By KRWG News
New Mexico – SANTA FE, N.M. (KRWG) The state Human Services Department reports it has collected more than $123 million in child support enforcement payments during the last fiscal year.
The agency said the collections were a record amount up 7 percent from the previous year.
Nearly three-fifths of the money came from withholdings on wages of the parent providing the child support payments. The department said other collections came from tax refunds, gambling winnings and direct payments from a non-custodial parent.
The state's 2011 fiscal year ended on June 30.
The department said child support payments nationally account for about 30 percent of the income of families in poverty.
In New Mexico, about two-fifths of children live in single parent families.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. KRWG