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Child-Support Checks Delayed

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By KEITH MORELLI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 1, 2008

TAMPA - Barbara Souza depends on her child support each month, and this week, when she didn't get a check, she was itching for a scrap with her ex-husband. She didn't know it at the time, but she wasn't alone.

Souza, 50, of Valrico, had to scramble to make ends meet. She lives month to month working a job part time and raising two children, ages 8 and 9, full time.

Her husband was not to blame, though. He sent his $920 check on time to the state, which was supposed to send it to Souza. That's where the chain broke. A glitch left tens of thousands of child-support recipients across the state without their checks for at least a week.

State officials blamed a subcontractor, who owned up to the mistake Thursday and promised it would not happen again.

State revenue officials estimate that 65,000 Floridians who get monthly child support checks through the state's disbursement center in Tallahassee went without for more than a week, said Renee Watters, spokeswoman for the child support division of the Florida Department of Revenue.

Recipients who have checks deposited electronically were not affected, she said.

The blame was laid on Laser Tech, a subcontractor paid by the state to prepare and mail child support checks. The mailboxes were empty, Watters said, "because Laser Tech said they ran out of envelopes."

"That's not a good excuse," she said from her Tallahassee office on Thursday. "In fact, that's not acceptable."

The matter is being investigated, she said. Laser Tech failed to notify the state that the child support checks set to be mailed on Jan. 23, 24 and 25 were being held up, she said.

The checks made it into the mail on Monday, said Gary Miller, owner of Laser Tech.

"I think we've got things resolved," he said. "It was a situation where we had vendors not delivering raw materials to us. They kept stalling and delaying."

He said his company has processed child support checks for the state during the past four years and never had a problem like this.

"I can safely say," he said, "that this is the first glitch whatsoever. We know these things are very important to people. They're like paychecks. I feel horrible about it."

He conceded he could have better communicated the matter to the state, which was left in the dark for several days. Watters said that irked state officials. At least, the checks have been mailed out, she said.

"Some people have already gotten them," she said. Others are still waiting. Delivery, she said, "depends on where you live in the state."

"We're getting ready to send out letters saying we're sorry and that this is unacceptable to us that the checks didn't go out on time," Watters said.

Souza still was waiting on Thursday.

"When my child support check was late," she said, "of course, I was cursing my ex-husband. I need that money. I have bills that went past due since beginning this week."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib

.com.

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