CSDA Research Committee Presents Child Support Research Findings Nationwide

1
CSDA Research Committee Presents Child Support
Research Findings Nationwide

• Prepared By
• Mark Takayesu Vice-Chair
• Glen Castro Orange County DCSS
• Natalie Metzger - CSDA
• Steven Kennedy Chair

2
Arrears

• Did you know that the following strategies
  worked to reduce arrears accumulation in Texas?

• Establishing an administrative process for
  establishing
• orders.
• Updating, monitoring and following up on Income
• Withholding Orders

Source Preventing Child Support Arrears in
Texas by Improving Front-end Processes 2006
Urban Institute
3

Arrears

• Did you know that previous research demonstrates
  that payment behaviors track with the basic
  economic situation of NCPs rather than incentive
  programs?

• In Colorado, debt forgiveness has limited appeal
  only a
• small percentage of NCPs agreed to participate
  in arrears
• debt forgiveness in exchange for regular and
  complete
• payments of child support obligations.
• Debt forgiveness opportunities attract payers
  rather than
• nonpayers.
• Most delinquent child support payers have the
  worst
• commercial credit record.

Source An Evaluation of the Colorado Arrears
Forgiveness Demonstration Project 2002 Center
For Policy Research
4

Arrears

• Did you know that National Child Support Arrears
  has grown ten-fold in 19 years?

Source Assessing Child Support Arrears in Nine
Large States and the Nation 2007 Urban
Institute
5

Arrears

• Why have arrears grown so rapidly?

• Three factors
• Assessment of interest on routine basis
• Non-compliance with current support orders
• Low payment on arrears

Source Assessing Child Support Arrears in Nine
Large States and the Nation 2007 Urban Institute
6

CA and Other State Comparisons

• What is the percentage of caseload by State in FY
  2008?

Source Office of Child Support Enforcement
2008 www.acf.hhs.gov
7

CA and Other State Comparisons

• What are Promising Practices and Good Ideas in
  Child Support?

• Massachusetts Encourage employers to comply
  with
• requirements of income withholding orders and
  enforce
• those requirements.
• Massachusetts Reduce State Medicaid costs by
  enrolling
• dependent children in private health
  insurance.
• Minnesota Eight Minnesota counties conduct Big
  8
• meetings to discuss performance improvement.

Source Compendium of Promising Practices and
Good Ideas in Child Support 2007 Office of
Child Support Enforcement
8

CA and Other State Comparisons

• What are Promising Practices and Good Ideas in
  Child Support?

• Missouri Sorting cases to improve collections
  to be worked
• by teams
• Category 1 NCP not paying, no enforcement
  remedies
• exist
• Category 2 NCP not paying, enforcement
  remedies exist
• Category 3 NCP resides in another State and
  interstate
• referral is /should be completed
• Category 4 NCP paying for minimum of three
  consecutive
• months.

Source Compendium of Promising Practices and
Good Ideas in Child Support 2007 Office of
Child Support Enforcement
9

CA and Other State Comparisons

• What are Promising Practices and Good Ideas in
  Child Support?

• Ohio Guernsey County Increase Collections
  without having to
• utilize the drivers license enforcement
  technique unless
• absolutely necessary by using bright pink
  sheets of paper to
• send as warning notices to obligors.
• Texas Use of annual business plans to align
  projects with
• Federal and State goals.
• Virginia Cell phone subpoena program.

Source Compendium of Promising Practices and
Good Ideas in Child Support 2007 Office of
Child Support Enforcement
10

CA and Other State Comparisons

• What are Promising Practices and Good Ideas in
  Child Support?

• Virginia Early Intervention
• Washington State Creation of performance
  analyst specialists
• job openings that assist in identifying
  correlations between
• actions taken and results achieved, and assist
  as Quality
• Assurance consultant to supervisors and lead
  workers with a
• data integrity and reliability focus.

Source Compendium of Promising Practices and
Good Ideas in Child Support 2007 Office of
Child Support Enforcement
11

Cost Avoidance

• Did you know that child support collections in
  California lead to millions of dollars in cost
  avoidance to other government programs?

• For example, in SFY 2000-01 Californias Child
  Support program
• contributed to an estimated 233 Million in
  Cost Avoidance to the
• following programs

Source Cost Avoidance and Cost Recovery in
Californias Child Support Program SFY 2000-01
2004 Urban Institute
12

Early Intervention

• Did you know Early Intervention improves
  compliance?

• Early Intervention Group outperforms a
  comparable control
• group

Source Report on the Results of the Monterey
County, California Child Support Delinquency
Prevention Program Pilot Project 2008 Monterey
County Department of Child Support Services
13

Early Intervention

• Did you know that stipulated cases receive
  payments the fastest?

Source Child Support Quarterly, Fall 2008,
Volume 58, No. 30
14

Early Intervention

• Did you know that differences in compliance exist
  between aid status and order type?

Source Orange County DCSS Stipulation Project,
FFY 2007
15

Early Intervention

• Did you know that in Maryland, Early
  Intervention improves performance?

• Early Intervention reduces the receipt time of
  the first child
• support payment to a CP, especially the most
  challenging cases
• those with multiple cases and those with
  Current and Former
• Assistance types.
• Early Intervention increases payment compliance.

Source Early Intervention Child Support
Outcomes Lessons Learned 2009 Family Welfare
Research and Training Group University of
Maryland
16

Fatherhood

• Did you know that fatherhood programs help
  fathers understand the importance of paying
  formal child support?

• Regularity and amount of child support payments
  increases
• even without measurable increases in
  employment and
• earnings.

Source Ten Key Findings from Responsible
Fatherhood Initiatives 2008 Urban Institute
17

Fatherhood

• Did you know that fathers who pay child support
  are more likely to visit their children?

Source Do Nonresident Fathers Who Pay Child
Support Visit Their Children More? 2002 Urban
Institute
18

Incarceration

• Did you know that most people in state prison
  are parents 55 of men and 65 of women in
  state prison have children under 18?

• About half of incarcerated parents have open
  child support
• cases.
• Parent owing child support typically enter prison
  with
• 10,000 child support debt and leave owing
  20,000 or more.
• Few states initiate the process of adjusting
  orders when a
• parent is incarcerated, and about a quarter of
  the states consider
• incarceration as voluntary unemployment

Source Debtors Prison Prisoners
Accumulation of Debt as Barrier to Reentry 2007
Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and
Policy
19

Investment in Child Support

• Did you know that child support makes a
  difference to children?

• Next to mothers earnings, child support is the
  second largest
• income source for poor families receiving
  child support
• Child support helps connect children to their
  fathers
• Nearly 60 of all single parent families
  participate in the child
• support program
• Child support reduces welfare use
• Parents with regular child support hold jobs
  longer

Source The Child Support Program An Investment
That Works 2005 Center For Law and Social
Policy
20

Performance

• How is Californias child support program
  performing?

Source Comparative Data For Managing Program
Performance 2002-2008 - DCSS
21

Performance

• How is Californias child support program
  performing?

Source Comparative Data For Managing Program
Performance 2002-2009 DCSS
22

Performance

• Did you know that payments by credit card lead
  to increases in Distributed Collections?

Source Child Support Report 2009 OCSE Vol. 31
No.4 April 2009
23

Performance

• Nationwide Did you know that while TANF/FC
  Distributed Collections remained stable, Non-TANF
  Distributed Collections increased 24?

Source Office of Child Support Enforcement FY
2008 Preliminary Report 2008 OCSE.
www.acf.hhs.gov.
24

Special Topics

• Did you know that birth rates in California are
  high compared to other developed countries?

Source Birth Rates in California, PPIC
California Counts Population Trends and Profiles,
Volume 9 Number 2 November 2007
25

Special Topics

• Did you know that California fertility rates are
  stable over the past ten years?

Source Birth Rates in California, PPIC
California Counts Population Trends and Profiles,
Volume 9 Number 2 November 2007
26

Special Topics

• Did you know that teen birth rates have been
  declining in U.S. and California?

Source Birth Rates in California, PPIC
California Counts Population Trends and Profiles,
Volume 9 Number 2 November 2007
27

Special Topics

• Did you know that nationally child support is an
  effective tool for fighting poverty?

• For custodial parents receiving part or full
  child support
• payments, the percent of custodial parents
  receiving payments
• has increased from 1993 to 2005, especially
  those receiving full
• payments.

Source Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their
Child Support 2005 2007- U.S. Census Bureau
28

Special Topics
Source Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their
Child Support 2005 2007- U.S. Census Bureau
29

Guideline Calculator

• When examining the relationship between income
  and gender of non-custodial parents

• Non-custodial mothers income is only 60.3 of
  non-custodial
• fathers income.
• For non-custodial mothers, the order amount
  represents 15.2
• of their monthly income (compared to 19 for
  non-custodial
• fathers)
• Income imputation for the purposes of
  establishing child support
• orders is common 37.8 of the orders for
  non-custodial fathers
• are based on imputed income values

Source An Economic Study of Recent Washington
Child Support Orders 2002 Washington State
Department of Child Support Services
30

Guideline Calculator

• Did you know that a 20 order of gross wages is
  the breakpoint above which arrearages would grow?

• In a study of Washington State Child Support
  Orders, the
• majority of orders fell well below 20 of
  gross income.

Source A Study of Washington State Child
Support Orders Exploring the Universe of Cases
Within the Context of the Child Support Schedule
2005 Washington State Department of Social and
Health Services
31

Data Warehouse

• Did you know that there is not a one size
  fits all when it comes to a data warehouse?
  However, many states use a data warehouse for a
  variety of reasons for a variety of reports.

Source Enhancing Child Support Enforcement
Efforts Summary of Data Warehouse Efforts in
Nine States 2006 The Lewin Group
32

Data Warehouse
Types of Reports Used By State
Source Enhancing Child Support Enforcement
Efforts Summary of Data Warehouse Efforts in
Nine States 2006 The Lewin Group
33
Where Do I Find More Information Regarding These
Articles?

• Please visit the CSDA Website at
  http//www.csdaca.org/archive.aspx
• Or go the Research Committee page and click on
  the link
• For further information, please contact Natalie
  Metzger (nmetzger_at_csdaca.org) or Mark Takayesu
  (mtakayesu_at_css.ocgov.com) for maintenance of the
  CSDA Research Committee Website.