Let's Get It Right! Failure to Apply Good Cause Exception for Noncooperation with Child Support Collection and Enforcement Endangers Victims of Domestic Violence and Their Families

Advocates at Rainbow House, a shelter for domestic violence victims and their families in Chicago, report that several of their clients have recently experienced difficulties in establishing that they have good cause for noncooperation with child support collection and enforcement efforts on the basis of domestic violence. The pursuit of child support from an abuser unnecessarily exposes these families to danger. The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law has successfully intervened on behalf of these families but remains concerned that other public benefit recipients and their children may be endangered because of a misunderstanding of how the pursuit of child support poses a safety risk for some families with a history of abuse.

Recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid are required to assist the Illinois Department of Public Aid (IDPA) and the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) in their efforts to establish paternity and collect child support. However, a TANF or Medicaid recipient may claim that cooperating in child support enforcement activities is not within her or her child’s best interest if doing so would be harmful or dangerous (IDHS Policy Manual 24-02-04).The recipient does not have to reveal the noncustodial parent’s identity prior to a determination of good cause (IDHS Policy Manual 24-02-04-b).

TANF and Medicaid recipients may claim good cause for noncooperation when (1) the child on whose behalf support is sought was conceived as a result of incest or rape; (2) there is a possibility that the child is going to be adopted; (3) there may be emotional harm to the recipient or her child; or (4) there is a fear of domestic violence (IDHS Policy Manual 24-02-04). Child support collection and enforcement efforts are not pursued as long as good cause for noncooperation exists. Proof of domestic violence is needed to establish their good-cause claim and may be proven by verification, circumstances, or client reliability (IDHS Policy Manual 24-02-04-a).

Clients have 20 days to submit proof of domestic violence in support of their good-cause claim. Under IDHS policy, acceptable proof of domestic violence includes

• court, medical, criminal, child protective services, psychological, or police records showing that the noncustodial parent might physically or emotionally harm the child or the client; or

• sworn notarized statements from persons other than the client, with knowledge of the events showing the basis for the good-cause claim (IDHS Policy Manual 24-02-04-a).

Several residents of Rainbow House recently experienced difficulties at the IDHS Western Local Office in their efforts to establish good cause for noncooperation with child support collection and enforcement efforts due to domestic violence. One woman reported that after she presented from her advocate at the shelter a letter documenting the need for the good-cause exception in her case, her IDHS caseworker nevertheless tried to pressure her to agree to cooperate with child support collection efforts. The caseworker asked the woman to speculate about what her estranged husband might do in the event child support was pursued, and then pressured her to divulge information about her abusive husband’s identity and whereabouts. Following this interview, the client received from the Division of Child Support Enforcement at the IDPA a letter scheduling an appointment to begin the process of collecting child support and threatening to sanction her by withholding cash assistance if she failed to attend or reschedule the appointment. It took a call from the client’s advocate at Rainbow House and a subsequent call from a Shriver Center lawyer to a supervisor at the Western Local Office before this appointment was cancelled and the woman’s case was properly coded to show good cause for noncooperation with child support collection and enforcement.

A second Rainbow House resident also experienced difficulties in establishing the good-cause exception at the Western Local Office. This client fled an abusive boyfriend and was living at Rainbow House with her children from a prior relationship. Both her ex-boyfriend and the father of her children had been very abusive, and so, when asked to cooperate with child support collection and enforcement efforts, the woman presented from her advocate at the shelter a letter indicating that the pursuit of child support from the father of her children would be unsafe. The IDHS caseworker insisted that the client was ineligible for the good-cause exception because she and her children were currently living in a domestic violence shelter to escape the dangers posed by her ex-boyfriend, who was not the father of her children. When the client explained that her children’s father had been extremely abusive toward her in the past, the caseworker discounted this information and referred the case for child support collection. This client then received a letter setting up a meeting with the Division of Child Support Enforcement to begin the child support collection process. The Shriver Center intervened in this case, and child support is not being pursued at this time.

The Shriver Center is concerned that, even with a letter from a domestic violence advocate, these two clients were improperly pressured to cooperate with child support efforts despite the safety risk that doing so posed to them and their children.

If you have had or someone you know has had difficulty obtaining a good-cause exception for noncooperation with child support enforcement efforts, please contact Shriver Center Attorney Aleeza Strubel at 312.263.3830 ext. 229.