Maryland child support enforcement good but not perfect yet

About four years ago, a number of people in Maryland were shocked when legislative auditors uncovered a number of problems with our state’s child support enforcement system. According to the report, our state’s Child Support Enforcement Administration had not been utilizing important enforcement tools, such as wage garnishment, to seize court-ordered funds. This caused tens of thousands of dollars in child support to go unpaid to the custodial parents who relied on these payments to support their children.

Though a number of these problems have since been corrected, according to the Maryland Reporter, a new report issued this month shows that the state still has a ways to go before it can truly meet the needs of custodial parents through child support enforcement. One way the state can ensure this outcome is by holding county offices accountable for failing to enforce child support orders to the fullest extent of the law.

The importance of enforcing a child support order

As some of our Gaithersburg readers already know, non-custodial parents don’t always willingly pay child support even though they may have been ordered to do so by a judge. This creates major problems for custodial parents who may struggle financially without this additional income.

To help custodial parents, county offices within Maryland need to use all of the tools at their disposal, including wage garnishment, to hold non-custodial parents accountable for their legal responsibility. As the Maryland Reporter points out, county offices can do this by following up with employers regarding wage garnishment and staying on top of the case until the support obligation is met.

Though it may take a few more years before the problems with child support enforcement are corrected in Maryland, the hope is that one day the system will function close to perfection, helping custodial parents all over the state.