Slideshow: Top child support evaders in Texas

The Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Child Support Division ranked first in the nation for collecting $3.8 billion in child support for the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, 2015, according to a news release.

The amount collected includes current and past due child support.

“I am very proud that our Child Support Division remains the top performing child support program in the country,” Attorney General Paxton said. “I celebrate the great work of our child support division and remain committed to fight for children in Texas who aren’t getting the support they need and deserve.”

According to the Communications Manager in the Child Support Division Janece Rolfe, in the 2015 fiscal year parents were ordered to pay $4.5 billion total for current child support. Parents paid most of the support that came due, or 65 percent of the $4.5 billion.

**Paid Child Support in Fiscal Year 2015 by the Numbers**
County	Number of Cases	Total Amount Paid
Bell	29545	$67,337,464.21
Coryell	4439	$11,195,839.91
Hill	2003	$4,523,877.15
McLennan	17735	$36,905,066.91

The outstanding balance will be collected in the later years through various enforcement methods the office implements.

“Parents do have a responsibility to take care of their children and the Office of the Attorney General has a duty to collect the support. We are going to use every tool that we have to enforce child support orders,” said Rolfe.

Rolfe said the enforcement includes, having wage holding orders, recovering money from bank accounts and intercepting tax refund checks and lottery winnings.

In addition, the Child Support Division can also post pictures of some of the parents with outstanding warrants on their website. Their photo and information is published after asking the other parent for permission. To view a slideshow of some of the child support evaders click here.

Another form of enforcement, includes roundups conducted by local law enforcement agencies when parents have an outstanding civil warrant for not paying child support. A parent could serve six months in jail for it.

“[Jail time] is not our first option because obviously we want parents to be able to work and pay their child support. When enforcement tools are not successful. We’ve tried everything we know to try, then jail is our last resort because there has to be consequences when you don’t support your children,” said Rolfe.