Child Support Reforms in PRWORA

Assessing the New Federalism is a multi-year Urban Institute project designed to analyze the devolution of responsibility for social programs from the federal government to the states. It focuses primarily on health care, income security, employment and training programs, and social services. Researchers monitor program changes and fiscal developments. Alan Weil is the project director. In collaboration with Child Trends, the project studies changes in family well-being. The project provides timely, nonpartisan information to inform public debate and to help state and local decisionmakers carry out their new responsibilities more effectively.

Key components of the project include a household survey, studies of policies in 13 states, and a database with information on all states and the District of Columbia. Publications and database are available free of charge on the Urban Institute's Web site: http://www.urban.org.

The project has received funding from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, the Stuart Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, The Fund for New Jersey, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the PDF format, which many users find more convenient when printing.

Table of Contents

Abstract

Child Support Reforms in PRWORA: Initial Impacts

    Introduction
    Child Support Policy Discussion
    Data and Descriptive Results
    Specific Policy Variables Examined
    Estimated Effect of Child Support Reforms

Conclusion

References

About the Authors

Introduction

Since the 1980s, Congress has viewed child support as part of the solution to reducing welfare dependency and increasing self-sufficiency among low-income families. It included major child support reforms in the Family Support Act (FSA) of 1988. More recently, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) enacted numerous changes in child support law. This study is one of the first efforts to assess the initial effects of the 1996 child support reforms.

Using data from the 1997 and 1999 National Survey of America's Families, we find that child support outcomes have improved significantly for low- and middle-income children whose mother has never married. The percentages of these children having a child support order, receiving some child support given that they have an order, and receiving the full amount due on their order have all increased. In contrast, children with a divorced, separated, or currently married mother have not seen significant gains in their child support.

We assess the impact of four child support reforms—automating child support enforcement systems, improving the paternity establishment process, adopting comprehensive new hire directories, and enforcing license revocation. We find evidence to suggest that two of these reforms have contributed to improved child support outcomes for low- and middleincome children with a never-married mother.

The paper is divided into six sections. The next section provides an overview of and research about the child support program. The third section discusses the data used in this study and presents descriptive results. The fourth section describes the specific policies examined in this paper. The fifth section uses regression analysis to assess the impact of these policies on child support outcomes. The final section concludes the paper.

See the PDF for complete report.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Usage, posting and reprint of materials on the UI web site:

Most publications may be downloaded free of charge from the web site in PDF format. This information may be used and copies made for research, academic, policy or other non-commercial purposes. Proper attribution is required.

Copyright of the written materials contained within the Urban Institute website is owned or controlled by the Urban Institute. Posting UI research papers on other websites is permitted subject to prior approval from the Urban Institute—contact paffairs@urban.org.

If you are unable to access or print the PDF document please contact us or call the Publications Office at (202) 261-5687.