Letter to the Editor: CT Needs to Help Destitute Ridgefield Parents Pay Child Support

Editor’s note: The following letter to the editor is in response to an article regarding a new proposed bill that would make parents who do not pay child support have to pay up. Click here to read. The bill seeks to increase special police officers to serve warrants for parents who don’t pay.

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Letter to the Editor from: Joan T. Kloth-Zanard, GAL, RSS, LC, Executive Director and Founder of PASI - Parental Alienation/Psychological Abuse Support and Intervention:

I am responding to your child support article. CLICK HERE TO READ

Vicki Turetsky, the Federal Commissioner for Child Support Enforcement, completely disagrees with this idea. She came to Connecticut about six months ago and spoke extensively on this topic. It seems that Connecticut does NOT care about what she recommends. They have completely ignored her and her request for policy changes. And they call Connecticut the Constitutional state.

Here is a short list of what she said:

• Jobs not jail
• Right orders that parents can afford
• Making sure parents who pay child support have a relationship with their kids

I have numerous parents who have lost their jobs but the courts refuse to modify their orders. I have numerous parents who have been jailed because they live in Connecticut where the cost of living is outrageous and their jobs do not even afford to pay to keep a roof over their own heads while their ex spouses live in luxury.

I have numerous parents living out of their cars because they lost their jobs and the courts refused to modify their orders. I have tons of parents who, despite having borrowed to pay off their child support arrearages for CS that is beyond their income, had their drivers license taken away in a state that primarily relies on personal transportation not public.

How is taking their license helping them to pay their child support? How is locking them up for child support they can not afford okay? How is locking a parent up in jail helping them to pay child support especially since it continues to accrue while in there?

We live in a state that is on the bottom of the list for job growth. It is one of the most expensive states to live in and yet, the judges expect parent who lost their jobs to miraculous find another one for the same amount of money, when there are hardly any viable jobs that could even pay to keep a roof over even a single person’s head. And if the parent moves out of state to get a job that will help them pay child support, now they have no way to maintain a relationship with their kids.

If these were in tact families, they would buckle down and deal with the financial hardship and not be living above their means. How is it okay for a one parent to be living on the street while the other parent is allowed to retain a lifestyle that in an in tact family would have been dissolved?

Debtor’s prison was outlawed in 1830, so why is Connecticut locking up destitute parents against their constitutional rights? Why is Connecticut not helping these parents? Why are courts allowing one parent to live high on the hog while the other one is left homeless living out of their car? Why are arrearages for bad orders not being retro’d back to when the parent initially asked for a modification based on lost income? Why? Why? Why? Because Connecticut does NOT care about the people.

Joan T. Kloth-Zanard, GAL, RSS, LC

Executive Director and Founder of PASI -
Parental Alienation/Psychological Abuse Support and Intervention:

A Tax-exempt charitable organization approved under sec. 501(c ) 3 of the IRS

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