[Getty Images Bank]
[Getty Images Bank]

"My ex-husband drives a leased GV80, and yet I'm told I can't receive child support from him."

According to Yonhap News Agency, Yang, a 49-year-old woman raising three children on her own in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, described her frustration Saturday.

During her divorce, she was awarded child support of 400,000 won ($257) per child. Her former husband has failed to pay for 10 years, leaving more than 100 million won in arrears.

A government advance child support payment program, introduced in July last year, has allowed her to receive at least a portion of what she is owed. But Yang said her ex-husband shows no sign of settling his accumulated debt.

According to Yang, her former husband runs a business and drives a luxury car, yet has no income registered in his name. That raises doubts about whether the government will be able to recover the money it has advanced on his behalf.

"Because there's no money in my ex-husband's name, I can't receive child support," she said. "I also think it would be good if the advance payments were differentiated based on the amount of overdue support owed."

Kim, a 43-year-old woman living in Goheung-gun, South Jeolla Province, is also receiving advance child support payments. She is raising three children alone — a ninth-grader, a seventh-grader and a fifth-grader — after her divorce. She was entitled to 200,000 won per child per month, but unpaid support has accumulated to about 60 million won over eight years.

While the advance payments have eased her situation somewhat, Kim said the roughly year-long process of obtaining an enforceable court order and then getting her advance payment application approved was extremely difficult.

"When I look at online communities for single-parent families, many people say the application process is too hard," she said. "There are a lot of documents involved, and it felt like no one gave a clear explanation of how to actually apply."

Kim also said she worries that if her former husband fails to repay the government, the debt could be passed on to their children. An official at the Child Support Agency said that concern was unfounded, however. "The advance payments are recovered only from the debtor, so they are not inherited," the official said.


20ki@heraldcorp.com