There are currently only two ways to get information from the Florida Department of Revenue, Child Support Enforcement Office. The first way is to call the toll free number and wait on hold as long as one hour. The phone system should be upgraded to the system that will call customers back in the order they received. I don't know how many times the call was lost or my phone battery died while I was waiting on hold. When this happens, the customer gets frustrated and has to call back losing their place in line, again waiting on hold for another 50 minutes.
Another problem with calling the toll free number, is that after all the hold time the representative on the phone normally recommends for the person calling to go to the local office.
Going to the local office causes at least 3 to 4 hours of lost time of work. Customers can't make appointments. Going to a local office is based on first come, first serve basis.
Another problem with the operations is the time it takes for obtaining assistance from other states. Florida DOR/CSE does not investigate missing parents, nor do they extradite the missing parent from another state. Florida DOR/CSE typically suspends drivers licenses or other forms of licenses, puts holds on taxes and suspends their passport privileges. In addition, they will file a motion for contempt and obtain a warrant for the non-paying parents arrest. The only problem is the warrant is only good in the State of Florida.
If a parent is found in another state, Florida will not pay to have that parent returned to Florida on that warrant. This is failing hundreds of children whom need the additional financial support. Florida should pay for the non-paying parent to be returned to the county where the warrant is issued, then assess the fees/costs to the non-paying parent. Once a parent knows they can't hide, this will decrease the non-payments.
If the non-paying parent is known to be in another state, but his/her exact location is unknown, the Florida DOR/CSE will not pay for a private investigator to search the local area. The Florida DOR/CSE typically only will find them if the custodial parent gives the address of the non-paying parent OR if their social security number comes up on some employment system. Florida DOR/CSE also relies too much on the mail system. Non-paying parents or the persons they are hiding with, will return the mail alleging that person is not there. Many times the non-paying parent is truly in that area.
Therefore the Florida DOR/CSE needs to perform more stringent and physical searches for non-paying parents, and assess them fees for the costs of the searches once they are located and returned to the court of jurisdiction.
Florida DOR/CSE really need to focus more on the needs on families and their loss of income, more than the needs of their own budget. Florida DOR/CSE could really increase their budget if they attempted to really search and bill those non-paying parents.
Our education system here in Florida Stresses "No Child Left Behind", so why is our child support system leaving our children behind?
Please sign this petition so a formal investigation and revamping of our child support system can be improved.