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Increasingly, children live in both parents' homes equally after parental separation, but little is known about whether social security policy supports these shared‐residence families. We propose that a determination of support for shared residence in various policies can be based on two criteria: whether both parents can receive benefits and whether the total amount received is greater than what would have been received if children lived with only one parent. We categorise support for shared residence in child benefits, housing assistance, social assistance, and guaranteed child support in 13 countries (Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States), using a 2017 questionnaire, policy documents, and previous research. Norway is the only country supporting shared residence in all four policy domains; three countries do not support shared residence in any. Policies on shared residence across domains are inconsistent. This research highlights the need to clarify policy for these families and to consider whether parents who manage shared parental responsibilities post‐separation should be assisted in new ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although previous qualitative research in the United States suggests that noncustodial parents have difficult experiences with the child support system, there is no large-scale study of satisfaction. We use data on more than 1,800 socioeconomically disadvantaged noncustodial parents to explore their level of satisfaction and whether it is related to later child support payments. In contrast to qualitative research, we find that nearly half the noncustodial parents are satisfied with child support services. The level of satisfaction is found to be related to several agency actions and agency inflexibility. Non-Hispanic Black noncustodial parents who are satisfied pay more in support than those who were not satisfied; no relationship between satisfaction and payments is detected for other race and ethnicity groups or the sample as a whole. Our findings provide implications for policy makers and practitioners for understanding participant satisfaction and effectively addressing it in policies and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on fathering has substantially increased but we still know relatively little about whether and how fathers' own perspectives on their parenting differ across a variety of family situations. We estimate associations between nonresident fathers' family types and nonresident fathers' perceptions of the quality of their parenting and their relationships with their children, using data from the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration program on lower-income nonresident fathers (n = 5,835) and logistic regressions. High-quality parenting is more likely to be reported by nonresident fathers with multiple-partner fertility and both resident and nonresident children than either those with multiple-partner fertility and only nonresident children or those with single-partner fertility. High-quality relationships with children are more likely to be reported by those with single-partner fertility than those with multiple-partner fertility. These findings suggest the importance of resident children in fathers' perceptions of their parenting and highlight the difficulties of parenting across multiple households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child support policies typically call for noncustodial fathers to provide their children financial support. However, setting orders too high may be counterproductive, resulting in lower payments and compliance and less regular payments. But how high is too high? Prior research is dated and inconsistent. We reexamine the relationship between the burden of orders and payments, compliance, and regularity. Using fixed-effects models and administrative data from Wisconsin, we find that payments increase until orders exceed 30 percent of earnings—that is, relatively high orders maximize the financial support children receive. However, compliance and regularity decline with higher burdens—the more that is expected, the less likely fathers are to meet expectations. Subgroup analyses show that payments do not increase with burden levels among low-income fathers. We discuss implications for current debates about how much child support should be expected from noncustodial fathers, particularly those with limited abilities to pay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Background Method Results Conclusion Implications We examine the relationship between shared placement and parenting stress for low‐income fathers.Shared placement (joint physical custody), a living arrangement in which children whose parents live apart spend a significant amount of time living with each, has increased among families in the United States. Little is known about how this placement affects fathers' well‐being, especially fathers with lower incomes and who have had a nonmarital birth.Our sample included 5,755 noncustodial fathers who enrolled in the National Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration. Using regression approaches, we estimate associations between measures of self‐reported placement and parenting stress.We found that shared placement was statistically significantly associated with lower parenting stress levels (estimated magnitude of 5%–10%) compared with fathers without shared placement. This held for fathers with equal placement and those with substantial, but not equal, time. These results were consistent when accounting for confounding characteristics, suggesting the association may not be fully explained by selection into shared placement.Shared placement is associated with lower levels of parenting stress for low‐income noncustodial fathers compared with those fathers without it. We find that this holds true for any shared placement, equal placement, mother primary shared placement, and father primary shared placement.Given the potential benefits of shared care, examining whether policy and practice are supporting this for lower resourced families may be particularly important. Fatherhood and other family‐strengthening programs can support fathers in navigating potential stress driven by shared parenting arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Child support may merely reshuffle poverty, reducing child poverty among families who receive it at the expense of the economic well-being of children living with a nonresident parent. Our study examines child support's effects on child poverty, considering those who pay child support and those who receive child support, and doing so in Colombia and the United States (U.S.). We use data from the Colombian Longitudinal Survey (N = 13,036) and the U.S. Current Population Survey (N = 53,480). Our findings show that the antipoverty effectiveness of child support among resident parent families is larger in Colombia than in the U.S. Child support payments do increase child poverty among children living in payer families in both countries, but the effects are fairly small. In our base models, 6%–9% of children in nonresident parent families are falling into poverty after child support payments are transferred to other families. Overall, child support receipts decrease poverty to a greater extent than child support payments increase it among children. Highlights • We study child poverty and child support in Colombia and the U.S. • Antipoverty effectiveness of child support is higher in Colombia than the U.S. • Child support payments increase poverty somewhat among children in payer families • Results are robust to different methods [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the correlates of nonresident fathers' involvement, particularly the association between involvement and fathers' economic status is important for improving child well-being. However, previous research has produced mixed results. Using data from the longitudinal Survey of Wisconsin Works Families ( N  = 828), and administrative records that improve the accuracy of measuring economic status, this study revisits the relationship between fathers' earnings and father-child contact, while controlling for whether the father has children with multiple partners. Using logistic regressions and lagged dependent variable analysis, we find that low earnings are to some extent a barrier to nonresident fathers' involvement with their nonresidential child. When predicting contact at least once a year we find a consistent and significant association between earnings and contact. In contrast, when predicting frequent contact, earnings were not statistically significant once previous contact was controlled. We conclude that fathers' earnings open the door for contact, as the models predicting contact once a year show. However, the frequency, after the initial contact, is better predicted by other variables. The results underscore the need to complement policy attempts to increase noncustodial father's involvement with policies aimed at improving father's economic status. Moreover, they highlight the importance of interventions that simultaneously work to enhance fathers' economic resources and relationship with the resident mother. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document the dramatic decline in the United States of mother sole custody arrangements following divorce. Our empirical analysis uses Wisconsin court records data spanning more than two decades (1988-2010). Updating earlier analyses that showed significant increases in shared custody, we estimate that shared custody (where children spend at least 25% of time with each parent) has now replaced sole-mother custody as the most common post-divorce parenting arrangement-accounting for just over half (50.3%) of all cases in the most recent cohort available. We discuss the institutional context for these changes in custody in the United States, the sociodemographic factors associated with custody outcomes, and the implications for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonmarital children account for two fifths of births in the US, and close to two thirds of these children do not live with their fathers by age five. Although nonmarital children primarily live with their mothers, joint legal custody has emerged as an option for their parents. Parents with joint legal custody are expected to make major decisions for their child together, regardless of their prior marital status. This study investigates whether joint legal custody increases child support payments in the first year of a child support order among fathers of nonmarital children who live with their mothers, using a unique sample of court records in 2000–2009 in Wisconsin. It finds consistent and statistically significant positive associations across different methods; joint legal custody is associated with higher child support payments by about $170 a year and a higher compliance ratio by 5 percentage points. Paying child support is only one way nonresident parents can contribute to their children. Therefore, more studies are needed to understand whether and how joint legal custody affects other aspects of parenting and conditions under which it should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most developed countries, children in lone parent families face a high risk of poverty. A partial solution commonly sought in English-speaking nations is to increase the amounts of private child maintenance paid by the other parent. However, where lone parent families are in receipt of social assistance benefits, some countries hold back a portion of the child maintenance to reduce public expenditures. This partial ‘pass-through’ treats child maintenance as a substitute for cash benefits which conceivably neutralises its poverty reduction potential. Such neutralising effects are not well understood and can be obscured further when more subtle interactions between child maintenance systems and social security systems operate. This research makes a unique contribution to knowledge by exposing the hidden interaction effects operating in similar child maintenance systems across four countries: the United Kingdom, United States (Wisconsin), Australia and New Zealand. We found that when child maintenance is counted as income in calculating benefit entitlements, it can reduce the value of cash benefits. Using model lone parent families with ten different employment and income scenarios, we show how the poverty reduction potential of child maintenance is affected by whether it is treated as a substitute for, or a complement to, cash benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on child support compliance has focused on the characteristics of noncustodial parents (NCPs) that are associated with compliance, finding that compliance with child support orders is primarily related to the ability to pay support as demonstrated by earnings. Yet, there is evidence linking social support networks to both earnings and noncustodial parents' relationships with children. Using a social poverty framework, we show that relatively few NCPs are completely isolated: most have at least some people in their network who can loan money, provide a place to stay, or provide a ride. We explore whether the size of these instrumental support networks is positively linked to child support compliance both directly and indirectly through earnings. We find evidence of a direct association between instrumental support network size and child support compliance, but no evidence of an indirect association via increased earnings. These findings suggest the importance for researchers and child support practitioners to consider the contextual and relational factors of the social networks in which parents are embedded, and to more thoroughly examine the process by which support from one's network can lead to child support compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The amount of accumulated unpaid child support (arrears) owed throughout the United States is a significant social problem affecting those who owe support (who may face punitive actions) as well as custodial parents, children, and state governments (who may not receive payments they are due). As such, Wisconsin reduced the amount of interest due on child support arrears from 1% per month to 0.5% per month. • We leverage Wisconsin child support administrative records to conduct both descriptive and multiple regression analyses to explore arrears and payment patterns before and after the change. • Findings suggest the policy not only slowed the rate of arrears growth but also increased payments toward arrears. • Our analyses cannot prove causality, but they do provide some of the first evidence of what happens after the interest rate changes, and they suggest that reducing the interest rate could have beneficial effects on parents and children. The amount of accumulated unpaid child support (arrears) owed throughout the United States is over $100 billion. High arrears balances mean that those who owe support may face punitive enforcement actions, those due child support did not receive the money they were owed, and the child support program must devote more attention to enforcing payment of past-due amounts at the expense of enforcing current amounts due, diverting the program's efforts and raising the cost of enforcement. To address the problems associated with high arrears, Wisconsin reduced the amount of interest due on child support arrears from 1% per month to 0.5% per month. We leverage Wisconsin child support administrative records to conduct both descriptive and multiple regression analyses to explore arrears and payment patterns before and after the change. Findings suggest the policy not only slowed the rate of arrears growth but also increased payment amounts. Those who did not owe arrears at the beginning of the period made higher payments when they did get behind than those who owed higher arrears. Our analyses cannot prove causality, but they do provide some of the first evidence of what happens after the interest rate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite substantial policy attention to increasing the number of custodial parents with child support orders, the proportion reporting that they are owed child support is falling. Potential explanations for this include increases in shared custody, increases in the number of noncustodial parents who have low incomes ðor incomes lower than the custodial parentÞ, and growing discretion to decide whether to participate in the formal child support system. We use data on about 4,000 divorces in Wisconsin that allow us to evaluate these alternative explanations, differentiating between divorces in an earlier period ð1996-98Þ and a later one ð2004-7Þ. A multivariate analysis and a standard decomposition approach both show that changes in custody, relative incomes, the freedom to choose child support, and other characteristics explain about half of the decline in the likelihood of orders, but about half remains unexplained. Changes in custody are particularly important in explaining the trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether low-income mothers receive child care from their children's nonresident fathers or nonresident fathers' relatives, particularly asking whether mothers who have children with more than one nonresident father are more or less likely to receive child care. Using data from the Survey of Wisconsin Works Families, we find that about 44 percent of low-income mothers of children with nonresident fathers receive some child care from nonresident fathers or nonresident fathers' relatives. Logit analyses show that those who have children with more than one nonresident father are more likely to receive child care than those who have children with a single nonresident father. The research shows that it is important to count child-care provision among the types of support that nonresident fathers provide and that, when examining assistance mothers receive from nonresident fathers, we should consider the package of support that a mother receives from all nonresident fathers and their relatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using cross-sectional data from the National Household Surveys (2004-2012), this study presents the trend in child support receipt in Peru over this period and factors associated with child support receipt. In both descriptive and multivariate logit analyses, the likelihood of receiving support among single mothers increased substantially. Some factors related to receiving support are similar to those in other countries, particularly those related to the strength of ties between the noncustodial father and the single mother and their children. But other factors differ, and the results show an important pattern in which some of those who are more disadvantaged are more likely to receive support, perhaps because they have more needs, while other areas of disadvantage are associated with a lowered likelihood of receipt. Research and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Due to the high incidence of poverty among custodial-parent families, most countries have a variety of policies designed to increase these families'' income security, including child support. However, despite policy efforts, in a wide range of countries the majority of custodial-parent families do not receive these transfers. Does this suggest that a low receipt rate is a core issue of child support policy across contexts? To explore this question, this paper focuses on child support receipt in two very different countries, Colombia and the United States. The overarching question is whether the country of residence is associated with the likelihood of child support receipt. The Colombian 2008 Quality of Life Survey and the U.S. 2008 Current Population Survey‐Child Support Supplement provide information on 6751 custodial mothers. Based on a series of probit models, our study shows that living in the U.S. is associated with an increase in the likelihood of child support receipt. However, once we control for custodial mother''s characteristics, the marginal effect of country of residence decreases significantly, and variables such as custodial mother''s education and income quintile become important as well. These findings suggest that in both countries custodial mothers have similar issues when it comes to receiving financial support from their children''s father, despite the differences in economic development and attention to child support policy in Colombia and the U.S. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The authors examined whether nonresident fathers provide informal support to their children and whether support stops if their ex-partner goes on to have a child with a new man. A logistic regression analysis of longitudinal survey and administrative data for 434 women who received welfare in Wisconsin showed that fathers are less likely to provide informal support when their ex-partner has a child with a new partner. Alternative models that control for unobserved characteristics suggest somewhat different results, providing stronger evidence of declines in support that can be shared across family members than in support that can be directed to a particular child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When parents have children from multiple partners, the resulting complex families challenge conventions concerning parents' rights and responsibilities. These challenges are particularly salient for child support policies, which articulate parents' obligations to their children and determine the amount of support due. Data from Wisconsin suggest that complex families are fairly common and that nonresident fathers' earnings in these families are typically quite low. The prevalence of these families and their economic vulnerability make expectations about child support particularly important, but family complexity creates tension among key principles underlying the child support system. This study simulates several potential policy regimes, estimating support for hypothetical cases and the actual child support caseload. The findings suggest that different regimes can result in vastly different amounts due and no system is ideal. The most feasible approach maybe to set support for each child at a given percentage of a nonresident parent's income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Family complexity creates difficulties for child support policy. We examine whether policy in 14 countries results in nonresident parents having equal financial obligations to children in different complex family situations. We find that when a nonresident parent owes support to two nonresident children in different families, the most common policy is to have unequal obligations favoring the older child. However, nearly as many countries achieve equal orders, but do so by reducing the obligation to the older child. When a nonresident parent has one nonresident child and a new resident child, the most common strategy is to reduce the obligation to the older nonresident child, but to make no attempt to equalize obligations for both children. Each of the four main policy strategies we identify has advantages; tradeoffs among three principles of equality, affordability of obligations and protecting the first child''s standard of living are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Early welfare reform research showed high rates of employment for TANF leavers. However, work-focused welfare may not be effective during an economic downturn. We investigate the employment of Wisconsin TANF leavers, contrasting outcomes among early leavers (1998) with those who left during the 2001 recession. We use data from administrative records on about 6000 welfare leavers, tracking quarterly employment for 3 years after they left benefits. Separate panel data analyses of those exiting in two different time periods show that individual leavers are less likely to be employed when their local unemployment rate is high in the later cohort; no relationship is found for the early cohort. In a panel analysis in which the cohorts are combined, we find that leavers in the later cohort, who experienced the recession early in their post-welfare career, are less likely to be employed, a result that holds controlling for observed and unobserved characteristics. These findings raise questions about how well single-parent families and their children will fare during difficult economic times now that welfare reform has such a strong emphasis on work. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Using a recent cohort of single mothers who received child care subsidies, this study explores the extent to which low-income families utilize subsidies, factors associated with subsidy exit, and whether these factors have differential influences on the various types of exit from the subsidy program (i.e., exit with high earnings, low earnings, or job loss). The study uses Wisconsin administrative data and explores five years of subsidy receipt by families who began receiving subsidies between March 2000 and February 2001. Separate analyses are conducted for mothers with pre-school-age children and mothers with school-age children. Using discrete-time event-history models, the analyses find that subsidy spells tend to end relatively quickly; 55% of mothers with pre-school-age children and 75% of mothers with school-age children left the program within one year after they began receiving subsidies, and most exits are for economic setbacks (job loss or low earnings). The analyses also find that human capital factors, characteristics that represent demand for child care, and contextual factors are all significantly related to subsidy exits, but in different ways for different exit types. The study also highlights differences in subsidy patterns between mothers with pre-school-age and school-age children. Policy and practice implications are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article examines the relationships among child support orders, child support payments, and the compliance rate (payments compared to orders). It uses administrative data from Wisconsin, examining 3 years of orders and payments by fathers who had their first order for child support to a particular mother in 2000. Using fixed-effects models that attempt to control for unobserved factors, the authors find that the burden of orders (i.e., the proportion of earnings owed for child support) is positively associated with the size of payments but negatively associated with compliance. An alternative method yields the same conclusions. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welfare programs changed dramatically in 1996. Caseloads dropped by more than 9 million recipients over an eight-year period, and millions entered the labor market in the wake of these changes. Since the start of the "welfare revolution," research has emerged to document the new ways former welfare recipients are using federal entitlement programs as they navigate and negotiate the "post-AFDC" era. In this article, the authors examine patterns of participation in TANF, the Food Stamp program, and Medicaid in Wisconsin. Very distinct patterns of participation emerged among the three programs: a single short period of receipt was common for TANF, cycling was typical for food stamps, and a long spell was the standard for Medicaid. The authors also explored multiple program participation over a three-year period. Analysis revealed interactions and transitions not normally considered in this line of research. One key finding was the high number of transitions on and off benefits during these three years when the three programs were considered simultaneously. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family complexity that results when adults have children with multiple partners (multiple partner fertility) is quite common. It also has important implications for understanding child support outcomes and for designing and evaluating welfare and family policy. Using a unique set of merged administrative data, this article provides the first comprehensive documentation of levels of family complexity among a broad sample of welfare recipients. The analyses suggest that family complexity is very common and also that complexity is associated with systematically different child support outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a number of current policy initiatives presume that nonresident fathers could provide substantially more income for their (welfare-attached) children, several factors lead to skepticism. This article uses administrative and survey data to describe the characteristics of fathers of welfare recipients. The results suggest that most of these fathers have limited economic resources and, like the mothers of their children, often face substantial barriers to providing for themselves and their families. Balancing the needs and obligations of low-income mothers and fathers is difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents patterns and correlates of child support compliance among fathers of welfare recipients in Wisconsin. We introduce the concept of discretionary obligors (because payment results in part from voluntary cooperation) and nondiscretionary obligors (because payment results from routine enforcement mechanisms) to differentiate between fathers with weak versus strong connections to formal employment, and we demonstrate that different factors underlie the compliance patterns of these groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current welfare reforms attempt to move low-income women with children from reliance on welfare to work. The logic of some current efforts relies on the thesis that employment, even in low-paying jobs, leads eventually to self-sufficiency. With data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the authors analyzed the relationship between work history and economic success during the first five years after women leave welfare. They found that over time median wages and hours worked increased and that earnings generally improved. Nonetheless, even in the fifth year, only one in four consistently worked full-time. Although current welfare reforms are focused on moving women into jobs quickly, results cited in this article suggest that employment itself is not a guarantee of economic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective and Background: Previous research shows the benefits of formal child support to children during their childhood; however, the long‐term effect of child support receipt on outcomes as adults has not been studied. This inquiry examines whether adults who received formal child support as children have different labor market outcomes than those who did not. Method: We conducted two sets of analyses with complementary strengths to examine young adults' earnings and employment status. Our primary method exploited experimental variation in child support receipt among welfare participants, as part of the Wisconsin Child Support Demonstration Evaluation; the secondary analyses used propensity score matching to construct statistically equivalent comparison groups drawn from a broader population included in Wisconsin Court Record Data. Results: Across both studies, we found the receipt of child support was associated with a substantive and statistically significant increase in adult earnings; results for employment status were mixed. Conclusion: Findings suggest that formal child support may disrupt patterns of intergenerational disadvantage, reducing the economic vulnerability of children living with resident mothers, and then improving those children's earnings as adults. In addition to contributing to our understanding of the relationship between childhood economic status and adult outcomes, the findings provide critical new information to policymakers assessing family policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the income of fathers of children born out of wedlock and whether the increases in the fathers' income translate into changes in child support awards. Importance of regularly monitoring changes in fathers' income and changes in the amount of child support awards; Use of descriptive analysis and multivariate regression on data from Wisconsin court and tax records. Children born out of wedlock receive very little child support; one reason given is that their fathers have low incomes. This research is aimed to examine the incomes of these fathers at the time paternity is established; to explore whether these incomes increase over time; and to examine whether the increases in income translate into changes in child support awards. Methods. It uses descriptive analysis and multivariate regression on data from Wisconsin court, tax. Although many fathers of children born out of wedlock have zero or very low incomes at the time the paternity case comes to court in Wisconsin, half of the fathers age 25 and older who have incomes in the court records have incomes over $10,000 per year.

Examines the child support system, the provision of health insurance for these children through nonresident parents and new information from Wisconsin about health insurance for children. How taxpayer public insurance could decrease; What the key problems in health policies for children are; Strategy to reduce Medicaid spending.

Changes in the living arrangements of children have implications for social policy and children's well-being. Understanding who gets custody on divorce--mother, father, or both sharing custody--can also inform our understanding of family organization and the merits of alternative theories of marriage and divorce. We examine physical-custody outcomes among recent Wisconsin divorces in an effort to understand the factors associated with shared custody as well as mother-sole custody and father-sole custody. Although mother-sole custody remains the dominant arrangement, shared custody has increased over a nine-year period. We find that the probability of shared custody increases with parent's income. Prior marital history, parents' ages, the age and gender of children, and the legal process also have an impact on the probability of shared custody. In contrast to shared custody, the probability of father-sole custody decreases with parent's income, while the relationship with other significant factors is generally similar. The notable exception is that, unlike shared custody, we find no evidence for an increase over time in the probability of father-sole custody. We also find that when the father has a higher proportion of the couple's total income, both shared custody and father-sole custody are more likely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the rapid growth rates among father-only families in the U.S. The growth in the number of single-parent families in the U.S. during the second half of this century has been well documented. Recent research has revealed increases in both father-only and mother-only families, although the number of father-only families is still fairly small. After decreasing during the 1960s and early 1970s, the percentage of single-parent families headed by fathers began to increase in 1974. By 1989 father-only families constituted more than 15 per cent of all single-parent families, roughly the same level as in the early 1960s. The unit of analysis for this study is a family with children under age 18. The data come from the Public Use Microdata Samples drawn from the 1960 through 1990 United States decennial censuses. These samples are large enough to enable researchers to focus on groups that arc not very prevalent. Goal of this article is to categorize each family with children as a mother-only family, a father-only family, a husband-wife family, or a cohabiting family.

The article investigates how the incorporation of a labor supply response would change the estimates of costs and firs-round effects on poverty and welfare participation under an assured child support benefit. The watershed Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRA) delegates responsibility from the federal government to the states to design and administer programs for poor children and their families. Assured benefit proposals have attracted the interest of policy makers at both the state and federal levels. The only assured benefits actually tested in this country have been limited versions available only to former Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients and only in certain states, with the most extensive demonstration conducted in New York. In the absence of labor supply changes, an assured child support benefit will increase the incomes of custodial-parent families, which will decrease the number in poverty and shrink the poverty gap. An assured benefit could also decrease AFDC if the amount of the assured benefit fully offsets AFDC and is larger than the amount of AFDC benefit currently received. An assured benefit might change the number of hours that custodial-parent families work, however, and this could affect estimates of poverty reduction, welfare use, and costs.

The article argues that children's allowance could be instituted in the United States that would decrease poverty and welfare participation while not costing the government any additional expenses. A children's allowance is a universal grant provided to all families, regardless of income, on the basis of the number of children they have. Basically the programs operate the same worldwide. Children's allowance's are usually in the range of 5% to 10% of a country's average gross production wage. Benefits are awarded through monthly checks, weekly checks, or annual tax credits. Eligibility is usually tended to all children through compulsory school age, although in some countries, such as Great Britain, benefits begin with the second child. The policy changes proposed in this article must be carefully delineated because children's allowances with different features would have widely different effects. The proposal is to completely eliminate the income tax deduction for children, and replace it with a universal children's allowance for each unmarried child who is currently eligible to receive the tax deduction.

The article examines the determinants of child support compliance in nonmarital child support cases in Wisconsin, U.S. by focusing on the father's ability to pay and the stringency of the child support enforcement system. It is found that tougher enforcement rules positively affect compliance rates. Higher incomes are associated with higher compliance rates, and lower incomes, with lower rates. The percentage of income that is owed in child support also has an effect on compliance. Orders that represent a high percentage of income relative to existing guidelines are associated with lower compliance rates. However, owing a low percentage of income only has an effect on compliance for fathers with very low incomes; for these fathers, obligating them to pay low amounts of support positively affects compliance. These results suggest that a father's ability to pay, in addition to his willingness to pay, determines the extent to which he fulfills his child support obligation. The article concludes with the fact that, to increase child support collections, both the earning power of noncustodial parents and the stringency of the enforcement system should be increased.

The quality of American child support systems is vitally important to the nation's future. Nearly one of every four children is now living apart from at least one parent and therefore is potentially eligible for child support. This article reports the results of microsimulations using data from the 1988 Current Population Survey-Child Support Supplement. Among unmarried mothers, about one in five had a child support award. Of all custodial parents with child support awards, only half received the full amount due from their absent partners, and almost a quarter received nothing. Second, the child support system has been rife with inequity: it has treated equals unequally and has been regressive. Whether noncustodial parents have been ordered to pay support, how much they have been ordered to pay, and how much effort has been devoted to forcing them to pay has depended not just on their ability to pay but also on the varying attitudes of judges, district attorneys, and welfare officials, as well as the skills of both parents' lawyers.

This article traces poverty status and welfare use in the five years following an exit from the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The goal of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 is examined, and its success is judged. The authors found that women with higher earning potential had a higher level of success, especially those with higher levels of education and fewer/older children. More than forty percent of women, however, remain poor even five years after exiting the AFDC program.

This article examines compliance patterns of child support cases taking place in Wisconsin from 1986 through 1988. The researchers find that sixty-five percent of child support is paid during each of the first five years following divorce, dispelling the notion that child support payments decline over time. The researchers also find a large polarization between full-payers and complete non-payers, as those who tend to comply during the first year tend to indicate a long-term compliance. An examination of divorced and unmarried fathers is also given.

The article studies the effects of child support numerical guidelines implemented in the U.S., for the amount of child support orders in Wisconsin. The national policymakers in the U.S. have made efforts to increase child support, which includes a shift to numerical guidelines for the amount of child support orders. These guidelines generally reflect an income-sharing philosophy, in which support is expected of all nonresident parents, regardless of resident-parent resources. The federal Child Support Enforcement Amendments to the Social Security Act of 1984 required all states to develop a numerical formula that could be used to determine the amount of child support ordered by the court. In 1987 Wisconsin adopted a policy that made the guideline presumptive rather than advisory. Wisconsin has made substantial progress toward a system of child support based on income sharing. The authors find that the negative impact of the mother's income on the size of child support orders has fallen substantially.

This article examines compliance with child support orders by divorced fathers in Wisconsin during 1981-1989. The child support system has received an increasing amount of attention as policy makers have focused on the high poverty rates among children in single-parent families, the increase in the number of children who live in these families, and the public cost of supporting children through welfare programs. Specifically, the impact of four kinds of variables on compliance with child support orders has been examined: those reflecting the stringency of the enforcement system, the ability of the father to pay support, the strength of the family ties between the father and his ex-spouse and children, and the economic need of the mother and children. It has been noted that the father's ability to pay is strongly related to compliance; Compliance increases as the father's income increases. The "burden" of orders does not affect compliance unless the order is for more than 35% of the father's income. More stringent enforcement systems also increase compliance. This analysis of the characteristics of fathers who are not paying child support suggests that although these fathers are not a high-income group, they are generally not so poor that they could not afford to pay at least some support.

The article evaluates myths concerning custodial fathers and child custody. It is observed that men are increasingly receiving custody of their children and single-father families with children are increasing at a faster rate than even single-mother families. However, many observers still believe that there are few custodial fathers. The authors note five commonly held beliefs about custodial fathers. These are: There are not very many father-only families; Most custodial fathers have remarried; Many of the single fathers are widowers and very few have never been married; Custodial fathers have high incomes; and the last is that fathers primarily receive custody of older boys. On examining several data and statistics, the authors found that many of these beliefs about custodial fathers are not true. The changes in the composition of father-only families by marital status actually are quite similar to the changes in the composition of mother-only families. Further, it was found that even though the incomes of father-only families are substantially higher than those of mother-only families, a significant number of father-only families live in poverty.

Examines the adequacy of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for elderly individuals and couples. Reference points to measure adequacy; Poverty threshold; Half of median income; Basic needs costs and aid to families with dependent children; Statistics on SSI benefits for aged individuals and couples; Policy options to improve the incomes of recipients.

The article evaluates child support orders, in an attempt to make Wisconsin's child support cases more adequate and up-to-date. This article is divided into four sections. The first provides an overview of the Wisconsin child support system, the need for review, and the policy context of the revision project. The second describes the data and method of collection used by participating county staff. The third provides the results of the project in closing, it explores the policy and program implications of the revision project and make recommendations. One of the factors driving the current welfare reform debate is the idea that taxpayers are being asked to support children in poor single-parent families because parents who do not live with their children are not providing them with adequate financial support. The child support and welfare systems are again receiving attention as policymakers search for ways to shift responsibility for the economic support of single-parent families from the government to the non-custodial parent.

The article provides information on the level of implementation, and the effect of three child support reforms in Wisconsin, which were reviewed by the Institute for Research on Poverty. Concern about the well-being of single-parent families, particularly those headed by women, has intensified in the last two decades. Two of the chief factors fueling this concern are the growth in mother-only families and the increase in the child poverty rate. The rising numbers and deteriorating circumstances of children in single-parent families have contributed to researchers' and policymakers' growing interest in the child support system. Exposure of these problems led to significant reforms in the child support system at both the state and national levels. Child support reform in Wisconsin was based on the Child Support Assurance. This system reflects the philosophy that all parents-those who live with their children and those who live apart from them-are obligated to share their income with their children.

• Incomes of single mothers in the Great Recession are compared to a prior cohort. • Lower income from earnings and child support among the Great Recession cohort. • Surprisingly, total income for the Great Recession cohort is not less. • Safety net expansion was critical to single mothers and their children. • Average total formal income was still below poverty line in both cohorts. The public social safety net in the U.S. for single mothers and their children, including cash assistance and in-kind benefits or vouchers, is largely tied to work—both from individual earnings and from child support intended to supplement public support. How does the safety net perform in periods of severe work instability, such as during the unemployment crisis of the 2008–2010 Great Recession? This paper uses a unique panel dataset from Wisconsin to compare total formal income for a cohort of first-time single mothers in 2002 with a cohort in 2007. Income for both cohorts is constructed for the year after birth—including earnings from the formal labor market, public benefits, and child support—and five years after birth. We hypothesize that total formal income will grow over those five years as mothers accrue experience in the labor market. However, with the labor market crisis of the Great Recession, we expect public benefits to expand as earnings decrease, but not enough to offset the loss of earnings and child support when comparing total formal income differences across the two cohorts, resulting in a lower total income package for mothers in the Great Recession cohort. Using multivariate regression to adjust for demographic covariates, we find that while there is significantly less income from earnings and child support among the Great Recession cohort, the total formal income for the Great Recession cohort is slightly but significantly greater than the control cohort at time two. This suggests that the safety net during the Great Recession provided a buffer relative to lost income, likely as a result of critical policy changes making public benefits more generous and more accessible during the recession. High poverty rates among both cohorts of mothers, however, highlight the importance of the safety net even in stable labor market conditions, and suggests the need for greater benefit expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Actions to enforce child support payments are described among a sample of fathers. • Most fathers who stop paying child support receive at least one enforcement action. • Actions beyond letters are used rarely and seldom as a first step. • Most enforcement actions are associated with beginning to pay support. • Suspending licenses is sometimes related to a lower likelihood of payment. Many noncustodial parents do not pay the support they owe. The child support enforcement program has a number of tools to facilitate child support collections in response to nonpayment, such as suspending licenses and holding court hearings. Despite policy interest in raising levels of compliance with child support orders, little recent research exists on the use of enforcement actions or their effectiveness. In this analysis, we provide descriptive statistics on the use of enforcement actions and whether there is a relationship between these actions and beginning to pay. We use state administrative data for a sample of noncustodial fathers in the state of Wisconsin. We find that most nonpaying fathers receive at least one enforcement action during their first nonpayment spell, where the most common action is a letter. Actions beyond letters are relatively infrequent, and almost never used as a first step. Most enforcement actions are associated with beginning to pay support, though suspending licenses is sometimes related to a lower likelihood of beginning to pay. Our analysis is not causal, and so does not provide strong evidence about whether (and when) various enforcement tools should be used. However, it provides new evidence on an understudied question, and a basis for future research on the effectiveness of alternative approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased frequency of divorce, separation, and nonmarital childbearing over the past several decades has contributed to the rise of parents not living with their children in the same household. These nonresident parents are typically fathers, many of whom are obligated to share the economic responsibility for their children across households by paying child support. This study uses Luxemburg Income Study (LIS) datasets from the year 2013 to study the characteristics of fathers paying support and the relationship between child support and poverty among fathers (and mothers) in Finland, the UK, and the U.S. Results show that characteristics of fathers paying support were generally similar across countries. The amounts paid were lowest in Finland and highest in the U.S., as expected. For the poverty effects, few child support payers fall into poverty because of the amount of child support they pay in any country, but the increase in poverty rates due to paying support is clearly higher in the U.S. than Finland or the UK. More single mothers are drawn out of poverty by the receipt of child support in Finland than in the other countries, partly because the government guarantees child support. Finally, child support is an anti-poverty policy in all countries: the decrease in poverty among single-mother families from receiving support is larger than the increase in poverty among fathers paying support. • In the U.S., the amount of child support paid is higher than in Finland or the UK. • In all countries unpartnered fathers are the largest group of child support payers. • Paying support increases poverty more in the U.S. than in the other countries. • Child support lowers poverty more among mothers than it raises it among fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on Wolfgang P. Hirczy de Mino's views on child support. Policymakers and program administrators may not know how vigorously to pur- sue child support in nonmarital cases because little is known about the fathers' incomes. De Mino correctly asserts that child support policy must deal with competing objectives and thus income is not the only factor to consider when deciding whether orders should be adjusted. Income changes are surely a key consideration, however, if not the most important consideration and thus the interrelationship between income change and order change is an important policy question.