For single-parent families, child support from non-custodial parents is a critical way to reduce poverty. The Child Support Enforcement program (CSE) serves 16 million children as well as 22 million parents and caregivers each year. The program collects child support for families, establishes the legal relationship between children and their unmarried fathers, and helps children obtain health care coverage. Families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance or certain other benefits must participate in the child support program, while other families may apply for child support services. Any child is eligible for state child support services, regardless of income.
CLASP provided recommendations to the Administration for Children and Families for implementing child support enforcement in a way that supports low-income people.
Vicki Turetsky made this presentation about how realistic child support policies can ensure formerly incarcerated people successfully re-enter society.
This brief discusses new state flexibility under the Deficit Reduction Act to pass through more child support dollars to children who currently receive or formerly received welfare.
This brief discusses how the child support program came to be used as a welfare cost recovery mechanism, the technicalities of assignment and distribution provisions, and the benefits—to families and government—of passing through child support payments directly to the family.