Topeka ? In Kansas, there are hundreds of millions of dollars out there that could be used to lift families out of poverty and reduce taxes.

But the money, in the form of child support payments, goes uncollected.

“It’s hard on the kids,” said Dayna Seiger, a Lawrence woman whose two children are not receiving support payments from their fathers.

“We’ve learned not to count on it,” she said Tuesday. “When it comes, it’s wonderful for them; when it doesn’t come, it’s just that much more strain on the pocketbook.”

Both fathers live in California and are adept at dodging efforts to collect child support, Seiger said.

“I may get a couple months’ worth of checks, and then they stop coming,” she said. “When I call, they tell me they’ve lost him or he got fired or he quit. The only thing you can do is wait for the system to catch up to him again.”

State officials and family advocates say some child support will never be paid but there are several things other states already are doing and Kansas could do to increase the amount collected.

“We want to do everything we can to get children the money that’s owed them,” said Jim Robertson, director of the child support program for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

Child support is the money paid by the noncustodial parent to the custodial parent to meet the needs of the children.

Paul Johnson, who represents the religious-based Public Assistance Coalition of Kansas, said the timely payment of child support was a crucial component of the economic well-being of many families.

Dayna Seiger, whose two children are not receiving support payments from their fathers, spends time reading with her son Jordan. Seiger and her son were at their home, where Seiger runs a day care, after school Tuesday.

“Next to the Earned Income Tax Credit, it is the second pillar for many families,” Johnson said.

National studies back up this contention, noting that children in single-parent households who do not receive child support are more likely to experience poverty and require welfare assistance.

In Kansas, there are 135,000 child support cases, affecting 250,000 people.

Last year, the state collected $154 million in child support, which represented 55 percent of what was owed for the year. That rate of collection is somewhat better than the average for all states.

Approximately $600 million in child support is owed in Kansas; that dates back 23 years, which is how long cases are kept on file.

Nationwide, child support collections have been increasing after Congress included several techniques for tracking down delinquent parents in the 1996 welfare reform bill.

But in 1997, Kansas lawmakers balked at most of the reforms because of privacy concerns. Of those adopted, most were made optional — rather than required — under state law.

Audit: Child support program slipping (12-09-04)

In recent years, Kansas’ rate of improvement has slowed in comparison with other states. That’s why Robertson says it is time to change the system.

“There are ways to make our efforts more efficient — selected things that have worked well in other states,” he said.

Increased enforcement

Part of the reforms is aimed at catching those who owe child support, and the other part is designed to streamline the process of getting child support funds to the families.

One measure would allow the state to suspend or revoke the driver’s licenses of those who fall several months behind in their child support payments.

Disputes over amounts owed would be settled either through an administrative hearing or in court.

In states that do this, Robertson said, there have been significant increases in child support.

“The threat of sanctions when getting a driver’s license makes them pay,” he said.

Other proposals would require that financial institutions participate in data matches with SRS and allow SRS to intercept insurance payments to those who owe child support.

Though several states — including Missouri, Oklahoma, Colorado and Nebraska — require financial institutions to participate in data matches, Kansas does not.

“It’s been our experience that without the requirement, it’s inefficient for us to ask the institutions to go along because they don’t want to mess with it,” Robertson said. “And that’s understandable, but when it comes to collecting money for kids, it’s not good.”

Robertson noted that multistate financial institutions already had the procedures in place for running data matches.

“That’s the rub,” he said. “A bank in Missouri has to do it while the same bank in Kansas doesn’t.”

The reform would also allow the establishment of an administrative hearing procedure that could be used on a voluntary basis to bypass the usual court procedure.

“The costs are a lot less,” Robertson said. “You don’t have to get attorneys and judges involved.” All surrounding states are doing this, he said.

Johnson said the administrative process would be less confrontational.

“We’re saying, we would like to move it out of the quasi-judicial fashion and over to an administrative basis to make it more family-friendly,” Johnson said.