Hot Line Set for Child Support Scofflaws

July and August could turn out to be difficult months for parents in San Diego County who don’t make their child support payments.

County prosecutors, like their counterparts in much of California, are launching on July 1 a 60-day crackdown on the more than 100,000 parents who fail to meet their support obligations.

“The hope is that more will pay back support and remain current so children don’t suffer in the way of (having) less money for their basic needs,” said Ralph Fear, chief of the family support division of the San Diego County district attorney’s office.

During the two months, a county hot line will be available for citizens to report the whereabouts of parents suspected of not making support payments. Flyers distributed through county offices will encourage the public to report suspected support scofflaws.

San Diego County won’t be participating in an amnesty program coordinated by the state Department of Social Services. But delinquent parents--90% of whom are fathers--are encouraged to visit the district attorney’s office to make arrangements for bringing their payments up to date, Fear said.

As many as a third of the 30,000 parents under court order to make monthly support payments to the county Department of Revenue and Recovery fail to make any payments at all, according to Fear, and many others do not make their full payments. The department is called on to collect payments when judges determine that closer accounting of a parent’s payment schedule is necessary.

At least 100,000 more parents who owe support but have not been ordered by judges to establish accounts with the revenue department also are failing to meet their obligations, Fear estimated.

Statewide, delinquent parents owe $1.3 billion in child support. About 350,000 children in California are receiving welfare because their parents don’t pay court-ordered support, according to Bob Horel, deputy director for welfare programs of the state Department of Social Services.

“That is the ultimate problem,” Horel said Tuesday. “When money is not paid to the children, the children end up on welfare.”

Last year, five counties--only Orange County among the state’s largest--participated in a state-sponsored amnesty program for delinquent parents. According to Horel, collections of overdue payments increased 5% to 6% over the year before, because parents knew they could meet with county officials to devise payment plans without risking prosecution.

This summer, 11 counties--including Orange, Riverside and Sacramento counties--will be full- scale participants in the state’s “K.I.D.S.” program--an acronym for “Kids Deserve Support.” Besides an amnesty period and hot lines, the district attorneys’ offices in those counties will coordinate public relations campaigns to heighten parents’ awareness of their responsibilities, Horel said.

Many plan to follow up amnesty periods with enforcement action, including dragnets to arrest parents who remain delinquent, he said.

In San Diego County, residents with information about parents who owe child support can call 565-5068 from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, between July 1 and Aug. 31.

According to Fear, the most useful information includes the name of the delinquent parent; an address and phone number, preferably at work; and the names of the children to whom the payments are due.