A Trout Creek woman who allegedly stole $52,623 from the Delaware
County Department of Social Services Child Support Unit was fired from
her position in January, DSS Commissioner William Moon said Friday.

The story doesn't end with this Trout Creek woman stealing the money. Who is going to pay back the children and the taxpayers? Inadequate supervision is what we have been saying all the long. Again, what is Congress doing to tie up the State's lack of professionalism in operating programs where they claim to be helping needy families, while stealing the money out from underneath them. This particular investigation took over 4 years to detect the outright theft.

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released an audit Friday
indicating that the Delaware County Child Support Collection Unit lost
$52,623 from 2003 to 2007.

The audit, requested by Northrup, also found that there was
inadequate supervision of personnel responsible for collecting and
depositing child support funds.

Taxpayers are currently footing the bill, largely for their
government to collect and process child support payments for middle and
upper class families. Actual needy families appear to be the minority
of collections through the Federal Title IV-D program.

Again, we need Congress to install more accountability into the Title IV-D program or add eligibility requirements to shrink down the size of these programs so that State Directors can better control their own employees. Don't be fooled by the best interest joke, that involves high paid government officials lining their own pockets at the expense of family and parent/child relationships.

I have been following a fair number of reports where individuals are being caught embezzling from the tax payers, committing fraudulent transfers, and identity theft through the various State Child Support Programs. The programs have grown so quickly that there is insufficient oversight to ensure that the programs help those who have need. Instead the programs are bloated with over-participation and lack of oversight.

The Keizertimes is a publication for the Keizer community, and focuses on Keizer-specific news and events. Recently it reported Former DOJ employee charged with ID theft. It wasn't just identity theft though, it was actual theft from the tax payers and children as well. There has been a tremendous amount of liability associated with identity theft from the State operated and Federally funded child support enforcement programs.

Original Story Published 2-29-08: http://www.keizertimes.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=9130

A theft investigation spanning nearly six months culminated in the arrest of two Keizer residents on Friday, Feb. 22.

The lack of oversight involved in the State Child Support Programs are definitely causing more harm than good when it comes to the potential for identity theft, fraud, and embezzlement.

The state sends out child support payments on a ReliaCard debit system. The investigation began when a woman receiving child support payments said more than $7,000 in child support payments were missing from her account. The victim's card had been mailed to a vacant address in Keizer and had been used to withdraw funds from Salem and Keizer-area automated teller machines.

Don't forget the article Identity Theft: Opt Out Of Family Court Services!

More fraud and embezzlement below!

Fort Bend Woman Guilty in Child Support Fraud Ring

If it isn't the actual child support enforcement officers stealing from the taxpayers, then its more greedy participants aiming to defraud taxpayers, parents, and children of green. The Title IV-D program is
plagued with over participation, fraud, and misrepresentation to the public that money is destined for children, but in reality the money goes into everyone else's pockets but the children's. The Katy Times, serving Katy, Tx and the surrounding suburban communities released the story on June 1, 2007 about a Fort Bend, Indiana Woman being found guilty in another Child Support Fraud Scheme. (Katy Times,
"Fort Bend Woman Guilty in Child Support Fraud Ring," June 1, 2007)

• Child Support Worker Arrested In Bribery Scheme http://www.laryholland.com/serendipity/archives/329-Child-Support-Worker-Arrested-in-Bribery-Scheme.html
• Title IV-D Employee Embezzles Quarter of Million in Child Support Money http://www.laryholland.com/serendipity/archives/311-Title-IV-D-Employee-Embezzles-Quarter-of-Million-in-Child-Support-Enforcement-Money.html

Does the Open Meetings Act Apply to the Child Support Leadership Council (CSLC) and the Friend of the Court Bureau Advisory Committee?

The Child Support Leadership Council (CSLC) and the Friend of the Court Bureau Advisory Committee (FOCBAC) do not follow the provisions of the Open Meetings Act (OMA). Unlike the Open Records from which the judiciary is excluded, the Open Meetings Act contemplates the inclusion of the judicial branch as a public body. We know for a fact from the minutes of the FOCBAC that the CASPER meetings were held in private before the quarterly FOCBAC meetings; that proposed minutes and approved minutes of FOCBAC meetings are not made available in compliance with the OMA; that some of our members have been excluded from CSLC deliberations that should have been public; and that there is a hostile and uncooperative attitude towards input from members of the public.

Lets put it to the task...

I and others made requests for the CASPER report which would have been included under the Open Records and Freedom of Information Act request before it was finally published on the SCAO website. The report was first indicated in the June 22, 2006 "Approved Minutes" of FOCBAC.

Child Support Program Review Committee (CASPER)

Mr. Capps informed the Advisory Committee about CASPER, which is an ad hoc
committee that examines the system to determine if there are ways of finding
increases in revenues or streamlining the system to the whole child support
program to make recommendations to the Program Leadership Group (PLG). The
Committee has nine people, (two from SCAO, two from OCS, one from DIT, and
two from PAAM) and meets every two weeks at the Hall of Justice.

As many people can see the Child Support Program attempts to operate in the dark with little public input because they know there are significant numbers of people that are now against the operation of the program as a free for all welfare program that is plagued with overparticipation (over half of which are middle and upper class feuding families) in an effort to drive up collection numbers and participation numbers to drown out the failures it has with the needy population. Successful collections mostly come from income witholding orders as opposed to shifting income to means tested welfare recipients.

At some point we will have to ask the question, why lift up one population at taxpayer expense when it just creates the same problem in the contributing class? The only difference is that there is now a bunch of bureacratic parasites that benefit, not society.

State worker accused of taking child support money

The SeattlePI.Com website on November 16, 2007 reported yet another state worker taking child support money from children and families.

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A state employee in Olympia who handled child support payments has been accused of taking $24,000 and spending the money at casinos.

As more audits begin to be conducted on the many unaccountable child support agencies across the nation, there is a high probability that more and more fraud will likely be exposed just like the above story. The child support programs across the nation are currently charged with handling billions of dollars on behalf of parents and families with very little accountable oversight. 

October 19, 2007