know, well, what are we going to do about that?

And I read in the law, it said well, you're supposed to -- I was in constant contact with the ACES national office. They told me what law to quote and everything. And it was like they never heard of it.

GOODMAN: Coles spent countless hours in court. Only after a judge found her husband in contempt and ordered his arrest did he begin paying child support.

And her case is not unusual. When parents move around, sometimes deliberately to escape paying, it's difficult for state agencies to keep tract of them.

And there's no central registry of child support orders, which means Marie Sharrett (ph), whose husband moved from Maryland to Nevada, has to spend time and money keeping tabs on her ex-spouse.

Sharrett is a legal secretary and has two sons, one with autism.

MARIE SHARRETT, SINGLE MOTHER: I use to, like, like call, if I knew the employer, just to verify that he was still there and that kind of stuff. And he would quit a job every single year without fail. Every single year, or get fired, or get laid off.

And it was this constant, constant, constant -- but he didn't live here. So, any action, hearings, et cetera, the money was coming from Clark County, Nevada. And that's who I would alternately push to get the amount.

And then through ACES, I learned about the supervisory office in Carson City, got the secret fax numbers in Las Vegas. And from thenceforward, if I didn't get a check, I would send them a fax.

From thenceforward, if I found out about that he had changed jobs or been laid off or had quit a job or had been fired, I would let them know by fax.

GOODMAN: A recent report by the government accounting office blamed the federal government for limited leadership and oversight, and blamed the states for underestimating the complexity of the problem.

And despite more than $2 billion federal dollars given to the states to computerize services, only 12 states have completed the requirement. ACES President Geraldine Jensen (ph) says states don't do a good job enforcing laws. And they collect less than 20 percent of what's owed to children.

GERALDINE JENSEN, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION FOR CHILDREN FOR ENFORCEMENT OF SUPPORT: We're very discouraged by this, because we passed so many good federal laws, laws to take support out of people's paycheck. Laws to suspend driver's licenses and professional licenses, to place liens on property.

But state government just seems to be unable to enforce these laws and get these payments collected. And that's why it's really time for a change. We need a national system that can reach out easily across state lines, that can collect child support in the same way we collect taxes.

GOODMAN: A proposal to federalize child support collections was recently introduced by Representative Henry Hyde, a Republican from Illinois, and Lynn Woolsey, a Democrat from California. Woolsey says she knows what it's like to go without child support.

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE LYNN WOOLSEY (D-CA): Thirty years ago, I had three small children there -- one, three, and five years old. And their father did not pay child support. And I worked the entire time.

But I was forced to go on Aid for Dependent Children, on welfare to make ends meet, even though I was employed. And I would not have -- that would not have been necessary had we received the child support that was ordered by the courts. And we did not receive one penny.

GOODMAN: Woolsey says it's estimated that one quarter of the women on welfare could go off the rolls if they received the support they're owed. But while some women are forced to go on welfare, many more end up working two and sometimes three jobs.

Child support officials say they're doing the best they can, given rapidly rising case loads. But with divorce rates at 50 percent and one-third of all children born to unmarried parents, the task of establishing paternity, getting court orders and collecting support is overwhelming many agencies.

As they eat dinner, the mothers trade information and tips on how to make the system more responsive. Too often, they say, women get tired of fighting and just give up. Others may give up when an ex- spouse threatens to take custody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's this banging -- banging on the door from the sheriff, serving me with papers to appear in court for a custody hearing. And that's when a lot of people, a lot of women...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get scared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... you know, get scared and they back off right away.

GOODMAN: But there are success stories from women who have taken matters into their own hands. Andrea Burneau (ph) shelled out $350 for a book on the states' domestic laws, and she recently helped another woman go through the steps necessary to get a court order.

ANDREA BURNEAU, ADVOCATE OF SINGLE MOTHERS: It has a sample document in it that you use, OK? And so I, with her, got her personal information, filled the form out, paid the fee and simply filed it, OK? She told me that they gave -- as a matter of fact, they gave her a date while we were standing there. Right while we were standing there.

Within six weeks, Burneau says, a judge had ordered support payments automatically deducted from the father's wages. Many states say they're beefing up collections with new laws.

For example, by required employers to report new hires, which will make it easier for the state to keep tract of parents with obligations. And 43 states are cracking down on people who don't pay by suspending their driver's licenses. But for now, much of the burden falls on custodial parents, who must be persistent to get financial support for their children.

For National Public Radio, I'm Susan Goodman.

Transcribed by Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. under license from National Public Radio, Inc. Formatting copyright (c) 1997 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio, Inc. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission. For further information please contact NPR's Business Affairs at (202) 414-2954

Content and Programming copyright (c) 1997 National Public Radio, Inc. All rights reserved. Susan Goodman, Alex Chadwick, ACES on Deadbeat Dads, Morning Edition (NPR), 4 Aug 1997.