Welfare Debt

Abstract

Past-due child support debt cannot be forgiven, or discharged, in bankruptcy. This policy is grounded in the assumption that all child support debt goes to a parent taking care of a child. However, billions of dollars of unpaid child support debt are not owed to the parent, but instead to the government. The government is owed this debt through a welfare cost recovery system which requires custodial parents that file for welfare benefits to pursue child support from noncustodial parents and assign those rights to the government. This debt, which I coin "welfare debt," oftentimes results in an increased interaction with the criminal justice system, including a cycle of incarceration and criminal fines and fees. The individuals that are stuck in this welfare debt-incarceration cycle follow recognizable racial and socioeconomic lines of vulnerability and marginalization. For the bankruptcy system to uphold its normative principle of forgiving burdensome debt for the most economically vulnerable individuals, welfare debt must be forgiven.

Keywords: debt, poverty, discrimination, bankruptcy, discharge, socioeconomic inequality, welfare, child support, government debt