Recently, the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the launch of a website listing the parents who are 'most wanted' for their long-term failure to make court-ordered child support payments. The list, which currently includes five parents from jurisdictions around the country, is reportedly aimed at apprehending and prosecuting those parents.

The most wanted list includes photos and other identifying information on some of the worst child support offenders in the country. Currently, there are five parents on the lists, owing amounts ranging from $21,000 to more than $1 million. The website also features information on two recently apprehended parents, both of whom owe more than $115,000 in child support.

The goal of the website is to encourage people who know or have seen the offenders to report them to the government, allowing law enforcement to arrest and prosecute them. While on the website, visitors can fill out and send an online fugitive tip form, or get information on the agency's 24-hour hotline, which can be used to submit an anonymous report in both English and Spanish.

As many Columbus parents likely know, child support is usually a matter that is left up to the states. The federal government gains jurisdiction over child support, however, in cases in which parents fail to make their court-ordered child support payments for more than one year. The government can also intervene when parents owe $5,000 or more for children that live in a different state, or when a parent flees the state or country to avoid paying child support.

Source: Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, "OIG Launches Child Support Enforcement Web Page: Introduces 'most wanted' list of deadbeat parents," Jan. 17, 2012