Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Administration for Children's Services (ACS) Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta today announced that the City had collected a record $446.9 million in child support during Fiscal Year (FY) 2001. The court-ordered payments help support 213,000 children.

Child-support collections increased by $43.3 million over the FY 2000 total of $403.6 million -- an increase of more than 10 percent. The City has also more than doubled child-support collections since FY 1995, when $216.6 million was collected.

Also joining the Mayor for the announcement were ACS General Counsel Joseph Cardieri and Associate Commissioner Michael Infranco, who heads ACS' Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), the unit within ACS responsible for enforcing, collecting and distributing court-ordered child support.

"Our greatest mission when it comes to collecting child support is to ensure that every dollar collected by ACS translates into food, clothing, shelter and education for more than 200,000 children in our City," Mayor Giuliani said. "Failure by a parent to pay court-ordered support causes hardship and suffering in the lives of children and families who are legally and morally entitled to this support. I want to congratulate Commissioner Scoppetta and the staff at ACS for these historic gains in collecting child support and sending the message that deadbeat parents will be held to their obligations."

Commissioner Scoppetta said; "Since ACS was established in 1996, we have collected over $2 billion in child support, setting new collection records in each succeeding year. Stronger legislation, tougher regulations, new technology and our own aggressive enforcement initiatives are making it much more difficult for delinquent parents to avoid their legal and moral responsibilities to their children. My thanks to Associate Commissioner Infranco and his staff at OCSE for a job well done for the children of New York."

In addition to record child support collections, OCSE has expanded its capabilities to seize assets and tax returns, worked closely with law enforcement agencies to track down delinquent parents, and has developed a program that will assist unemployed or homeless parents who owe child support learn the skills and get the assistance that will help them find a job.

In FY2001, ACS has:

Working closely with hospitals and the City's Department of Health, OCSE has been encouraging unmarried parents to establish paternity for their children at the time of the birth. During FY 2001, paternity was voluntarily established for 39,126 wedlock children, which represents 71 percent of all out of wedlock births in the City.

Establishing paternity is important because it gives out of wedlock children the same rights as children born to married parents. Before a court order of support can be issued for a child, paternity must have been established.

Through a new program in which OCSE is partnering with community based organizations, parents with little or no income or resources will now have access to several services, including education, job readiness training, and parenting skills classes. To receive the services, parents must be cooperating with the child support process. As part of the program, OCSE co-sponsored its first "Employment and Information Fair" on July 28th in Queens. Similar events are being planned for other boroughs.

New Yorkers who require child support information can call the NYC Child Support Helpline at 212 -226 -7125. The hearing impaired have access to a TTY line at 212 - 226 -7652.

The ACS website, which includes the Deadbeat Hall of Shame, can be accessed online at www.nyc.gov/acs.

www.nyc.gov