MDHHS?highlights improvements to system during Child Support Month
As part of Child Support Month, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is highlighting efforts to improve the system for children and families.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared August 2023 as Child Support Month in Michigan to recognize the tireless efforts of child support workers, employers, state and county departments, hospitals and community partners to support Michigan children and families.
“I’m proud of the work our program has done this year to support children and families,” said MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel.
The Michigan Child Support Program strives to help families support each other both financially and emotionally
Highlights for the past year include:
• Expanding to seven counties the Learn, Earn and Provide program, which provides child support payers with career training and mentoring so that they can better support their children. The counties are Allegan, Bay, Branch, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, and St. Joseph.
• Holding four informational meetings to recruit new members for the Child Support Community Advisory Council. There were 640 people who registered to attend a meeting, and of these about 150 applied to be on the council. Seven new members were selected, bringing the number of council members to 14.
• County and state child support offices in Michigan providing services for more than 821,000 children and their families.
• Collecting and distributing more than $1.05 billion for Michigan families.
• Ensuring that families who receive cash assistance and child support received $1.71 million directly instead of these funds reimbursing state and federal program costs. Whitmer created this “pass through” allowing families to receive the additional funds beginning with the signing of the fiscal year 2020 state budget.
The Michigan Child Support Program is a partnership of the MDHHS Office of Child Support, local Friend of the Court offices, county prosecuting attorney offices, the State Court Administrative Office, employers, hospitals and other community agencies.
The program provides professional, non-judgmental services to help mothers, fathers, grandparents or guardians get the financial resources they need for their children. It also provides parents of all income levels with assistance in obtaining financial support and medical insurance coverage for their children, helps locate parents, establishes paternity, and opens and manages child support cases and collects and disburses support payments.
Every dollar spent on the program collects $5.10 to provide support to Michigan children.
Child support information for parents, employers and hospitals can be found at Michigan.gov/ChildSupport.
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