A BETTER DEAL FOR SINGLE PARENTS

Single parents account for 27 percent of family households with children under 18.

The number of single parents increased from three million to 10 million between 1970 and 2000.

There are millions of taxpaying working single parents in this country that are drowning in debt and unable to get assistance because they don't meet some criteria that has been specified without taken into account what these parents have to pay out on a monthly basis.

I feel that our leaders and institutions do not appreciate or allow for the special circumstances and hardships that are faced on a daily basis by single parent families.

In 2002 Bush proposed $100 Million dollar marriage initiative as a way of dealing with the "poor" single parent in this country. If the Bush administration really wants to attend to the issues of "poor" single parent ; there are many things that they could put that
$100 million dollars towards. The first is Child Support Enforcement. According to the 2000 Child Support Report, 39 billion dollars is owed to 29 million children. One month late on child support can put a family into
financial distress, two months can send the family into chaos. Single parents typically use child support to pay for childcare so they can go to work. When it does not arrive, childcare is lost resulting from lost work and
time, which calculates into, lost wages. The domino effect works well in this area. Most states require that the individual parent go without receiving support for 3 months before they can even file. What does the single parent do for money in these three months. Does the child/children not deserve the basic necessities of food, clothing and medical coverage in these three months? After three months they can send the non-paying parent to jail. While this parent is in jail we still do not receive child support or support from any agency. What are single parents suppossed to do in this time?

I think this is a worthy cause because not only is it a single parents cause but it is also a child’s cause. In this country we send so much money over seas to help other countries and children in those countries this is very noble, but there are so many children in this country that also need help.

People like us have no voice and no-one to speak up and say, “this is wrong lets try to do something about it, lets see what changes we can make to ease the burden on single parents that are struggling to do the right thing.”

I would like to ask that any single parent who is tired of struggling with no help from any government agency to contact me. vourneenm@hotmail.com. I think its time the law worked for us. If they can't hear us they can't see us. Its time we were seen and heard.

Please help me to get them to see and hear us. We need thier help now. Our Children need their help now.

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/help/contact/

http://obama.senate.gov/contact/