"Don't Want to Pay Child Support?" Absurd Loopholes Used to Evade Obligations

[Anchor]

In the past three years alone, 366 people have had their names publicly disclosed for failing to pay child support after separating from their spouses. The total amount of unpaid child support has reached 17.3 billion won. While there are systems in place for victims who have not received child support, there are loopholes everywhere.

Reporter Jo Yoon-ha examines what improvements are needed.

[Reporter]

One of the primary tools available when child support is not paid is the application for a direct payment order.

This is a system where you request that the former spouse's employer automatically deduct child support from their monthly salary.

Is it being applied effectively?

Three years ago, a person surnamed Jung divorced their spouse and has not received 70 million won in child support for over two years.

Jung applied for a direct payment order against the ex-husband's company and received child support for a few months, but it suddenly stopped one day.

It was because the ex-husband had quit his job and started a one-person company.

[Jung/Victim of unpaid child support: (The HR team) said, 'It won't be paid starting next month. He has resigned.' I was devastated because it ended after just two months of payments.]

If they quit and move to a new company, it is difficult to even find out where they are working, and even if you do find out, you have to go through the entire application process for a direct payment order from the beginning.

[Seo Su-min/Lawyer: In the United States, there is an automatic succession system, so even if they quit and move to a new company, the new employer is required to take over the obligation...]

Furthermore, in the case of a one-person company where the individual is the representative, there is no clear solution if they simply refuse to deduct the child support.

Jung also previously applied for what is called an "enforcement order."

This is a system where you ask the court to issue another order to "pay child support" in accordance with the original ruling.

Is this effective?

Kim Do-yeon, who divorced in 2006, has not received the 500,000 won in monthly child support for 20 years.

Her ex-husband did not comply even after receiving the court's enforcement order.

She even obtained a court decision for a 10-day "confinement" to put her ex-husband in a detention center, but he managed to evade even that.

He avoided "service," the process of receiving court documents, by changing his address. Under current law, if service is avoided for six months, the confinement order becomes void.

[Kim Do-yeon/Victim of unpaid child support: It's the same as saying, 'I can't get the 10 days (of confinement), so I'll just give up.' When an address is deregistered, it literally says 'address deregistered.' I still check (the address documents) once a month.]

While it is possible to impose a fine of up to 10 million won when a court's enforcement order is ignored, the fine is rarely imposed if the person simply says, "I will pay child support in the future." In some cases, people choose to pay the fine because it is cheaper than the child support itself.

As a result, the number of people who evade child support payments by dodging the law is not decreasing.

The total amount of unpaid child support over the past three years has reached 17.3 billion won.

Reported by Jo Yoon-ha | Video by Bae Moon-san | Video Editing by Park Na-young | Graphics by Seo Seung-hyun | VJ by Shin So-young
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.