Experts say number of deadbeat moms on the rise

Experts say the recession and drug abuse are causing more mothers to miss out on child support payments than ever before in Jefferson County.

And because of that, thousands of kids are not getting the financial help they need leading to the growing problem of deadbeat moms.

When it comes to deadbeat parents, the child support division says their staff of 200 people faces a tough challenge trying to collect millions of dollars.

Many of the deadbeat parents on a public list haven't paid a dime in 10 years.

It could be a while before this payment window at the child support office sees any cash from thousands of deadbeat mothers in Jefferson County.

Mothers we're told who have been delinquent on their child support for years.

But why?

Angela Anton, Assistant Director Child Support Division said, “instead of being deadbeats, they're more dead broke from the state of the economy and the issues with drug and alcohol abuse."

In fact, the Child Support Division's basement is filled with thousands of files.

They say out of roughly 61,000 active cases nearly 10% are deadbeat moms which equals hundreds of thousands of dollars for the division to collect.

Part of the solution is an annual list made available to the public.
Over 4 years, it helped collect roughly $2 million in child support.
It has the top 1000 deadbeat parents and WHAS11 counted at least 20 women.

Including Adrian Ellis at nearly $40,000, Shanna Adams at $22,000 plus and Nicole Birdsong who owes more than $27,000.

We knocked on doors of the last known address for each woman.

None of them were home.

Birdsong listed her residence as The Healing Place on Broadway which was an old location.

So we went to the new building and folks there told us Birdsong is no longer staying with them.

"It's a real good possibility that she knew she had it hanging over her head and was worried about it and so decided to get help," said Pam Scott at the Healing Place.

Family Rights Lawyer Louis Winner tells us another part of the problem.

Many of his male clients don't want to ask for child support from women.

Winner said, "it becomes a little more difficult for the father to say you know what, I need to go after and get child support because it's the right thing to do and it costs money to raise children."

The division says they're more than willing to set up payment plans with any mom or dad who's avoided child support.

If not, they tell us it can be punished by jail time and heavy fines.

See the List: 2009 Delinquent Child Support Obligors

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Crack is creating Deadbeat mothers

Since the emergence of crack the rate of women becoming deadbeat moms continue to rise to new levels.

Our society is quick to force fathers to pay for child support while simultaneously curtailing their custodial rights and limiting their one-on-one time with their kids; our society loves to rail against "Deadbeat Dads" who refuse to pay support and desert their children. I agree that Deadbeat Dads should be reprimanded and be forced to contribute resources towards their childrens' upbringing--but what about Deadbeat Moms? You never hear about them, but trust me, they exist. I know of dozens of cases of mothers who use child support to remodel their houses and take exotic vacations; mothers who readily accept child support yet find excuse after excuse for not holding a steady job; mothers who abandon their children and then disappear, only to show up again years later demanding full custody; and, yes, mothers who are told by the courts to pay child support who can't seem to ever cough up the cash. Ridiculous. We hardly ever hear about these cases of delinquent mothers in the media, so the image of the "Deadbeat Dad" lingers on whereas birth mothers are continuously heralded and lauded for their apparent purity and virtue.


I think nothing is more heart breaking to see a woman who got hooked on that glass dick and nothing matters to her except when can she get her next high...

I suppose my pet peeve with the Courts is that they have don't really try to handle the problem with these addicts or these damn deadbeats! They give them a slap on the wrist and don't really want to lock them up. Although if the situation was reversed and it was a man hooked on crack and he did not pay child support, they lock him up!

The way society looks at women who are deadbeat, they make excuses! They will give them a pass in one breath and give them chance after chance to try and get right!

Lets look at it from this prospective if you are a woman and you fit into this criteria of:

	Doesn't feed their Children
	Doesn't help them with School work
	Doesn't bathe them
	Doesn't keep their hair clean
	Talks despairingly of their Father
	Doesn't pay Child Support
	Doesn't have a job
	Gets evicted more than often
	Doesn't maintain a clean, living environment
	Doesn't provide beds for the children to sleep on
	Physically, sexually, or mentally abuses the children
	Allows their significant other to physically, sexually, or mentally abuse the children

You are a deadbeat mom, and need help and if she can not help herself, then maybe the Court should step in and help you out. I would rather have a deadbeat mother who is locked up than a dead mother who got killed because she was in the streets!

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