To The Honorable Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives:
Federal law requires states to recover costs associated with collecting delinquent child support. States are given the option of reimbursing the federal government out of state funds, imposing the fee on the non-paying, i.e., deadbeat parent, or imposing the fee on the parent who receives the child support.
Incredibly, Pennsylvania imposes the fee, currently $25 annually, on the recipient parent, not the deadbeat. The fact that the fee is relatively modest is unimportant. It is simply incomprehensible that the parent who has done nothing wrong has to pay a fee and the deadbeat parent does not. Particularly as the deadbeat parent is the one with the power to avoid the fee, by not falling into arrears on child support in the first place.
There is a proposed bill in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives that would correct this injustice. H.B. 529 would rightfully require the deadbeat parent to pay the fee. We urge all members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to support H.B. 529, and help shift the burden of reimbursing costs associated with unpaid child support to the responsible party, the deadbeat parent.
Respectfully submitted,
The Undersigned
