Every year thousands of teenage girls, many as young as 12 years old, enter United States Welfare system because they become pregnant. Teenage girls are usually eligible for welfare benefits in order to meet the needs of their children. Typically the fathers are non custodial parents with many of them teenagers as well. Teen aged parents still supposed to be attending high school and unable to pay child support because they don’t have jobs. The common name for this situations is a “minor-mother” case. When a teenage girl has a baby it is automatically reported to the state child support agency by the welfare department.
When the agency receives a minor-mother referral, it begins legal proceedings against three parties:
- The father of the minor-mother.
- The mother of the minor-mother.
- And the father of the minor-mother’s child.
Because the parents of minor-mothers are legally responsible to support their daughter until emancipation, they must pay child support for their minor-mother daughters.
The Welfare Reform Act added certain requirements for teenage parents and minor-mothers to qualify for welfare cash benefits. The minor mother must be enrolled in a high school or a state-approved GED program and she must be living with an adult. The Welfare Reform Act attempts to eliminated any easy way for minors to become physically and financially independent of their parents. The parents of a no custodial teenage father are held liable and required to pay child support on behave of their minor son, if the minor-mother receives any welfare benefits. Grandparents are liable to pay child support for their grandchildren, if the parents of the child is a minors.
The parents of a minor teenage no custodial parent often face paternity action requests for child support from them, instead of the babies father. When a female minor child has a baby, minor mother is responsible for the care of her baby, but her parents remain responsible for the care of their daughter. If the mother is under the age of 18 and she continues to live at home, with her parents then the grandparents’ income will be “deemed available” to their grandchild. The fact the parents income is considered as qualification for welfare eligibility, and the court may order that the paternal grandparent’s (The father or the baby‘s parents) income “deemed available” for child support as well.
These rules were established in order to make everyone responsible for the situation of teen age parents. By making the parents of the teenagers involved responsible for the obligations their children created. The parents of a minor mother now have financial recourse on the parents of the minor father.
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