A new public awareness campaign has been launched in New Mexico to encourage parents to pay child support. The Health Care Authority’s Child Support Services Division (CSSD) is rolling out “Do the Loving Thing” advertisements on television and radio in both English and Spanish, starting this December and continuing for 12 months. The ads are being distributed through the New Mexico Broadcasters Association’s Public Education Program.
According to the CSSD, last year the state collected $119 million in child support payments, with 65 percent of these funds coming from wage withholding by employed parents. Wage withholding remains the most reliable method for ensuring monthly obligations are met.
Betina Gonzales McCracken, director of CSSD, said, “This year’s public service campaign starts and ends with love. It’s love that brings a child into the world, it’s love that supports a child, so we are asking parents to do the loving thing, and pay their child support today.”
Over the past six years, New Mexico's child support program has implemented several modernization efforts aimed at better serving families who are raising children in separate households. These initiatives include adjusting court orders based on a parent’s ability to pay, limiting retroactive arrears to three years, creating a self-support reserve within guidelines to ensure paying parents can also meet their own needs, and offering job development assistance through the STEPUp! program.
Parents interested in making payments can do so online or seek help by contacting the child support program for case reviews. The HCA Customer Service Center operates Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., reachable at 1-800-283-4465 or via the YES.NM.GOV portal.
The New Mexico Health Care Authority administers various programs including Medicaid, SNAP benefits, LIHEAP assistance for energy costs, cash aid programs, behavioral health care services statewide, as well as overseeing health benefits for state employees and managing affordability initiatives for working families. The agency is also responsible for licensing healthcare facilities and supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities through home and community-based programs.
