The Department of Children and Family Services is not relaxing child support payments due to the pandemic. Child Support Enforcement Director Lydia Scales says non-custodial parents will still be on the hook for money owed despite their employment status, but no enforcement actions will be taken.

“Generally if they are behind by two or three months, then we will start enforcement actions to suspend their license or suspend their passport or one of those enforcement techniques,” said Scales.

If a parent loses a job and can’t make a payment, Scales recommends they call their child support worker and let them know that their circumstances have changed.

“We will document that in the case record and we’re just waiting until this whole crisis is over before we start implementing our procedures that we had been doing,” said Scales.

Scales says the large number of layoffs and furloughs attached to the pandemic is a major area of concern that is compounded by the fact that they do not have any sort of remedy for the growing problem.

“It is just almost day to day. What can we do? How can we can we do it? How can we make things better for the families. Because this is not just Louisiana, this is nationwide,” said Scales.