In Pennsylvania, unemployment has been slowly rising for some time.
In fact, unemployment compensation is expected to start running out for significant numbers of non-custodial parents this spring.
The unemployed increasingly worry about their child support obligations.
Rather than waiting until they accrue arrearages, many are wisely looking to modify their obligations before they become delinquent.
In Pennsylvania, deadbeat parents fear that they face incarceration, despite the tough times.
The flip side of the unemployment problem is that custodial parents who might not otherwise have pressed for child support might have little choice now but to do so.
When asked for advice, child support enforcement authorities in Pennsylvania encourage non-custodial parents to pay what they can manage, even if they can’t pay all that is ordered.
This scenario will be playing out in many areas of the country where the local economies are especially hard hit by unemployment.
Read more in this Allentown [PA] Morning Call article: Job losses test child support.