The Child Support Enforcement Program: A Fact Sheet

The Child Support Enforcement Program: A Fact Sheet

94-319 EPW
Updated February 3, 1998
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
The Child Support Enforcement Program:
A Fact Sheet
Carmen Solomon-Fears
Education and Public Welfare Division
The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, Part D of Title IV of the Social
Security Act, was enacted in January 1975 (P.L. 93-647). Its main goals are to reduce
spending for actual and potential recipients of public welfare by obtaining support from
noncustodial parents on an ongoing basis; and to establish paternity for children born
outside of marriage so that child support can be obtained. All 50 states, the District of
Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands operate CSE programs and are
entitled to federal matching funds. To qualify for federal matching funds, each state’s
CSE plan must be approved by the Office of Child Support Enforcement, Department of
Health and Human Services. The CSE program provides six major services on behalf of
children: parent location, paternity establishment, establishment of child (and spousal)
support orders, review and modification of support orders, collection of support payments,
and distribution of support payments. Collection methods include: wage withholding,
intercept of federal and state income tax refunds, intercept of unemployment
compensation, liens against property, and providing child support debt information to
credit bureaus. Since 1984, CSE agencies have been required to petition for medical
support as part of most child support orders.
P.L. 104-193, enacted August 22, 1996, made significant changes to the CSE
program. It requires states to establish an integrated, automated network linking all states
to information about the location and assets of parents, requires states to increase the
percentage of fathers identified, requires states to implement more enforcement
techniques to obtain support collections from noncustodial parents (such as withholding,
suspending, or restricting the use of driver’s licenses, professional and occupational
licenses, and recreational licenses of debtor parents), and makes many other changes.1
Federal law requires applicants for, and recipients of, Title IV-A benefits (i.e., formerly
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), now the Temporary Assistance to
Needy Families (TANF) block grant) to assign their support rights to the state in order to
receive Title IV-A benefits; and to cooperate with state CSE agencies if necessary to
establish paternity and collect payments. Families that refuse to cooperate (without good
cause) must have their Title IV-A benefit reduced by at least 25% or could have them
terminated completely.
1 For more information on the new CSE law, see CRS Report 97-408, Child Support
Enforcement: New Reforms and Potential Issues, by Carmen Solomon-Fears.
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

CRS-2
Families receiving (or who formerly received) AFDC/TANF benefits, foster care
payments, or Medicaid coverage automatically qualify (free of charge) for CSE services.
Other families must apply for CSE services, and states must charge an application fee that
cannot exceed $25. Child support collected on behalf of nonwelfare families go to the
family (via the state disbursement unit). Collections on behalf of families receiving Title
IV-A benefits are used to reimburse state and federal governments for Title IV-A
payments made to the family. The federal government pays 66% of state and local CSE
costs, makes incentive payments to states (out of its share of collections), and provides
higher matching funds for computerization and laboratory testing for paternity
determination.
Child Support Data—FY1996
Total CSE caseload—19.3 million; AFDC cases, 10.0 million; non-AFDC cases, 9.3 million
Total CSE collections—$12.0 billion; AFDC families, $2.86 billion; non-AFDC, $9.16 billion
Payments to AFDC families, $480 million
Federal share of AFDC collections, $888 million
State share of AFDC collections, $1,014 million
Incentive payments to States, $409 million
Medical support payments, $64 million
Total CSE expenditures—$3.1 billion
Federal share, $2.04 billion, State share, $1.02 billion
Absent parents located—5,779,489
Paternities established—1,067,508
Support orders established—1,081,781
Collections made for 1,341,000 AFDC families; 2,612,000 non-AFDC families
Families ineligible for AFDC because of collections—285,314
AFDC payments recovered through collections—15.5%
P.L. 104-193 requires states to have automated registries of child support orders
containing records of each case in which CSE services are being provided and each
support order established or modified on or after October 1, 1998. The state case registry
is to include information about the amount of the support owed under the order,
arrearages (i.e., past due support), amounts collected, amounts distributed, any liens
imposed, the names and Social Security numbers of both parents, etc. It requires states,
beginning October 1, 1997, to establish an automated directory of new hires containing
information from all employers that includes the name, address, and Social Security
number of the newly hired employee and the employer’s tax identification number. This
information generally is to be supplied to the state within 20 days after the employee is
hired. Automated comparisons would then be made of the Social Security numbers in the
state directory of new hires to the Social Security numbers appearing in the records of the
state registry of child support orders. When a match occurs, the state directory of new
hires is required to report to the state CSE agency the name, date of birth, Social Security
number of the employee, and employer identification number. The CSE agency is then,
within 2 business days, required to instruct appropriate employers to withhold child
support obligations from the employee’s paycheck. The law requires employers to remit
the withheld amount to the state disbursement unit within 7 business days after the date
such amount would have been paid to the employee. It further requires states to operate
a centralized collection and disbursement unit which is to send child support payments
to custodial parents within 2 business days.