Apparently, public shaming brings results. Governor Doug Ducey's office released new numbers on the Deadbeat Parent Initiative Wednesday.
The Deadbeat Parent Initiative launched in 2016 to push parents to support their children financially. The program aims to find parents deflecting the responsibility of paying child support by basically public shaming them online. The names, pictures and amount owed by child support evaders, as the state refers to them, are posted on social media and the Department of Economic Security's website.
And it seems to be working, according to the governor's office.
Since the program began there have been 179 'deadbeat' parents located in Arizona, according to state officials. A total of $1,204,474 has been collected from child support evaders. The Department of Economic Security says in June alone more than $50,000 was collected.
When first announced, some were skeptical these public shaming tactics would work. Others thought something, anything, needed to be done to hold these parents accountable.
There are currently 371 parents listed online, a majority of them are men. The amounts owed range from as low as $7,000 to as high as $230,000.
The Arizona Department of Revenue (DOR) also has a program targeting child support evaders. People with child support debts can have the amount they owe withheld from their tax returns. Through this program, more than $4.3 million in child support payments were collected from 2017 to 2018, according to DOR.
