Deadbeat Dads Statistics

“Deadbeat dad” is a term used to describe fathers who abandon their children financially and emotionally. This type of issue is very common in places like the United States and Canada, father’s are increasingly more likely to intentionally fail to take care of their children. Due to this rapid increase, laws are beginning to be put into place to persecute fathers that have the means, but refuse to care for their children.

Based on information from the US Census Bureau, nearly 35% of fathers in the country are required to pay child support. Keeping that number in mind, also know that only 72% of the children that are supposed to receive it, actually do. When you put into perspective the amount of children we have in our country and the amount that are without support from their fathers, it is truly saddening. In the United States data shows that only 38% of parents who do not provide financial support to their children do not do so because of financial inability, which is a much different situation than just choosing not to. Furthermore, 23% of fathers protest payment because they have no visitation or custody of the child. A mind boggling 13% refuse to pay based on the claim that “they did not want their child”.

While in some states in the US there are studies showing that 14.4 billion dollars, or 76%, of the arrears that deal with child support is simply the lack of payment. It is stated in California that a parent’s average income on a yearly basis reaches $6349 so they have an arrears of $9447 and $300 ongoing support each month. This was implemented due to the reason that there were 71 percent of orders that was set to by default. Which means that the parents entitled for the support does not served personally with a given notice so they can appear in the administrative agency or court.

With regards to the deadbeat dads issue of being defaulted there are also certain consequences given if they do not appear. In case the father does not want to provide the payments as a support they will be subjected to imprisonment. Aside from this, there are also other children supports that can be given that involve non-payment which may be considered. Some of the consequences that parents will possibly face in the US states are suspension of license such as business license, driver license, and many more. These are the consequences that parents will face in case they do not comply with the law.

There are still limitations set in each country on what type of rules they want to implement. Other forms of solutions that are applied in some countries include wage garnishment, license suspension, and tax garnishing.