Unemployment sending more parents to court over child support

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The number of Illinois parents requesting court reviews to lower the child support they pay has nearly tripled in recent years.

The number jumped from 4,219 in 2006 to 12,629 last year. Meanwhile support collected through unemployment compensation spiked from $17.6 million to $106.9 million during that period.

The numbers provide a snapshot of the toll high unemployment is taking on the state’s children.

Vanessa Jones, who relies on child support to care for her 12-year-old daughter, says that when her child’s father lost his job as a music director, her support order was cut.

“I was receiving $800 every two weeks,” said Jones, who works in finance at Rush University Medical Center. “Now it’s supposed to be $600 a month.”

But for the past several months she hasn’t gotten that, she said.

“I received $150 in January. I received $150 in February,” she said.

She has had to withdraw money from her child’s education fund to help pay the mortgage and other bills, Jones said.

The problem extends beyond the unemployed to the self-employed and others whose income has been cut, said Chicago attorneys Erin Bognar and Michelle Lawless, who represent the parents required to provide child support and those receiving it.

“It’s not necessarily just the loss of a job,” Bognar said. “People that are in sales where a lot of their income might be based on commissions, they say the economy is terrible, my commissions have gone down,” and they also are seeking to have payments lowered.

Family courts have been inundated, Lawless said, with custodial parents being more vigilant in seeking court action before parents get too far behind.

“It’s hitting across all walks of life,” she said. “High-income earners, low-, middle-income earners, everyone is being hit. It’s an across-the-board problem.”