Private Story
Forced to Choose
Forced to Choose
Some states, like Arizona and Nevada, will seize the full amount of child support in TANF cases. According to statistics from the Human Services Department in New Mexico, roughly half of the average child support payment is passed on to the kids.
ProPublica looked at what harm these practices cause and how ineffective the process is in actually providing support for the most needy of families. I was able to shadow some of the women that gave their own testimonies of experience with TANF applications.
One of those women is Alyssa Davis who sought assistance for her and her then baby Zeppelin. To her shock, she was hassled with child support requirements even though she was in a relationship with his father, to whom she is now married.
“It’s like they wanted us to not be a family unit,’ she said, “which I thought was the opposite of what this whole welfare thing was supposed to be about.”
Read the story reported by Eli Hager for ProPublica here.