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The patterns of changes in earnings of noncustodial fathers and their relationship to changes in child support are examined using administrative records from Wisconsin from 2000 up to 2005. It was found that while about one-third to one-half of fathers earned 50% or more during the period, child support orders were not able to reflect the change.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2009.10.004 Byline: Yoonsook Ha (a), Daniel R. Meyer (b) Keywords: Child care subsidies; Single-mother families; TANF; Exit outcomes; Discrete-time event-history regression model 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. Author Affiliation: (a) University of South Carolina, United States (b) University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States Article History: Received 6 August 2009; Revised 8 October 2009; Accepted 8 October 2009 Article Note: (footnote) [star] This study was supported by Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (90YE0094) and Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Any views expressed in this study are the authors' and not necessarily those of supporting institutions. The authors thanks Lynn Wimer for data construction and assistance.

This study identified the employment and earnings trajectories of welfare recipients over six years for a sample of 14,150 women who entered the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF) [...]

The article discusses the relationships among child support orders, child support payments and payment compared to orders using data from the Wisconsin which examined 3 years of orders and payments by fathers.

Under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, families are subject to greater work requirements, and the severity of sanction for noncompliance has increased. Using Wisconsin longitudinal administrative data, the authors performed [...]

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.

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. [...]

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.

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 nondiscretionalT 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.

We use administrative data from Wisconsin to compare employment, earnings, and income outcomes for welfare leavers under early reforms and under the later, more stringent Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. We find substantially higher rates of exit in the later period. Later leavers are somewhat more likely to work, but their earnings are lower. We also make a pre-post comparison of individual employment and income experiences, examining a leaver's outcomes during a calendar quarter of welfare receipt with these outcomes a year after leaving welfare. On average, substantial earnings growth is outweighed by declines in benefits, resulting in reduced total measured net income.

Assured child support benefits are an important component of many proposals to reform the child support system. The authors estimate costs and the likely effects of assured benefits on poverty and welfare participation under two scenarios: with and without incorporating the labor supply changes of custodial parents. They find that in each situation assured benefits will reduce poverty rates and the poverty gap; welfare caseloads and expenditures will also fall. When parents are allowed to change the number of hours they work, the impact of assured benefits will be about the same, but the costs of the assured benefit program will increase., 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 [...]

A study was conducted to investigate the trend in physical custody for children in families where the parents have divorced and the variables linked to the award of custody to the father, mother or both parents. The investigation was based on data from a sample of 4,073 court cases in 21 Wisconsin counties between 1986 and 1992. Results suggest that there has been a small but important increase in fathers and mothers sharing custody of children but no increase in the number of fathers being awarded sole custody of their children.

A research was conducted to determine the economic status of women who left the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program for five years. Based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. most women have achieved moderate to high success in their economic lives. High levels of success were attained by women who have higher education and by those who have small families or older children.

Patterns of child support compliance in Wisconsin was established by studying child support cases that came to court from 1986-1988. Results show that support payments are generally stable for the 5-year period, thus nullifying the assumption that child support compliance declines in time. However, a growing polarization of groups of full payers and nonpayers was observed where those involved in divorce cases tend to make full payments, while those with paternity cases generally fail to provide financial support for their children.

Daniel R. Meyer's study to determine whether child support increases when the income of the fathers of illegitimate children increases, failed to consider that improved child support collection in Wisconsin does not necessarily enhance child support. The above research is an example of the failure of academicians to consider the actual problems, policies and program interventions. Meyer also failed to delve into the necessity of fairness to all people involved and that both parents have the same rights and obligations.

An analysis of the influence of child support guidelines on the level of child support orders in Wisconsin shows that the guidelines have reduced the negative impact of the mother's income on the size of child support orders. The growing numbers of children affected by divorce has led to a shift in the income-sharing policy which calls for child support from all nonresident parents. In the case of children in the mother's custody after divorce, the income-sharing policy ensures support from the fathers irrespective of mothers' income.

Single-parent families have increased significantly from 1960 to 1990, even after accounting for cohabitation. However, in the 1980s single-father families increased at the rate of 42%, while single-mother families grew at 15%. This increase is related to changes in the custodians of children after divorce. The percentage of single-father families was lower in 1990 than in 1970. The increase in the number of families headed by fathers between 1980 and 1990 was irrespective of ethnicity.

Stringent enforcement systems positively affect compliance with child support orders by divorced fathers. The compliance rate increases with a rise in the father's income, especially in low-income groups. Noncompliant fathers do not generally have a high income but are still able to pay for some support. There is no connection between family ties and compliance. Compliance is marginally affected by the economic requirements of the mothers and children. Compliance decreases as the time since the divorce increases and contact with the children decreases.

Fixation of child support orders in percentage terms of the income of noncustodial parents will make the system more equitable. This will result in an automatic revision of the orders. The problems with the child support system are delays in passing the orders and non-revision of the orders. Both need to be corrected to ensure proper development of needy children. The federal government is trying to revise the support program to shift the financial burden on the parents.

Timely payment of child support orders can be effectively organized with routine withholding of the amount from noncustodial parents' income. Reformation of the system is needed to keep up with the changes in society. Appropriate implementation strategies with effective monitoring devices will make the system more equitable. The Wisconsin example of child support reform exhibits the economic connection.

Objective. Children born out of wedlock receive very little child support; one reason given is that their fathers have low incomes. This research has three purposes: 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. This research uses descriptive analysis and multivariate regression on data from Wisconsin court, tax, and AFDC records. Results. 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/year. Further, the incomes of many inrease modestly or dramatically in the next three years, with the youngest fathers showing the largest increases. No relationship is found between changes in fathers' incomes and changes in the amounts of child support awards. Conclusions. The author concludes that the incomes of paternity fathers (especially young fathers) should be monitored regularly and that changes in income should result in changes in child support awards.

In this article, we examine the determinants of child support compliance in nonmarital child support cases in Wisconsin by focusing on the father's ability to pay and the stringency of the child support enforcement system. We find 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. We conclude that to increase child support collections, both the earning power of noncustodial parents and the stringency of the enforcement system should be increased.

The aid provided by Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for old people is not enough for them, and those who are married benefit from the scheme more than those who remain single, as both husbands and wives are eligible for getting the aid. Data regarding the needs of individuals should be collected and suitable changes should be introduced in the scheme so that individual aid is enough for them.

A study that explores the effects of child support on welfare dynamics in Wisconsin was conducted using data from the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program from 1980 to 1989. Results indicatethat child support may decrease the time spent on welfare, may increase the probability of leaving welfare and increase the possibility of not reentering the welfare program of the state.

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. Indeed, there are a number of myths concerning custodial fathers. We examine three data sets and determine that many of these assumptions about custodial fathers are simply not true. We argue that current child support policies should be reexamined to ensure that they follow the same principles when the custodial parent is the father as when the custodial parent is the mother.

In this article, we report the results of microsimulations using data from the 1986 Current Population Survey--Child Support Supplement (CPS-CSS). The results show that strengthening private child support enforcement and implementing an assured child support benefit would increase the amount of money going to black, Hispanic, and white custodial families. Enforcement alone redistributes income away from the entire minority community (noncustodial parents, custodial parents, and taxpayers), whereas the assured benefit has the opposite effect.

All other industrialized countries have some version of a children's allowance, a grant provided to all families based on the number of children they have. In contrast, the United States provides tax deductions for children, which provide the most benefit to the rich and provide no benefit at all to most poor families. The authors argue that a children's allowance could be instituted in this country that would decrease poverty and welfare participation while not costing the federal government any additional resources. A microsimulation model shows the effects of three levels of children's allowances on government revenues, family incomes, welfare use, and labor supply.

The economic impact of a child support assurance system (CSAS) is simulated with microdata on custodial families in Wisconsin. The CSAS includes a uniform child support standard, automatic wage withholding, a minimum child support benefit, and wage subsidy for eligible families. The simulation incorporates a model of the labor supply decision representing the custodial parent's choice of whether to participate in CSAS or in the current AFDC system. The results suggest that CSAS can significantly reduce poverty as well as welfare caseloads. If child support collections increase by one-half of the difference between estimated ability to pay child support and current collections, CSAS will be less costly than the current system. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

A recent study looks at the economic well-being of women and children following an exit from AFDC The goal of many previous national welfare reform efforts has been to help [...]

A study was conducted to report on the key results of an experimental design which evaluated the policy of allowing custodial parents to keep all child support paid on their behalf. The study aims to examine the effects of this policy on child support outcomes and governmental cost. The findings of the study are also presented.

A study on the knowledge of the participants about the social policy reforms, such as child welfare programs, is presented.

The conceptual and measurement issues associated with three different indicators of economic well-being such as independence from public assistance, having income above the poverty threshold and freedom from material hardship are discussed. The sensitivity of conclusions to alternative ways of measuring each indicator are demonstrated by using survey and administrative data from a sample of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participants.

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 [...]

The Current Population Survey is used to examine the antipoverty effectiveness of child support, social insurance, and welfare among mother-only families in 1995. Child support brought about 6-7 percent of pre-transfer poor mother-only families over the poverty line, an effect similar to that of social insurance and welfare. A brief trend analysis shows that child support's antipoverty effectiveness has been growing. Some potential reasons why child support's effect is still so small in the face of substantial changes in child support policy are hypothesized. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.), I. Introduction The economic insecurity of children in mother-only families is well known and has led to significant reforms in the child support system in the last twenty years. The [...]