TECHNICAL APPENDIX

This appendix explains the process used to estimate the child support eligible population, IV-D population, and various characteristics within this analysis.  The choice of variables represents a "best guess" of the IV-D population and their receipt of IV-A and other public assistance.  If some of the assumptions made in the development of this analysis were changed, it could certainly affect the findings cited in this document.

Child Support Eligible Population

The number of child support eligible families was determined by PRSELIG, a recoded variable on the April CSS.  This recode designates that a parent is eligible to be asked the questions on the CSS; that is, they are a custodial parent with an own child under age twenty-one living in the household whose other parent is absent from the household.

IV-D Population

This number had to be estimated through the use of variables from both the March and April surveys.  Four questions from the April CSS were used:

• PES400:  If the respondent reported ever having contacted a child support enforcement or IV-D office, a department of social services, a welfare office, or any state or local government agency about anything to do with child support, than he/she was included.
• PES401:  If the respondent reported ever having been contacted by one of these agencies about anything to do with child support, then he/she was included.
• PES300:  Individuals were asked if the noncustodial parent was supposed to make any payments for their child between January 1 and December 31, 1995.  If the respondent answered that they didn't know because the Child Support Enforcement Office had filed the paperwork, then he/she was included.
• PES303:  Individuals were asked how payments were supposed to be sent to them.  If the respondent replied that payments were to be sent by a child support, welfare, or other public agency, then he/she was included.

In addition, all families in which income was received from IV-A or in which either the parent or child was covered by Medicaid were included in the estimation of the IV-D caseload.  These families were designated by the March CPS variables FINC_PAW (family income received from public assistance or other welfare) and MCAID (the parent or child was covered by Medicaid).  This assumption was made because of child support enforcement cooperation requirements that are part of the regulations guiding those programs.

Public Assistance Variables

With one exception, family variables from the March CPS were used to determine receipt of public assistance of child support eligible families (see explanation of Census definition of "family", below).  Participation in five different public assistance programs was estimated:

• IV-A:  The variable FINC_PAW was used to determine if the child support eligible family received any income from a cash assistance or welfare program.
• Medicaid:  This was the only variable in which full family receipt was not used as the definition of coverage.  The person variable MCAID was pulled out of the March questionnaire.  A positive answer to this question meant that the mother was covered by Medicaid.  Next, the variable FAMCAID was constructed with data from the related subfamily.  The family sequence (FH_SEQ) and family position (FF_POS) variables were used to differentiate the child from the other members of the immediate family.  Finally, MCAID was used to gather the child support eligible children covered by Medicaid whose custodial parents were not covered.  The covered parents and covered children were combined into the dummy variable FAMCAID.
• Food Stamps:  The family variable F_MV_FS, denoting the total value of the family's food stamps, was pulled from the March CPS.  A dummy variable, FSFLG, was then constructed, with a value of one indicating that the family received a value of food stamps greater than zero.
• Housing Subsidies:  The family variable HOUSSUB shows that the family is receiving some value of housing subsidy, including housing assistance or public housing.  This variable was used to construct the dummy HOUSFLG, with a value of one denoting that the family received some amount of housing subsidy in 1995.
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI):  The family variable FINC_SSI was used to determine if the child support eligible family received any income from the SSI program in 1995.

After these variables were estimated and run against the various characteristics, they were condensed into three categories:  families receiving cash benefits under Title IV-A, families using other means-tested non-cash public assistance programs, and families that reported no public assistance usage during 1995.  Families receiving other public assistance were defined as those families with positive responses to any of the non IV-A public assistance categories but that received no income from the IV-A program.  Families receiving no public assistance were defined as those with negative responses to each of the five public assistance categories.

Income Variables

Family income and poverty values were drawn from the March CPS.  The Census definition of "family" includes the immediate family of the respondent as well as any related subfamilies in the same household.  It excludes unrelated subfamilies living within the same household.  For example, if a custodial mother lived with her two parents in 1995, the incomes of both the mother and her parents would be included when determining the family income.  If the custodial mother instead lived with a friend of the family, her income alone would determine the family income.

The March variables FTOTVAL and POVLL were used to produce the family income and the ratio of family income to the poverty level, respectively.  Two new variables, FAMINC and POVRATIO, were constructed to develop the ranges of income and ratios of income to poverty that are seen in Tables 3A, 3B, 4B, and 4C.

Demographic Variables

The person-level variables A_SEX and A_MARITL were drawn from the March survey to determine the gender and marital status of the custodial parent.  A_MARITL was then slightly modified, condensing different classifications of currently married custodial parents.  This new variable, MARITAL, produced the five categories of marital status used in this piece.  These two demographic characteristics of the child support eligible, IV-D, and non IV-D populations are shown in Tables 5 and 6.

Another demographic variable used was the residence of the noncustodial parent relative to the custodial parent.  In question PES601 of the April supplement, the custodial parent is asked if the noncustodial parent lives in a different state.  The respondent's answer to this question was used to determine his/her classification in one of the two categories in Table 7.

Agreement/Receipt Status

Finally, several variables from the April supplemental survey were used to determine the child support status of the child support eligible population.  The first were PRCSREC and PRTYPAWD, recodes denoting the amount of child support received and the type of child support agreement.  If the family received a positive amount of child support in 1995, then they were given a value of one in the new dummy variable RECEIPT.  If the family had an award in the form of a legal agreement, pending legal agreement, or informal agreement, then were given a value of one in the new dummy variable AWARD.  AWARD was then run in a simple crosstab against RECEIPT to produce the four categories in Table 8.