CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- The Hamilton County Child Support Office is launching a week-long effort to bring in thousands of overdue child support dollars. The “Helping Hand” program will target hundreds of parents—both mothers and fathers—who are facing jail time for their failure to pay court-ordered support.
Every week, judges issue dozens of warrants for a parents’ arrest because they’ve failed to pay child support. During the second week of November, those parents will have the chance to discharge outstanding warrants, IF they come in and make a good faith payment and work with the court and child support office to pay their support. Parents who have had their driver’s license revoked for failure to pay child support will also have a chance to have their driver’s license reinstated.
The Helping Hands Week takes place Monday, November 10 – Friday, November 14 from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Hamilton County Juvenile Court, located at 1221 East Main Street in Chattanooga.
The Hamilton County Child Support Office is offering other incentives to non-paying
parents to come in and do the right—and legal—thing. The office, along with community
non-profit organizations, will provide information on stable employment, visitation and
counseling during “Helping Hand” week.
The child support office in Chattanooga is run by MAXIMUS, Inc., through a contract with the Tennessee Department of Human Services. There are 24,000 child support cases in
Hamilton County, but only 53 percent of parents who owe support are paying on a consistent basis. The “Helping Hand” program will attempt to reconnect parents to their children and their cases and remind parents how important it is that they pay their support on a timely and routine basis.
Last year, the more than $530 million child support dollars were collected across
Tennessee with $33.7 million collected in Hamilton County. For more information on the
Tennessee Child Support Program, visit http://state.tn.us/humanserv/cs/cs_main.htm.
For more information, please call Michelle Mowery Johnson at 615-313-4707.