Record Amount of Child Support Collected

With a little help from the IRS, the Ventura County district attorney’s office said Thursday it set a record for child-support collections in April.

The office collected $5,248,648 largely by having the tax refunds of those behind on their payments sent directly to the district attorney’s office. The amount was up from $1,101,585 during the same month last year.

Stan Trom, head of the district attorney’s child-support division, said the IRS helped funnel the checks to his office.

Collections from May 2000 through April 2001 were $47,915,441, an increase of 11% over the previous 12-month period, Trom said.