Is Child-Support a form of Welfare?

I have compassion for those parents who try to keep up and struggle with payments. I have no compassion or respect for those that live very nice lives and are not making payments.

Is child-support a form of welfare?


CS is a subsidy with the intent of providing for folks (an ex-spouse) who cannot provide for themselves.


I'm not in a spousal-support state, but what about SS?


Me, I think both are forms of welfare. We even have government offices that collect -- and often garnish -- the money, then redistribute it through a mechanism very similar to the mainstream tax-and-pay welfare we're used to seeing.


Non-payment of CS/SS is also handled in similar fashion, either with continued garnishing, or imprisonment.


- Saul

Is child-support a form of welfare?

Child support is intended to benefit the child, but it is de facto welfare anymore. The system that manages and deals with all that is beyond corrupt.


Interesting story. I lived with my mother for a while after my parents divorced. For the last couple of years before I went to college, I lived with dad. When mom sent the CS check, dad just handed it to me on the logic that it was supposed to be for my benefit anyway.

You're confusing Child Support with Alimony. Child Support is not for the maintenance of the ex-spouse... it is to fulfill your moral obligation to the care of your child.


I don't believe that I as an individual should be morally obligated to compensate for the poor decisions of others. However, the creation of a child is entirely my decision, and I as a human being must accept responsibility for it... which includes paying my share of the child's expenses.


I agree that if the man falls on hard times, it is way too difficult to get child support rates adjusted. By its very definition, when a guy hits times hard enough that he can't pay child support, that means he also can't pay a lawyer to represent him.


This does result in good men falling hopelessly behind and resulting in enormous child support debts that cannot possibly be repaid and unjust imprisonment. This system needs to be reformed.


On the other hand, we have women who get no support whatsoever from the father and have to support the child alone for many years, and that is equally unjust to both the woman and the child.


Courts need to look first after the best interest of the child. They just need to get to the point where theyrecognize that destroying the father is seldom in the best interest of the child.