
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 16, 1994                   TAG: 9412160056
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PLAN WOULD RESTRICT DRIVING OF PEOPLE OWING CHILD SUPPORT

Gov. George Allen's welfare reform proposals include a recommendation that the driver's licenses of parents who shirk their child support responsibilities be restricted, allowing them to drive only to, from or for work.

The Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement proposed to Allen's welfare reform commission a few months ago that the plan link child support to the issuance, suspension and revocation of driver's licenses of deadbeat parents. The proposal carried a little further a new law that enabled the division to get a court order to recall state-issued business and professional licenses of parents who owe back payments.

"Since people don't generally have to renew driver's licenses more than once every five years, we wanted to find a way to take action on a shorter time frame - people who needed a quick wake-up call," Mike Henry, director of the state Division of Child Support Enforcement said this week.

"We have a significant number of non-payers. We'd only want to use that drastic a mechanism against individuals we have good reason to believe can pay but are simply refusing. Our goal is incentive to change behavior."

The proposal supported a bill introduced during the last General Assembly by Del. Harry Purkey, R-Virginia Beach. While Purkey's bill included a business and professional license provision, it also denied initial issuance or renewal of driver's licenses of parents delinquent by more than one month in child support payments.

The bill didn't make it out of committee but was carried over to the 1995 session.

Many welfare recipients are dependent on child support. In some cases, an ex-spouse's failure to pay is the sole reason the recipient is on public assistance.

Child support was a major piece of President Bill Clinton's initial welfare reform proposal.

The state Division of Child Support Enforcement has a caseload of 340,000, of which 180,000 are in arrears. Cases are growing at a rate of 3,000 per month.

by CNB