From staff reports

While a legislative audit found some shortcomings in the way the state Department of Human Services handles child support payments, the system on the whole is providing a valuable service.

Saturday, October 09, 1999

While a legislative audit found some shortcomings in the way the state Department of Human Services handles child support payments, the system on the whole is providing a valuable service.

It is shocking to note that more than 230,000 children in Minnesota depend upon child support payments handled by the state. The audit reviewed collections of $624 million, an astounding figure.

Yet, the audit found that the system may have shortchanged as many as 13,000 children whose fathers owed money to more than one family, as well as an additional shortage to an unknown number of former welfare recipients.

The audit reported that these errors involved &uot;unique situations&uot; involving overdue child-support payments, and that the errors are being taken seriously.

The audit, which followed parent complaints, also only analyzed activities under state control, not activities administered by counties. It found that some payments were mistakenly routed to public assistance coffers instead of being forwarded to the custodial parents.

But overall, the system seems to be working well.

Well enough that nearly a quarter of a million children here depend upon it for their livelihoods.

That is reason enough to continue to improve the process. Divorce is difficult enough for families, it need not leave children impoverished.