Most Divorcees Dodge Child Support Payments

Some 64 percent of divorcees ordered by a court to pay child support fail to do so, government statistics show. And of them, 70.4 percent fall behind out of spite rather than because they do not have the money.

A survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family released on Thursday shows that 35 percent of 483 people entitled to child support from their former spouse did not receive a penny. The ministry said 55.9 percent of the respondents were able to get the money when they sued, but then more than half either received the payments irregularly or saw them dry up as time passed. Less than four out of 10 received the money on time.

The most common reason was intentional failure to pay with 46.2 percent, followed by severed contact with 20.1 percent. Some 4.1 percent of them gave up due to the threats from their divorced spouses.

In only 19.5 percent of the cases the reason was that the divorced spouse was unable to pay. Countries like Sweden and Germany try to avoid such problems by making the government pay first and then collect the money from the divorced parent.