Audit Points To Problems In Parents’ Fair Share Program

The State Auditor says Missouri’s Parents’ Fair Share Program is not living up to its goal of making it easier for unemployed or under-employed parents to make child support payments. Claire McCaskill says the Social Services and Department of Economic Development program has fallen off in the number of referrals, has no way of tracking success, and is not adequately accounting for expenses within the program. McCaskill says instead of a way for non-custodial parents to earn a better living to make child-support payments, it’s turned into a way to shuffle cases off workers’ desks. McCaskill says the fix is getting case workers better trained on how to make referrals and get computer software to better track the progress of cases. She says officials have already fixed the problem with tracking expenses.