Interstate Comparisons of Child Support Orders Using State Guidelines

Abstract

Interstate Comparisons of Child Support Orders Using State Guidelines* Maureen A. Pirog,** Marilyn E. Klotz, and Katharine V. Byers This article examines changes in child support orders over the past ten years across states. Specifically, this article looks at changes over time; the impact of welfare reform on child support orders; and the extent to which child support orders adequately reflect typical expenditures on children. The methodology employed was a mail survey of the State Courts and Child Support Enforcement Agencies of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Results of the study indicated a wide variation in child support orders across the states for families in similar circumstances. In addition, states with high public assistance payments tended to have lower child support payments and vice versa. Finally, in the vast majority of states, child support orders did not adequately reflect typical expenditures on children. Key Words: child support, public assistance, single-parent families, welfare reform. The 1984 Child Support Enforcement Amendments required each state to establish a child support guideline, a specific numeric formula to determine the magnitude of child support obligations. Since October 1987, these formulas were advisoly to the judiciary who were primarily responsible for setting the levels of child support payments. The move from judicial discretion to a well-formulated set of objective criteria was prompted by observations that child support obligations were generally inadequate, inequitable, and resulted in inefficiencies in the child support enforcement system (Pearson, Thonnes, & Tjaden, 1989; Williams, 1987). A further move away from judicial discretion came with the 1988 Family Support Act. Effective as of October 1989, judges and other child support administrators have been required to use state child support guidelines in setting child support orders unless there was a written, specific finding indicating why the application of the state guideline would be inappropriate or unjust. A recent national survey of 21 counties in 11 states found that 83% of child support cases followed the state guidelines whereas 17'3 were formal deviations (CSR, Inc., 1996). As a result, the vast majority of child support orders are calculated according to the guidelines, but a limited number of cases are determined by court discretion. While the history of state child support guidelines is relatively short, it has been a turbulent period affected by the increasing incidence of child poverty in single parent households (Blank, 1997), burgeoning state budget deficits in the 1980's and early 1990's (Gold, 1995; Poterba, 1994), upheaval of America's social safety net (Murray, 1984), and the growth of fathers' rights advocacy groups.1 This article provides a description of the magnitude of child support orders and how they have changed between 1988 and 1997 for five different family income scenarios. The magnitude of the 1997 orders is compared to typical family expenditures on children. A discussion of child support obligations for the lowest income group is framed in the context of current state welfare reforms. Specifically, the 1996 Personal Responsibilities and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act created sweeping changes in the nation's social safety net. It removed the entitlement status of public assistance benefits by replacing AFDC with TANF so that low-income families no longer automatically receive benefits if they meet certain income thresholds. Rather, states can impose work requirements and other stipulations before applicants receive benefits. In addition, the federal legislation created a fiveyear maximum time-limit for receiving benefits. States have wide discretion in the provision of public assistance benefits, including shortening the time limit below the federal five years. As a result, many families that had been entitled to cash transfers from the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program are now subject to federal and state time-limits on cash assistance under the new Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. …