Indicators of Welfare Dependence, 1997

ECONOMIC SECURITY RISK FACTOR 8. CHILD SUPPORT

Child Support provides critical income to families with children and reduces the likelihood of dependence. These child support risk factors reflect the presence and magnitude of child support payments made by noncustodial parents for families receiving services from the Child Support Enforcement Program.

• Total collections paid through the Child Support Enforcement system (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act) increased at an annual rate of 14.5 percent (current dollars) from FY 1977 to FY 1996. The average increase was higher for collections on behalf of non-AFDC families (16.6 percent) than for collection on behalf of AFDC families (10.5 percent). This increase was attributable to both increases in the number of non-custodial parents paying child support and increases in the amount of child support paid per case.

Table ECON 8a. Total Non-AFDC and AFDC Title IV-D Child Support Collections, 1978 - 1996 (In millions)

	Total Collections
	Total			AFDC Collections
FiscalYear	CurrentDollars	Constant '96 Dollars		Total	Payments to AFDC Families	Federal & StateShare of Collections		Non-- AFDC Collections	Total IV-D Administrative Expenditures
1978	$1,047	$2,461		$472	$13	$459		$575	$312
1979	1,333	2,876		597	12	584		736	383
1980	1,478	2,860		603	10	593		874	466
1981	1,629	2,870		671	12	659		958	526
1982	1,771	2,913		786	15	771		985	612
1983	2,024	3,198		880	15	865		1,144	691
1984	2,378	3,599		1,000	17	983		1,378	723
1985	2,694	3,932		1,090	189	901		1,604	814
1986	3,249	4,625		1,225	275	955		2,019	941
1987	3,917	5,423		1,349	278	1,070		2,569	1,066
1988	4,605	6,124		1,486	289	1,188		3,128	1,171
1989	5,241	6,651		1,593	307	1,286		3,648	1,363
1990	6,010	7,266		1,750	334	1,416		4,260	1,606
1991	6,886	7,925		1,984	381	1,603		4,902	1,804
1992	7,964	8,896		2,259	435	1,824		5,705	1,995
1993	8,907	9,658		2,416	446	1,971		6,491	2,241
1994	9,850	10,405		2,550	457	2,093		7,300	2,556
1995	10,827	11,128		2,689	474	2,215		8,138	3,012
1996	12,018	12,018		2,854	480	2,374		9,163	3,048

Note: Not all states report current child support collections in all years.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Support Enforcement, Preliminary Child Support Enforcement FY 1996 Data Report, 1997, and Twentieth Annual Report to Congress, for the period ending September 30, 1995 and earlier years.

• From FY 1984 through FY 1996, the first $50 dollars of each month's child support collection was passed-through to families that were receiving AFDC benefits. The "Collections Paid to Families" shown in Figure ECON 8a reflects the $50 pass-through and other benefit adjustments. Because the pass-through payment was capped at $50, the increase in payments was mostly attributable to increases in the number of families receiving collections and not to increases in the amount of child support passed-through to individual families.
• Over 80 percent of AFDC collections (collections on behalf of AFDC recipients and for past due support assigned to the state by former AFDC recipients) was retained to reimburse the state and federal government for the cost of welfare benefits paid to the family.

• Figure ECON 8a represents the average annual payment of current support by non-custodial parents for families receiving services through the child support enforcement system. Payments on behalf of families not receiving AFDC were about twice as large as those payments for families receiving AFDC. (Note that many families not on AFDC may have received AFDC sometime in the past.)
• Annual payments on behalf of AFDC and non-AFDC families have increased by about 33 percent in current dollars between FY 1986 and FY 1996. However, when converted to constant dollars, per capita payments have not quite kept pace with inflation (ECON 8a).
• In FY 1996 collections were received from about 60 percent of the cases with orders and those collections represented about 52 percent of the current child support due (Table ECON 8b2). About 32 percent of the current support due on behalf of AFDC families was collected, compared to 60 percent collected on behalf of non-AFDC families.

Table ECON 8b1. Average Annual Child Support Enforcement Paymentsfor Current Support by Noncustodial Parents with an Obligation and Payment,1986 - 1996

	Current Dollars	Constant '96 Dollars	Current Dollars	Constant '96 Dollars	Current Dollars	Constant '96 Dollars	CPI-U
1986	$959	1,373	$1,936	2,772	$1,433	2,051	109.6
1987	910	1,257	1,851	2,557	1,416	1,956	113.6
1988	975	1,293	1,793	2,378	1,468	1,947	118.3
1989	1,046	1,324	1,770	2,240	1,457	1,844	124.0
1990	1,110	1,333	1,998	2,399	1,672	2,007	130.7
1991	1,049	1,208	1,989	2,291	1,711	1,971	136.2
1992	1,210	1,353	2,314	2,588	1,919	2,146	140.3
1993	1,230	1,336	2,498	2,712	1,990	2,161	144.5
1994	1,178	1,247	2,266	2,399	1,889	2,000	148.2
1995	1,294	1,332	2,595	2,672	2,167	2,231	152.4
1996	1,280	1,280	2,591	2,591	2,152	2,152	156.9
1986-96
$ Change	$321	-$93	$655	-$181	$719	$101	47.3
As Percent	33.5%	-6.8%	33.8%	-6.5%	50.2%	4.9%	43.2%

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Support Enforcement, Preliminary Child Support Enforcement FY 1996 Data Report, 1997, and Twentieth Annual Report to Congress, for the period ending September 30, 1995 and earlier years.

Table ECON 8b2. Proportion of IV-D Cases with Orders and Collections and Proportion of Amount Paid to Amount Due, FY 1996

(In millions)

	AFDC Cases	Non-AFDC Cases	Total Cases
Number of Cases with Orders (Current Support)	2.44	4.13	6.57
Number of Cases with Collections (Current Support)	1.20	2.76	3.96
Percent of Cases with Collection (Current Support)	49%	67%	60%
Amount of Current Support Due	$4,795	$11,971	$16,766
Amount of Current Support Paid	$1,535	$ 7,150	$ 8,684
Percent Paid	32%	60%	52%

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Support Enforcement, Preliminary Child Support Enforcement FY 1996 Data Report, and unpublished data.

Table ECON 8c. Percent of Single Mothers Receiving Child Support and Alimony by Marital Status and Receipt of Income Assistance, 1978 - 1995

	Divorced		Separated		Never Married
	AFDC	Non-AFDC	AFDC	Non-AFDC	AFDC	Non-AFDC
1977	13.2	57.5	7.1	34.2	2.6	3.7
1978	14.0	56.1	7.2	32.4	5.4	9.9
1979	12.2	55.2	9.3	34.3	4.6	9.9
1980	13.0	53.3	7.4	28.4	1.8	9.2
1981	13.9	56.9	10.4	33.2	3.3	5.6
1982	10.8	52.0	8.0	30.3	4.0	9.7
1983	13.8	49.5	9.1	32.3	3.9	8.2
1984	15.6	53.3	6.2	28.6	4.2	10.9
1985	18.3	54.1	10.3	28.2	9.0	11.2
1986	29.4	55.0	16.7	32.5	9.0	12.2
1987	30.6	52.2	14.8	31.1	11.3	9.6
1988	26.5	50.3	14.4	30.3	10.3	11.3
1989	32.9	52.4	17.3	30.0	13.5	11.1
1990	25.0	53.7	16.6	30.3	14.0	12.4
1991	27.9	54.5	15.0	27.1	12.7	13.1
1992	30.6	54.6	17.2	30.4	14.8	15.5
1993	33.1	53.7	23.0	28.1	13.4	18.1
1994	33.6	52.1	24.2	32.1	14.4	18.9
1995	35.0	51.3	26.3	32.6	16.6	18.9
1977-95
-Change	21.8	-6.2	19.2	-1.6	14.0	15.2

Note: Married women also receive child support, but the proportion of eligible married women cannot be identified on the March CPS file. Child support and alimony were not collected as separate items prior to 1988. They are left combined for all years to ensure comparability across years.

Source: Elaine Sorensen, the Urban Institute, unpublished data from the March Current Population Survey Public Use Files, 1978 - 1996.

• Figure ECON 8c reflects the proportion of single-parent female-headed families receiving child support by marital status. Divorced and separated women are more likely to receive child support than are never-married women.
• Since the Child Support Enforcement Program was authorized in the mid 1970s the proportion of divorced, separated, and never-married AFDC recipients families receiving child support has been increasing.
• The proportion of never-married women receiving child support but not AFDC payments is very similar to the proportion of never-married AFDC recipients receiving child support. Both trend lines reflect the paternity establishment activities of the Child Support Enforcement Program, as very few paternities are established outside of the CSE system.

• The proportion of divorced and separated women receiving child support but not AFDC payments has remained relatively constant.

• Due to the increasing numbers of children born outside of marriage, each year the cumulative number of children needing paternity to be established has risen steadily over the last two decades. As shown in Figure ECON 8d the cumulative total of children born outside of marriage as of 1996 was about 17.6 million and more than half of these children did not have a legally identified father.

Table ECON 8d. Children Under 18 Born Outside of Marriage with Paternity Established (In thousands)

	1978	1980	1982	1984	1986	1988	1990	1992	1994	1995	1996
Children Under 18 Born Outside of Marriage	6,361	7,130	7,992	8,900	9,939	11,106	12,539	14,130	15,723	16,452	17,167
Paternity Not Established	3,847	4,314	4,849	5,409	6,090	6,758	7,500	8,402	9,191	9,267	9,298
Paternity Established	2,514	2,817	3,143	3,491	3,849	4,348	5,039	5,728	6,532	7,185	7,870
Percent of Children	39.5%	39.5%	39.3%	39.2%	38.7%	39.2%	40.2%	40.5%	41.5%	43.7%	45.8%
Paternities Established for Non-Marital Births in a Year:
Non-	544	666	715	770	878	1,005	1,165	1,225	1,290	1,254	1,267
Paternities Established	111	144	173	219	245	307	393	512	676	931	1,002
	20.4%	21.6%	24.2%	28.4%	27.9%	30.5%	33.7%	41.8%	52.5%	74.2%	79.1%

Note: Total children under 18 years of age who were born outside of marriage is the cumulative total of nonmarital births less deaths; paternities established is the cumulative total of voluntary and C.S.E. paternity establishment as well as estimated births legitimized by marriage and adoption. An unknown number of children born outside of marriage are living with step-fathers who may have assumed paternal responsibility without legal adoption.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics of the United States, annual and Monthly Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 46, No. 1, Supplement 2, September 11, 1997 and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Support Enforcement, Preliminary Child Support Enforcement FY 1996 Data Report, 1997, and Twentieth Annual Report to Congress, for the period ending September 30, 1995 and earlier years.

• As shown in Table ECON 8d the number of paternities established each year as a percent of the number of children born outside of marriage each year has more than tripled between 1978 and 1996. This increasing rate of paternity establishment kept the overall proportion of children with paternity established at 40 percent even though the number of children born outside of marriage was increasing over time.
• The proportion of all children under age 18 with paternities established has increased slightly over the past three years, increasing to nearly 46 percent by 1996. This increase reflects the additional paternities now being established in the hospitals at the time of the birth of the child.
• Reporting of in-hospital paternity establishments is voluntary and reflects reports from only 32 states, therefore the rate of increase in paternity establishments over the past three years may be underestimated.

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