Chasing Child Support In W.Va.

Single-parent families in West Virginia that rely on child support could soon face a crunch from a federal funding cut, The Associated Press reports.

"States currently receive a combination of state and federal funding for child support enforcement programs. The funding consists of a base payment and an incentive if they show improvement, as West Virginia has consistently shown in recent years," AP's Shaya Tayefe Mohajer explains. "But Congress has decided that some social programs — like the child support incentive — will be cut as part of the Deficit Reduction Act, which is set to go into effect in October at the start of the new federal fiscal year."

More than 113,000 West Virginia families received child support payments in 2006, AP reports. "Because budgets are already tight, a loss of funding would mean cuts in the West Virginia bureau’s staff, which could result in higher case backlogs and, ultimately, more children whose families would struggle to provide food, clothes and adequate shelter while waiting for their support."