Judy, I think we should coin a new phrase, that of being "in the rears" :-). But in all seriousness, I had a heck of a hard time a few years ago trying to figure out the difference between "arrearages" and "arrears", or being "in arrears" and "having arrearages" (not sure if you can say "in arrearages"--maybe but it sounds kind of weird)--
But to the OP's question, I wondered about this myself a while back, why a person on welfare doesn't have to pay child support but then it dawned on me that if a welfare recipient had to pay support from welfare, which is just free money from the government, wouldn't paying child support from welfare be the equivalent of welfare, i.e. the government, paying the child support? And if that is all it is, why not do it this way: If welfare would otherwise pay a mom $1,000 per month in benefits (hypothetically) and if she would have to turn around and pay from that $200 per month in child support, why not simply pay her $800 per month in benefits and make the $200 available directly for the kid? Doesn't it make more sense to do it that way? It does to me and, although I am no expert on public benefits law, I think this is exactly how it is done and the reason way welfare recipients do not have to pay child support.
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