Use of child support enforcement actions and their relationship to payments

Meyer, Daniel R.; Cancian, Maria; Waring, Melody K.

doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104672

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Once a child support order is in place, enforcement actions can be taken to try to secure payment. Enforcement actions can be preventive (routinely withholding the amount due from the paycheck of the nonresident parent from the day it is due) or in response to nonpayment (suspending drivers' licenses, initiating liens, and even incarceration) (e.g., Meyer et al, 2020).…”

Section: Child Support Policy To Mitigate the Intergenerational Trans...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The long‐term effects of formal child support

Kong,

Riser,

Cancian

et al. 2024

J of Marriage and Family

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Objective and BackgroundPrevious 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.MethodWe 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.ResultsAcross 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.ConclusionFindings 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.

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Section: Child Support Policy To Mitigate the Intergenerational Trans...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The long‐term effects of formal child support

Kong,

Riser,

Cancian

et al. 2024

J of Marriage and Family

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…Some countries also use driver’s license suspension and incarceration as enforcement mechanisms. There is little research on how often various enforcement actions are taken or their effectiveness (though see Meyer, Cancian, and Waring [2020] for the United States). In contrast to an approach that focuses on threats and punishments, a country could take an approach that provides a variety of services (including employment services) to noncustodial parents that would enable them to meet their obligations.…”

Section: Nonreceipt Of Child Support and Publicly Funded Guaranteesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Support Policy across High-Income Countries: Similar Problems, Different Approaches

Hakovirta¹,

Cuesta²,

Haapanen³

et al. 2022

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Scie

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We provide an overview of child support policy in high-income countries, highlighting differences in institutional arrangements, the amount of child support due, and the amount of child support received. We show that the United States expects high levels of child support from nonresident parents when compared to other countries, that noncompliance is a problem across countries, and that most European countries deal with nonpayment of child support by providing guarantees of public support for children and resident parents. The guarantee schemes vary in terms of eligibility and generosity. Throughout, we find that child support policy approaches differ across countries. A key policy implication from this review is that the United States may be expecting too much child support from nonresident parents and that it could consider guaranteeing a modest amount of public support to single-parent households.

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“…Overly burdensome orders may result when the noncustodial parent's income is imputed (i.e., when the child support order is based on expected, rather than actual, earnings), when a parent owes support to multiple families, or when a noncustodial parent's circumstances change and the order is not adjusted (Cancian & Meyer, 2018;Ha, Cancian, & Meyer, 2010). When nonpayment occurs, the agency can take a variety of enforcement actions, from simple letters informing parents of likely consequences of continued nonpayment to drivers' license suspensions or even incarceration (Meyer, Cancian, & Waring, 2020).…”

Section: Policy Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prior research has also shown that child support policies do make a difference: routine withholding and in‐hospital paternity establishment, for example, have been linked to payments (Freeman & Waldfogel, 2001; Meyer, Cancian, & Waring, 2020; Sorensen & Hill, 2004). Some agency practices have been linked to lower payments or compliance.…”

Section: Background and Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, compliance with child support orders decreases as the share of income required in child support increases, though payments do not necessarily consistently decline (Hodges, Meyer, & Cancian, 2020). License suspensions and using child support payments collected on behalf of welfare participants to offset state expenditures have also been linked to lower payments and compliance (Cancian, Meyer, & Caspar, 2008; Meyer, Cancian, & Waring, 2020). This suggests that a different approach to child support in which orders were reviewed to see if they were appropriate and the agency was slower to institute punitive actions might be effective.…”

Section: Background and Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Do Carrots Work Better than Sticks? Results from the National Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration

Cancian¹,

Meyer²,

Wood³

2022

J Policy Anal Manage

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Most children in the United States will spend at least part of their childhood living apart from one of their parents; the child support system is designed to ensure that they nonetheless receive financial support. While the system is largely effective when noncustodial parents have substantial regular earnings, many noncustodial parents, including a disproportionate share of those whose children live in poverty, have limited earnings and ability to pay child support. The system's response to nonpayment is primarily “sticks,” that is, threats and punishments. Nonexperimental evaluations of alternative approaches have shown promise. The National Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED), a large‐scale random‐assignment evaluation enrolling more than 10,000 noncustodial parents across 18 locations in eight states, was designed to test the effectiveness of an alternative approach—adjusting child support orders, reducing punitive enforcement, and offering employment and parenting services. We find that CSPED, using carrots in place of sticks, substantially increased the satisfaction of noncustodial parents with child support services, lowered the amount of support owed, and increased noncustodial parents’ sense of responsibility for their children. However, CSPED had limited to no effects on child support compliance, child support payments, or employment outcomes.

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Use of child support enforcement actions and their relationship to payments

Cited by 14 publications

References 21 publications

The long‐term effects of formal child support

The long‐term effects of formal child support

Child Support Policy across High-Income Countries: Similar Problems, Different Approaches

Do Carrots Work Better than Sticks? Results from the National Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration

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