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Child support is key for single parents

There is a lot of research that shows that children in California and around the country who are born to unmarried parents are likely to struggle. Many of these issues come from a lack of resources. Children with parents who are not married are three times as likely to be poor as children who have married parents. This is frequently due to the fact that single parents often only have one income, and the jobs they have tend to pay less because many single parents are often not as well educated as their married peers.

Child support can take the pressure off of single parents, and it can allow them to have lower levels of stress and spend more time with their children. Children who have greater access to resources are less likely to have trouble in school related to behavioral problems or slower cognitive development. Fathers who pay child support also tend to spend more time with their kids.

There are a significant number of children being born out of wedlock today, with 40 percent of children being born to unmarried parents. That number has risen slightly since 2000, when the rate was around 33 percent.

There are a variety of ways that the federal and state government can put pressure on a parent who will not pay child support in a timely manner. Court orders can result in a delinquent parent’s wages being garnished, liens being put on their property and their ending up in jail, but incarceration is usually a last resort. People who are struggling to make ends meet because of delinquent payments may want to meet with an attorney to see what legal options are open to them.