The Business of Broken Families: How Corporations Profit from Child Support Enforcement
When we talk about child support enforcement, most Americans imagine a fair process—designed to protect children, hold parents accountable, and ensure financial stability. What they don’t realize is that behind the curtain lies a powerful network of administrative agencies and private corporations that profit from pain, conflict, and the destruction of families. And for many fathers, especially those without legal representation, the system operates more like a trap than a lifeline.
Administrative Tyranny Disguised as Civil Justice
At the heart of the issue is the fact that child support enforcement isn’t truly judicial—it’s administrative. Many enforcement actions occur without proper court oversight. Instead, state agencies leverage mechanisms like wage garnishment, tax refund interception, license suspension, and even imprisonment without the due process protections typically guaranteed in criminal court.
How is this legal? It’s not, at least not under any traditional understanding of civil liberties. These agencies operate under the umbrella of “civil matters,” yet they impose severe, criminal-like penalties without the same standard of evidence or constitutional safeguards. This undermines due process and sets a dangerous precedent—where administrative bodies act as judge, jury, and executioner.
Double Taxation and the Financial Trap
Many fathers are paying twice into a broken system. First, through their taxes—funding the very bureaucracy that enforces child support. Then, again, through often-punitive child support orders, many of which are calculated based on outdated or inaccurate income assessments. When a parent falls behind (often due to job loss, illness, or disability), enforcement ramps up—not with support or mediation, but with financial penalties, license suspensions, and even jail time. The result? A cycle of instability that pushes families further apart.
This is not support. This is systemic sabotage.
Who’s Really Profiting? Follow the Money.
Behind many state enforcement agencies are corporate contractors. Companies like Maximus, Lockheed Martin, KPMG, and others have been tied to state child support enforcement contracts. These corporations are often incentivized by performance metrics—like how much child support they collect, or how aggressively they enforce orders.
The problem? The more a parent struggles or falls behind, the more the enforcement machinery kicks in. And that machinery is profitable. The more aggressive the garnishment, the higher the collections. The more penalties imposed, the more fees generated. The business model isn’t built to help families reconcile or co-parent. It’s built to extract.
This isn’t a theory—it’s a shadow industry. And it’s operating with minimal oversight, under the radar of most media and lawmakers.
Public-Private Partnerships or Profit-Driven Prosecution?
These corporate-government partnerships are reminiscent of other problematic alliances—like the surveillance deals between tech giants and federal agencies, or the contracts awarded to companies during national crises. We’ve seen how dangerous it is when companies that are supposed to serve the public good are instead rewarded for violating civil liberties, manipulating information, or profiting off chaos.
Child support enforcement is no different. The same system that claims to be about helping children is enriching third-party corporations and bankrupting the very people it’s supposed to help—primarily fathers.
The Way Forward: Exposure and Reform
This isn’t just about unfair treatment—it’s about structural corruption. We need transparency. We need oversight. We need to name the corporations involved, demand audits of their contracts, and investigate the financial incentives behind these enforcement practices.
We also need public pressure to demand that child support enforcement be returned to a judicial model, where both parties have access to due process and the opportunity to be heard fairly—without administrative shortcuts that destroy lives.
And we must tell the truth: No system that profits from broken families can ever claim to be in the best interest of children.
Michael Phillips is the founder of the REBUILT Justice Project and Father & Co., and a journalist advocating for family court reform and parental rights. To support independent investigative reporting on family court and administrative injustice, subscribe or donate at RepublicDispatch.com or follow Father & Co. on Substack.
Special thanks to Bruce Eden, whose research, caselaw review, and personal insight into the financialization of family law helped shape the foundation of this article. Your work continues to educate and inspire those fighting for transparency and reform.