Child Support Laws: History of Essay

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The state parent locator service lessens the delay of collection of child support. The child support enforcement agencies in most states have the authority to order genetic testing in order to establish the parentage in cases of paternity. Child support payments can be ordered once the parent is found. Withholding of wages and seizure and sales of properties may be used to enforce child support.

Cash Assistance Programs:

Under the Title IV-a, Assistance for Families with Dependant Children (AFDC), cash assistant or welfare of these families was managed at State level. President Gerald Ford signed into law the Title IV-D of the Social Security Act on January 4, 1975 which created a state-federal child support enforcement program (Morgan par, 2). Through the enforcement of child support, the program had two goals i.e. cost avoidance (helping families on welfare leave the assistance roll while those not on the assistance rolls avoid turning to it) and cost recovery (recover the costs of public assistance paid to families both for the state and federal governments).

With the intention of the Title IV-D program being to reduce expenses for public assistance, an applicant and recipient of cash assistance were to co-operate with the State IV-D program agency. These agencies were required to notify suitable law enforcement officials when a child receives the cash assistance (AFDC). The child support cost would therefore not be upon the government and tax payers but on the parents. With the numerous advantage of running the cash assistance programs at the state level, a national law on child support may not be as effective as the state by state child support laws.

Child Support Laws in Other Countries:

United Kingdom:

Child custody law settles on who should be accountable for the concern and charge of a child after divorce or separation in the United Kingdom (Child Custody Rights par, 1). The option of joint custody is the preferable choice of many parents because it permits the child to spend equal time with each of the parents. The joint custody option also allows the parents to be involved in the decision making process that may affect the child. The courts only decide what living arrangement is best for the child in cases where the parents are unable to make an amicable decision. Bitter disputes between married couples always end up in divorce courts. Fortunately, child custody cases always end with an agreement of either joint custody or agreed custody. Joint custody is the preferred solution because it's in the best interest of the child. Both parents share in the physical care, obligations, responsibilities and legal rights of the children.

The divorce courts assess each of the parents before a decision on which parent is given the custody of the child is reached. During this period, an access and maintenance payment from the non-custodial parent is also taken into consideration. Child custody is not only an issue that arises from divorce but also from guardianship. A Child custody dispute also involves a third-party in some instances. In any issue directly affecting the children's welfare and emotional needs, a decision that is in the best interest of the child is adopted.

Occasionally, the court can deny a parent any access to their child due to certain circumstances. If these circumstances change, the court can reverse this decision. As part of the decision making, the courts accept custody arrangements submitted by the parents as part of their separation agreement. However, the courts review the custody arrangements plans to verify whether they are in the child's best interest or not. A parent who had initially been denied the child's custody can regain it once ample evidence of the child's stability has been submitted. This may include the parent's employment stability, relocation of the parent and amalgamation of the child into the new environment.

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Canada:

Children are entitled to continue benefiting from the financial means of both parents just as they would when the parents were still together. This is the guiding principle of Canada's child support law. These children are also entitled to the financial benefits as long they are below the age of 19 years or still dependent o the parent. Children above the age of 19 years may be allowed to get financial support if can't be dependent due to an illness or any "other cause.' Parents are usually ordered to support an older child who is a university or college student. This is what is considered as a valid "other cause," which would otherwise render support for an older child optional.

There are provincial or territorial as well as federal child support guidelines that are used to set child support amounts in different situations. Federal support guidelines are used when one of the parents was legally married to the other parent and then gets a divorce. The provincial or territorial guidelines (which contain many federal support guidelines) are used when a couple is only separating and not getting a divorce. Federal guidelines set a fair standard of support for children and help the parents to agree on support by themselves without going to the court. This is because they make child support calculations fair, predictable and objective thus saving them the stressful, expensive and time consuming experience of going to the court (About Child Support par, 10). Courts are only used when necessary in some cases.

Favoritism of Mother over Father in Child Support cases:

Most of the divorce cases always end up with the judge placing children in the mother's custody. Whether this is okay or not is still debatable. "It's not OK. And exiling fathers from families is not OK" (Amneus par, 4). There could probably be two reasons why judges seem to favor mothers over fathers in child support cases.

Solid Biological Base:

Motherhood is considered as a biological fact that is solidly based. As opposed to fatherhood, which is considered as a mere social invention, motherhood originated around two million years ago. In fact, fatherhood in the sense of headship of families is only five thousand years old. The mother was a primary parent prior to the patriarchal revolution while the father was just a meager boyfriend who the mother could do away with once she was tired of him.

Borrowing a leaf from a cat and kitten, one of the judges give this as the reason why gives the child's custody to the mother and not the father. He says that by observing a cat, motherhood becomes more meaningful as the fatherhood is merely biological. A kitten can have it's infancy due to motherhood. Mothers treasure their young, nourish them from their own body and protect them.

Feminist Revolution:

Women and children are by and large dependent creatures who need husbands and fathers. For the husbands and fathers to function as suppliers and guardians, they need authority. Men cannot have families and children cannot have fathers without female chastity, which is as a result of wives' sexual loyalty. With the feminist revolution, marriage is becoming meaningless because female dislike sexual regulation. This means that husbands are no longer granted any rights in marriage except the obligation of giving up his children and laboring for the benefit of the ex-wife.

The feminist revolution program is slowly creating a society where women can form their reproductive experiences depending on their personal choices. Due to the fact that women and children are dependent creatures, several judges have been quoted saying that they would never give a child's custody to the father. They prefer giving the custody of the child to the mother instead.

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