Should Custodial Parents Provide Receipts for Child Support Expenditures?

by Charlton Hall

Staff Writer

Suppose you got a bill from your mechanic that said simply: ‘mechanic work, $100.00’?  Or a bill for an extended stay at the hospital which read, ‘hospital fees, $50,000’?  Wouldn’t you demand an itemized accounting of what you were being billed for?  Wouldn’t you be entitled, by law, to a detailed explanation of each expenditure?  Wouldn’t you be outraged if you were told that to demand such an itemized list was not your right nor your business?  If you can picture how you’d feel in such a situation, you can picture what a non-custodial parent in the state of South Carolina lives with on a daily basis.  The average child support award in South Carolina is approximately $3000 per child per year.  For a non-custodial parent, that’s $3000 he must pay, ostensibly for the support of his children, with no guarantee or proof that the money he sends is ever used for such a purpose.  While most custodial parents use child support for the purpose for which it is intended, there are some who don’t.  There is no built-in accountability in the child support system to show that the money was used for diapers and formula rather than new dresses or even alcohol and drugs, for that matter.  Shouldn’t there be some system in place to prove that child support is really spent on the children and not on the ex-spouse?

Opponents of an accountability system for child support say that the task is too overwhelming, and that it would flood the Family Court offices with paperwork.  But is this true?  The Family Court System seems to have no problem in keeping track of non-custodial parents, their names, places of employment, and their addresses, as well as the names of their children, ex-spouses,  and their personal information.  How much more difficult would it be to require a once a month itemization of expenditures from the custodial parent?  This could be accomplished on a form which could be filled out on a monthly basis by the custodial parent, then mailed in and added to the record.  There would never be any need for any other processing unless there was a dispute about the necessity of a certain expenditure.  If the non-custodial parent desired, he could request a copy of this monthly accountability statement at his expense.  Should there be any questions concerning the monthly report, the custodial parent would be required to present receipts to confirm the information contained in the report.  The blank monthly form could be mailed out with the child support check by the Clerk of Family Court, and if the completed form wasn’t returned within the month, then further checks could be withheld until the custodial parent complied with the requirement. 

Such a requirement would not just benefit the non-custodial parent.  It would also serve as proof and protection for the custodial parent by showing that child support money is actually spent on the children.  It might even aid in collecting past due child support debts.  Fathers might feel less hesitant about sending child support payments to a custodial parent who is willing to provide accountability. 

If you’re a non-custodial parent and you’d like some accountability for where your children’s support money is spent, contact your state representatives and tell them you’d like them to sponsor a bill providing custodial parental spending accountability. It’s the only way to assure that money paid for child support really goes to the children. 

Next week:  False Accusations