Thousands of Idaho parents owe child support — to the tune of $130 million. Starting Sept. 1, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare plans to ramp up its enforcement to try to collect, according to a news release, but it’s likely to affect a small minority of those parents.
For those who don’t pay up, Health and Welfare is going to target their hunting and fishing privileges. Basically, the department is going to raise the minimum child support payments required to maintain those privileges if a parent has past due support. “The point here isn’t to suspend a license, but for Idahoans to pay their child support,” Health and Welfare Director Alex Adams said in the release.
“This is an important tool that the department uses to make sure Idaho’s kids are given the support they need to thrive and succeed.” The department generally requires “full current support plus 15%” for parents to keep their hunting and fishing licenses, spokesperson AJ McWhorter said in an email. Approximately 23,000 parents owe toward that balance, but only around 1,400 possess an active license, and 500 of those already have a suspension in place, the department said.
So that’s around 8% of the people who owe child support. “While this is a minority of the parents, some are likely deterred from applying for a license due to their child support balance,” McWhorter said. “The department wants everyone who wishes to hunt and fish to enjoy our beautiful state and encourages all parents who owe support to contact Child Support Services and make arrangements to pay their child support.
” The state has been allowed to take this step since 1996, the release said. In October of that year, more than 11,000 parents across Idaho got letters telling them to pay overdue child support or face losing licenses — ranging from hunting and fishing to real estate and driver’s licenses, . At that time, the parents collectively owed $109 million.
The Idaho Legislature passed the law in order to reform Idaho’s welfare system, The Spokesman-Review story said. At that time, unpaid child support was said to be the top reason families were on welfare. Every state has something on the books relating to suspending licenses for not paying child support, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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