Deadbeat parent

Deadbeat dad is a pejorative term (primarily U.S.) that refers to parents who neglect their responsibility as a parent, especially a father who has left (through divorce or otherwise) his children in the care of their mother but refuses to pay court-ordered child support, or monetary payments meant to go toward the welfare of the children.

Many observers blame the complexities of the court system for allowing such occurrences to happen, and for the difficulty for a mother to successfully enforce court orders for the father to pay child support, because the father can easily avoid the payments. Such practices have been declared illegal in all fifty U.S. states.

Many U.S. states have passed "deadbeat dad laws" that allows the Department of Motor Vehicles in the state to use its information to find the "deadbeat dad" and call him to account for his actions. Of course, such laws apply to both men and women who owe child support, but the corresponding term would be "deadbeat mom".

According to Fox News:

Non-payment of child support is a significant problem in the United States. According to the Federal Office of Child Support, in 2003, $96 billion in accumulated unpaid support was due to children in the United States; 68 percent of child support cases were in arrears. An overwhelming majority of children, particularly minorities, living in single-parent homes where child support is not paid live in poverty.

By comparison, the child support that does get properly paid represents one of the largest transfers of wealth within the U.S. economy.

Deadbeat Dad can also refer to a father who lives with the rest of his family, but abdicates some, if not all, parental duty.

There are now many collections-oriented sites on the Internet that mention or highlight deadbeat dads, some even showing mug shots and marking the photos as "found" in the style of the FBI's "most wanted" list.

Links

• In Defense of 'Deadbeat' Dads - suggesting deadbeat dads should be released to ease prison crowding