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What to do if she says you're the father
Article here. Excerpt:
'Inside was a letter from the Gaston County Child Support Enforcement Agency. It informed McClain that a woman had identified him as the father of her nearly 3-year-old son.
McClain, 77, read that an appointment had already been made for him. He would need to bring his last four wage stubs, verification of other child support he was paying, and further personal financial information to the Department of Social Services.
“Consider this letter to be a formal demand for support for (the child’s name),” the letter read.
There was one small problem. McClain, a Mount Holly resident, had never heard of the woman named in the letter, much less her son. And he said he certainly had never stepped outside the bounds of his marriage.
...
“This is just another example of a government institution refusing to look practically at its own caseload,” he wrote.
McClain’s wife has since died. He said he never received an explanation from DSS about what happened, but he wonders whether the woman “just picked a name out of the phone book and handed it in.”
“When that’s all it takes for DSS to send a letter like the one I got, it seems to me changes should be made,” he said.
...
Bennett believes the department’s measures for identifying parents of children are largely efficient. They have a simple goal in each case, she said.
“We care that somebody is the father of that child,” she said. “We just want people to take responsibility for their sexuality.”'
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