Deadbeat parents on upswing
September 6, 2008
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Daniel Dale
STAFF REPORTER
Under the Progressive Conservative governments of Mike Harris and successor Ernie Eves, only prisons generated more complaints to the provincial ombudsman than the problem-plagued Family Responsibility Office.
Hundreds of mothers complained that the office, which collects and distributes child support, didn't try hard enough to compel fathers to pay up. Some were forced into poverty. Hundreds of fathers complained the office hounded them for not making payments they had indeed made. Some lost their property and their reputations.
When the Liberals were elected in 2003, Premier Dalton McGuinty vowed the office would improve. Yet it now collects support from a smaller proportion of "deadbeat" parents than it did back then.
Between the Tories' last fiscal year in power and the one that ended in March, the number of people considered "non-compliant" with court orders (who paid less than 85 per cent) rose from 33.3 per cent to 34.8 per cent. The percentage who paid their entire bills decreased, from 32.4 per cent to 31 per cent.
Some 105,436 people – 69 per cent of those on the office's Ontario rolls – were behind in their payments, up from 67.6 per cent five years ago, statistics released by the office show.
Five years ago, social services minister Sandra Pupatello said the office was "on the front burner for change." In 2004, a news release promised "positive change is coming." In 2005, the government said a new law would make Ontario "a national leader in enforcing family support payments."
Asked if the office has improved under the Liberals, Renate Diorio, who led the now-dormant activist group Families Against Deadbeats between 1995 and 2007, paused and sighed.
"I'll probably get in trouble here," said Diorio, who said she is usually sympathetic to the party. "Honestly, no. Really, no, I can't say that, no. Check the numbers."
Community and Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur said compliance figures aren't the only measure by which the office should be assessed. Asked in late July if she is concerned that the rates have worsened since the Liberals took office, Meilleur said, "I don't see it worse. It's just a variation of what, 1 per cent? So it is worse if (it has dropped) 1 per cent?"
"It's minor," she said. "But at the same time I don't ignore it."
Meilleur pointed to a reduction in the total money owed to support recipients as evidence the government's efforts have been effective. But she quickly corrected herself: total arrears have also increased, from $1.1 billion in 2003-04 to $1.45 billion in 2007-08.
Still, under the Liberals, she said, the "customer satisfaction" of the office's users has improved.
"We don't evaluate our service only on one point, but on many, many identifiers," she said. "You know, the stats are the stats ... but I cannot ignore the fact that surveys show that they are better satisfied."
Customer service does appear to have improved. Since 2005, according to a spokesperson, average wait times on the office's phone line have been reduced from 13 minutes to six, the number of calls from MPPs' offices on behalf of constituents has fallen by more than a quarter, and its staff now respond to 35 per cent more calls each day.
Complaints to the ombudsman have decreased substantially, from 1,467 in 2003-04 to 806 last year.
And some arrears may simply be uncollectible: Jeremy Swanson, director of the fathers' advocacy group FathersCan – more than 95 per cent of support payers are men, according to statistics released under the Conservatives – says most "deadbeat dads" are actually "dead-broke dads" who simply do not have the money to pay.
But problems remain, Meilleur acknowledges. When former auditor general Erik Peters criticized the computer system used by the office's predecessor in 1994 and 1996, the government responded that the system "must be replaced." More than a decade later, a replacement is still "up to three years" away from full implementation, a ministry spokesperson said.
"The computer problem has been the bane of their existence," said ombudsman André Marin, who called it a "disaster."
Many of the Family Responsibility Office's problems can be traced to the chaotic months before its creation in 1997, when the Harris government renamed and centralized the province's Family Support Plan. Closing its regional offices, he laid off nearly 300 employees.
Both support payees and payers complained vociferously, and Ontario's auditor general, ombudsman and opposition parties issued their own rebukes. "You're great at being aggressive with panhandlers and squeegee kids," McGuinty, then leader of the opposition, said in 1999. "When are you going to start stepping up to the plate and going to bat for these kids and dealing with their deadbeat fathers?"
Under the Tories, the office gained extensive punitive powers. The province began to seize non-payers' driver's licences, report them to credit bureaus, and even imprison them.
McGuinty got even tougher. In 2005, he increased the maximum jail term for non-payers from 90 to 180 days, allowed the office to report non-payers to professional licensing bodies, and – most famously – to post their photos and details on a public website.
The site, goodparentspay.com, was launched to wide publicity in February 2007. It helped nab five non-payers within a month. But it features only 25 people at any given time – more, Meilleur said, would "distract" site users – and has helped locate only five more since.
There are more than 100,000 people in arrears, said Progressive Conservative critic Sylvia Jones (Dufferin-Caledon), "and they put 25 people up on a website? I think that (the website), more than anything, was a PR move," she said.
The NDP and activist Diorio, who both supported the 2005 law and now call it a failure, argue the Liberals have underfunded the office and failed to hire enough investigators.
The office's budget during the final year of the Eves government was $31.8 million. This year, it's up to $45.1 million when funding for technology upgrades is included. But in 2007-08, it was only $28.9 million, including one-time "special project" funding.
"If they were serious about this issue, then they have to find the money for it," said NDP critic Michael Prue (Beaches-East York). "Don't say you're coming up with a tough new system and then doom it to failure with no staff."
Meilleur said the office is adequately funded. Staff haven't told her they need money for more investigators, she said. "We're listening to the people who are there on the ground."
Marin, a critic of the office, said it could improve even without more money. In his opinion, its primary problem, other than the computer system, is "cultural."
Until recently, he said, it was "petulant and recalcitrant and desperately in need of an attitude adjustment" – the staff refusing to understand "that their job was to be a state-funded enforcer."
"Sitting on the fence – kind of a pussyfooting, bureaucratic approach – was permeating their work."
He now has at least a "faint hope" for change. Since new executive director Lois Bain was installed late last year, he said there are signs the culture is improving. But complaints have increased again – his office has received more than 350 in the past six months – and he is still considering a comprehensive investigation. "Now we've got the niceties, let's see the change in numbers ... if not, we're going to send in the cavalry," Marin said.
Meilleur said the office will continue to improve.
"Every time there is arrears, it does concern me, because someone is not receiving what they should be receiving. But there were always arrears, and I guess there will always be arrears. But we will work hard to reduce them to make sure that the families receive what they should be receiving. Eighty per cent of the $1.4 billion arrears was prior to us coming on board.
"But this is my goal, this is the staff goal, this is the Family Responsibility Office goal, is to collect," she said.
Toronto Star