On-line Office of Philadelphia City Controller Jonathan A. Saidel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
05/23/2000
PHILADELPHIA, PA - President Clinton is not the only public official putting the squeeze on "deadbeat dads." This past week, the President announced new initiatives on child support enforcement, including expanded use of wanted lists. Today, City Controller Jonathan A. Saidel revealed the results of deploying a new weapon, here in Philadelphia, to help children get more of the financial backing they need - and to which they are legally entitled.
Controller Saidel said, "It's an unfortunate fact of modern life in the big city that public agencies are sued all the time. Some lawsuits have merit, many don't. In any case the City must regularly pay claims from settlements or court verdicts. We are now checking these pay-outs, before they go out the door, to see if the recipient owes child support. If so, we make sure the kids get their fair share first."
An example of this occurred this week with the settlement of cases coming out of the problems in the 39th Police District. Out of 38 people settling their cases with the City, the Controller's Office found that 17 - all of them men - have child support cases against them. Fourteen deadbeat dads have cases involving one mother, one involving two and two involving three mothers. for a total of 22 mothers owed child support. The total amount already exceeds $86,000 and Saidel expects this figure to climb to over $100,000 when arrearages are determined in all the present cases. Even before the 39th District settlements, the Controller's Office program already succeeded in collecting almost $5,000 in a matter of weeks from just one case. There are currently over 80,000 child support cases in the system which have delinquent accounts, according to the Court of Common Pleas, Family Court Division.
Intercepting payments for child support enforcement requires the cooperation of several agencies in government. These include the City's Law Department and Office of Risk Management, which authorize payments to lawsuit plaintiffs, the Controller's Office, which flags payments for child support potential and deducts support when orders come back from the Court, the District Attorney's Office, which checks if support is owed and seeks court orders, and the Court, which issues the orders. "It's part of my job as Controller to criticize government when it is deserved. So it's great to see all these government folks doing the right thing - pulling together to get some money to deserving kids," said Controller Saidel. "It's the only silver lining in the unfortunate cloud of the 39th District mess."
Saidel has contacted SEPTA, the School District and PHA - all regular public agency tort claim defendants - and asked them to work with the Controller's Office to set up similar programs to recover delinquent child support payments from people winning verdicts against these agencies.
|
