Section 11. Child Support Enforcement Program

                               BACKGROUND

    The enactment of the Child Support Enforcement (CSE)
program in 1975 represented a major new commitment on the part
of the Congress to address the problem of nonsupport of
children. Although prior to that time the Social Security Act
had included provisions which were aimed at improving the
collection of support on behalf of children, these provisions
had not proved to be effective. The 1975 amendments were aimed
at strengthening in a very significant way the efforts of the
Federal and State Governments to improve the enforcement of
child support obligations.
    The 1975 legislation (Public Law 93-647) added a new part D
to title IV of the Social Security Act. The statute, as
amended, authorizes Federal matching funds to be used for
enforcing the support obligations owed by noncustodial parents
to their children and the custodial parent, locating absent
parents, establishing paternity, and obtaining child and
spousal support. Basic responsibility for administering the
program is left to the States, but the Federal Government plays
a major role in funding, monitoring and evaluating State
programs, providing technical assistance, and in certain
instances, in giving direct assistance to the States in
locating absent parents and obtaining support payments from
them. The program requires the provision of child support
enforcement services for both welfare and nonwelfare families
and requires States to publicize frequently, through public
service announcements, the availability of child support
enforcement services, together with information about the
application fee and a telephone number or address to be used to
obtain additional information.

                             PROGRAM TRENDS

    Table 11-1 summarizes child support enforcement program
trends since 1978. In 1993, $2.2 billion was spent to collect
$9.0 billion. A sum of $3.98 was collected for every $1 of
administrative expense. This was up by 38 percent from the low
point of only $2.89 per dollar of administrative expense in
1982. Also, 553,000 paternities were established; 4,481,000
absent parents were located; 1,038,000 support obligations were
established; collections were made for an average of 2,827,000
cases, 241,880 families were removed from AFDC because of child
support collections; and 12.0 percent of AFDC payments were
saved as a result of child support enforcement.
    Table 11-2 compares various measures of the effectiveness
of the child support enforcement program between administrative
data and census data. The first four rows of table 11-2 are
from the Office of Child Support Enforcement and illustrate
huge increases in total constant dollar collections, the number
of absent parents located, and paternities and awards that were
established between 1978 and 1989.
    The bottom portion of the table based on census data
presents an entirely different picture of the effectiveness of
the child support enforcement program. For example, rather than
having total real collections increase by 165 percent, it shows
that total real collections increased by only 26 percent
between 1978 and 1989. Other measures of effectiveness from
census data illustrate a similar picture.
    One possible explanation for this different picture is that
the official child support enforcement statistics are capturing
collections that were being made anyway. Since income from
census survey data tends to be underreported on household
surveys, the truth may lie somewhere in between. To receive
AFDC, mothers must assign their support rights to the AFDC
agency. As a result, another problem with survey data is that
AFDC mothers included in the CPS survey are asked only to
report child support received and are not supposed to report
any portion of their AFDC grant as child support, except for
the $50 pass-through.
    The terms in table 11-2 from the Census are defined as
follows. The term ``demographically eligible'' includes all
women who are living with children under 21 years of age whose
natural fathers are not living in the household. This includes
ever-divorced (including remarried) or currently separated
women. The percent with awards are the women with court-ordered
payments. The reason the percent ``supposed to receive
payment'' is different from the percent with awards is that
some mothers awarded payments were not due them for the year in
question.

                           DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS

    A sizable and growing proportion of American households are
families that consist only of a mother and her children.
Between 1970 and 1992, the number of female-headed families
with children under 18 increased 164 percent; the number of
such two-parent families declined by 4 percent. As a result, by
1992 nearly one out of every four children under 18 in the
United States lived in a family where the mother was never
married or the father was not living with his child or children
because of death, divorce, or separation. An unprecedented
number of children live in single-parent homes, many without
adequate or any support from the other parent.

                   TABLE 11-1.--PROGRAM OPERATIONS, SUMMARY OF NATIONAL (FEDERAL AND STATE) STATISTICS, FISCAL YEARS 1978-93
                                                      [Numbers in thousands, dollars in millions]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                       1978     1980     1982     1984     1985     1986     1987     1988     1989     1990     1991     1992     1993
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total child support collections....   $1,047   $1,478   $1,770   $2,378   $2,696   $3,246   $3,917   $4,605   $5,241   $6,010   $6,886   $7,965   $8,909
    In 1993 dollars\1\.............   $2,282   $2,574   $2,585   $3,219   $3,523   $4,137   $4,854   $5,483   $5,955   $6,505   $7,095   $7,951  .......
Total AFDC collections\2\..........     $472     $603     $786   $1,000   $1,092   $1,225   $1,349   $1,486   $1,593   $1,750   $1,984   $2,259   $2,417
    Federal........................     $311     $246     $311     $402     $341     $369     $413     $449     $458     $533     $626     $738     $777
    State..........................     $148     $274     $354     $448     $415     $424     $473     $525     $563     $620     $700     $789     $847
Total non-AFDC collections.........     $575     $874     $984   $1,378   $1,604   $2,019   $2,569   $3,119   $3,648   $4,260   $4,902   $5,706   $6,493
Total administrative expenditures..     $312     $466     $612     $723     $814     $941   $1,066   $1,171   $1,363   $1,606   $1,804   $1,995   $2,241
    Federal........................     $236     $349     $459     $507     $571     $633     $750     $804     $938   $1,061   $1,212   $1,343   $1,517
    State..........................      $76     $117     $153     $216     $243     $308     $316     $366     $426     $545     $593     $652     $724
Federal incentive payments to
 States and localities.............      $54      $72     $107     $134     $145     $158     $185     $222     $266     $264     $278     $299     $339
Average number of AFDC cases in
 which a collection was made.......      458      503      597      647      684      582      609      621      658      701      755      831      873
Average number of non-AFDC cases in
 which a collection was made.......      249      243      448      547      654      786      934    1,083    1,247    1,363    1,555    1,749    1,954
Number of parents located..........      454      643      779      875      878    1,046    1,145    1,388    1,628    2,062    2,577    3,706    4,481
Number of paternities established..      111      144      173      219      232      245      269      307      339      393      472      516      553
Number of support obligations
 established.......................      315      374      462      573      669      731      812      871      938    1,022   \4\821      894    1,038
Percent of AFDC assistance payments
 recovered through child support
 collections.......................    (\3\)      5.2      6.8      7.0      7.3      8.6      9.1      9.8     10.0     10.3     10.7     11.4     12.0
Total child support collections per
 dollar of total administrative
 expenses..........................    $3.35    $3.17    $2.89    $3.29    $3.31    $3.45    $3.68    $3.93    $3.84    $3.74    $3.82    $3.99    $3.98
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Adjusted for inflation using fiscal CPI.    \2\AFDC collections are divided into State/Federal shares and incentives are taken from the Federal share
  thereby reducing the Federal amounts.    \3\Not available.    \4\Data beginning in 1991 exclude modifications of support orders.

Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


   TABLE 11-2.--COMPARISON OF MEASURES OF IV-D EFFECTIVENESS WITH
                 CENSUS CHILD SUPPORT DATA, 1978-89
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                         Year                    Percent
       Measure         ----------------------------------------- change,
                         1978    1983    1985    1987    1989    1978-89
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From program
 statistics:
    Total collections
     (1989 dollars in
     billions)\1\.....    $2.0    $2.5    $3.1    $4.3     $5.3      165
    Parents located
     (thousands)......     454     831     878   1,145    1,624      258
    Paternities
     established
     (thousands)......     111     208     232     269      339      205
    Awards established
     (thousands)......     315     496     669     812      936      197
From Census surveys:
    Total collections
     (1989 dollars in
     billions)\1\.....    $8.9    $8.8    $8.3   $10.9    $11.2       26
    IV-D collections
     as percent of
     total collections      23      28      37      39       47      104
    Of demographically
     eligible, percent
     with awards......      59      58      61      59       58       -2
    Of demographically
     eligible, percent
     supposed to
     receive payment..      48      46      50      51       50        4
    Of demographically
     eligible, percent
     who received some
     payment..........      35      35      37      39       37        6
    Of mothers
     supposed to
     receive payment,
     percent who
     received full
     amount...........      49      50      48      51       51        4
    Percent of poor
     female-headed
     families with
     child support or
     alimony..........  \2\18.
                             6      NA      NA    26.0     26.9    \3\45
    Child support and
     alimony as a
     percent of total
     income received
     by poor female-
     headed families..  \2\4.7      NA      NA     5.5      5.8    \3\23
    Percent of female-
     headed families
     with child
     support or
     alimony..........  \2\33.
                             9      NA      NA    35.8     37.4    \3\10
    Child support and
     alimony as a
     percent of total
     income received
     by female-headed
     families.........  \2\7.4      NA      NA     6.8      7.7     \3\4
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Constant (1989) dollars using CPI.    \2\1979 data.    \3\Percentage
  change 1979 to 1989.    NA--Not available.

Note.--Demographically eligible means women with own children under 21
  years of age living with them from an absent father.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Child Support and Alimony, Current
  Population Reports, Series P-23, 1978, No. 112; 1983, No. 141; 1985,
  No. 152; 1987, No. 67; and 1989, No. 173.

    In 1992, nearly 46 percent of the 8.2 million families
maintained solely by the mother with children under 18, had
incomes below the poverty threshold. Almost 11 percent of the
mothers of these poor children worked full-time, full-year.
    In 1992, 17.6 million children (under 18) lived with only
one parent, 114 percent more than in 1970. Even though the
total number of children under 18 years old in the United
States declined from 69.2 million in 1970 to 66 million in
1992, the number of children affected by divorce, separation,
and unmarried status of mother continued to rise. Almost 27
percent of all children lived in a one-parent family in 1992,
compared with 12 percent in 1970. A 1985 current population
survey indicated that about 15 percent of children living in
two-parent married-coupled families were living with a step-
parent.
    Of the 17.6 million children living with one parent, 88
percent lived with their mothers and 12 percent with their
fathers. Between 1970 and 1992 the number of children living
with only their fathers grew by 192 percent (from 748,000 to
2,182,000). The proportion of all children who lived with only
their fathers rose from 1.1 percent to 3.3 percent.
    The largest number of children in one-parent families had a
parent who was divorced, followed by children whose parents
were never married. In 1992, of the children who lived only
with one parent, 37 percent had a parent who was divorced, 24
percent had a parent who was separated, and 34 percent had a
parent who had never been married. The number of children
living with a divorced parent has almost tripled since 1970,
but the number with a never-married parent grew nearly
elevenfold.

                THE PROCESS OF CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT

    Local family and domestic courts and administrative
agencies handle the establishment and enforcement of child
support obligations according to Federal, State, and local
laws. Working with the parents and considering the best
interests of the children, the courts decide which parent will
have custody of the children, the amount of the child support
obligation of the noncustodial parent, the rights of access to
the children by the noncustodial parent, and how the support
obligation will be enforced.
    The federally mandated child support enforcement program
provides services aimed at locating absent parents,
establishing paternity, establishing a support obligation, and
enforcing the support obligation. The child support enforcement
program does not provide services aimed at other issues between
parents, such as property settlement, custody, and access to
the children. These issues are handled by local courts with the
help of private attorneys.
    Any parent who needs help in locating an absent parent,
establishing paternity, establishing a support obligation, or
enforcing a support obligation may apply for services. Parents
receiving benefits under the Aid to Families with Dependent
Children (AFDC) program, the federally assisted foster care
program or the Medicaid program automatically receive services.
Services are free to such recipients, but others are charged up
to $25 for services. States can charge fees on a sliding scale,
pay the fee out of State funds or recover the fees from the
noncustodial parent.
    When a parent applies for child support enforcement
services, the following information aids the process: the name
and address of the noncustodial parent; the absent parent's
Social Security number; children's birth certificates; the
child support order; the divorce decree or separation
agreement; the name and address of the most recent employer of
the noncustodial parent; the names of friends and relatives or
organizations to which the noncustodial parent might belong;
information about income and assets; and any other information
about absent parents that might help the locating process. Once
this information is provided, it is used in strictest
confidence.
    If the child support enforcement program cannot locate the
noncustodial parent with the information provided by the
custodial parent, it must try to locate the noncustodial parent
through the State parent locator service. The State uses
various information such as telephone directories, motor
vehicle registries, tax files, and employment data. The State
also can ask the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) to
locate the noncustodial parent. The FPLS can access data from
the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue
Service, the Selective Service System, the Department of
Defense, the Veterans' Administration, and the National
Personnel Records Center.
    Under the Family Support Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-485), States
are required to initiate the establishment of paternity for all
children under the age of 18, including those for whom an
action to establish paternity was previously dismissed because
of the existence of a statute of limitations of less than 18
years. The act also sets paternity establishment standards for
the States, and encourages them to create simple civil
procedures for establishing paternity in contested cases. All
parties to a contested case may be required to submit to
genetic testing. The Federal Government pays 90 percent of the
laboratory costs, and States may charge persons not receiving
AFDC for the cost of establishing paternity.
    Under the Family Support Act of 1988, a State must use its
child support award guidelines in establishing the child
support obligation of the noncustodial parent. Also, the State
must review and adjust individual awards every 3 years under
certain circumstances beginning October 13, 1993. Some States
base their guidelines on net income and others on gross income.
Some States factor in health care, day care, and extraordinary
expenses while other States allow for deviation from the
guideline if an extraordinary expense is shown. States
generally use one of three basic types of guidelines to
determine award amounts. ``Income shares,'' which is based on
the combined income of both parents is used in 32 States;
``percentage-of-income,'' which is based on the number of
eligible children, which is then used to determine a percentage
of the noncustodial parents' income to be paid in child support
is used in 17 States; and ``Melson-Delaware,'' which provides a
minimum self-support reserve for parents before the cost of
rearing the children is prorated between the parents to
determine the award amount is used in 3 States.
    Local courts and child support enforcement agencies attempt
to collect child support when the noncustodial parent does not
pay. Under the Family Support Act of 1988, the State must
impose wage withholding on the noncustodial parent in all newly
issued or modified child support enforcement program cases. As
of October 1, 1990, wage withholding will apply to all other
newly issued child support orders beginning in 1994. Other
techniques for enforcing support include regular billings,
delinquency notices, liens on property, seizure and sale of
property, reporting arrearages to credit agencies, garnishment
of wages, and offsetting of State and Federal income taxes.
    States might bring charges of criminal nonsupport against
noncustodial parents if they cannot collect, or they might use
civil or criminal contempt-of-court charges. These court
proceedings usually involve much time because of court
backlogs, delays, and continuances. Once a court decides the
case, noncustodial parents often have been given probation or
suspended sentences, and lower support payments and only
partial payment of arrearages. To combat problems associated
with court delays, the statute requires States to implement
expedited processes under the State judicial system or State
administrative processes for obtaining and enforcing support
orders and at State option for establishing paternity.
    The most difficult child support orders to enforce are the
interstate cases. States are required to cooperate in
interstate child support enforcement, but problems arise from
the additional autonomy of the local courts. Family law has
been under the jurisdiction of State and local governments, and
citizens fall under the jurisdiction of the courts where they
live.
    If the noncustodial parent lives out of State, the primary
tool for interstate enforcement is the Uniform Reciprocal
Enforcement of Support Act (URESA). All States have their own
URESA laws. Under these laws, the child support enforcement
official or private attorney files a two-State petition with
the enforcement agency or a court in another State. Where the
URESA provisions in the two States are compatible, the law can
be used effectively. However, many of these laws are out of
date and incompatible, which makes interstate child support
enforcement relatively ineffective.
    The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State
Laws originally drafted a model URESA in 1950. Since then,
amendments have been made in 1952, 1958, and 1968. The Family
Support Act of 1988 authorized a commission to study problems
in interstate child support enforcement. One of the
Commission's recommendations to Congress is to replace URESA
with UIFSA, the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, a model
State law for handling child support cases drafted by the
National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

Child support awards

    In 1989, of the 10.0 million women who had children present
under the age of 21 from a noncustodial father, 42 percent
never were awarded child support rights (nor had an agreement
to receive child support payments) and, thus, were dependent
for income on sources other than the father. For poor mothers,
the proportion without child support awards was even higher at
57 percent (see table 11-4).

                                 TABLE 11-3.--CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS IN 1978, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, AND 1989
  [Women as of spring 1979, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1990. Child support payments for women with own children under 21 years of age present from an
                                                 absent father: alimony payment for ever-divorced women]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                        Number (thousands)                             Percent distribution
                                                         -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                           1978    1981    1983    1985    1987    1989    1978    1981    1983    1985    1987    1989
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Total.............................................   7,094   8,387   8,690   8,808   9,415   9,955   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0
                                                         -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awarded\1\..............................................   4,196   4,969   5,015   5,396   5,554   5,748    59.1    59.2    57.7    61.3    59.0    57.7
    Supposed to receive payments........................   3,424   4,043   3,995   4,381   4,829   4,953    48.3    48.2    46.0    49.7    51.3    49.8
    Not supposed to receive payments....................     772     926   1,020   1,015     725     795    10.9    11.0    11.7    11.5     7.7     8.0
Not awarded\1\..........................................   2,898   3,417   3,675   3,411   3,861   4,207    40.9    40.7    42.3    38.7    41.0    42.3

Supposed to receive payments............................   3,424   4,043   3,995   4,381   4,829   4,953   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0
    Actually received payments..........................   2,455   2,902   3,037   3,243   3,676   3,725    71.6    71.8    76.0    74.0    76.1    75.2
        Received full amount............................   1,675   1,888   2,018   2,112   2,475   2,546    48.9    46.7    50.5    48.2    51.3    51.4
        Received partial amount.........................     779   1,014   1,019   1,131   1,201   1,179    22.8    25.1    25.5    25.8    24.9    23.8
Did not receive payments................................     969   1,140     958   1,138   1,153   1,228    28.4    28.2    24.0    26.0    23.9    24.8
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Award status as of spring 1979, 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1990.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports, Series P-23, No. 112 Child Support and Alimony 1978, No. 141 Child Support and Alimony
  1983 (advance report), No. 152 Child Support and Alimony 1985 (advance report), No. 167 Child Support and Alimony: 1987, and No. 173 Child Support and
  Alimony: 1989. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office.


    TABLE 11-4.--CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS FOR ALL WOMEN, WOMEN ABOVE THE POVERTY LEVEL, AND WOMEN BELOW THE
                                   POVERTY LEVEL, SELECTED YEARS 1978-89
  [Child support payments for women with own children under 21 years of age present from an absent father as of
                                 spring 1979, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1990]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              1978     1981     1983     1985     1987     1989
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All women:
    Total (in thousands)..................................    7,094    8,387    8,690    8,808    9,415    9,955
    Percent awarded\1\....................................     59.1     59.2     57.7     61.3     59.0     57.7
    Percent actually received payment.....................     34.6     34.6     34.9     36.8     39.0     37.4
    Percent received full payment.........................     23.6     22.5     23.2     24.0     26.3     25.6
Women above poverty level:
    Total (in thousands)..................................    5,121    5,821    5,792    6,011    6,224    6,749
    Percent awarded\1\....................................     67.3     67.9     65.3     71.0     66.5     64.6
    Percent actually received payment.....................     41.1     41.4     42.6     44.1     44.8     43.1
Women below poverty level:
    Total (in thousands)..................................    1,973    2,566    2,898    2,797    3,191    3,206
    Percent awarded\1\....................................     38.1     39.7     42.5     40.4     44.3     43.3
    Percent actually received payment.....................     17.8     19.3     19.6     21.3     27.7     25.4
Aggregate payment (in billions of dollars):\2\
    Child support due.....................................     12.6     13.7     12.5     12.6     15.9     16.3
    Child support received................................      8.1      8.4      8.8      8.3     10.9     11.2
    Aggregate child support deficit.......................      4.5      5.3      3.7      4.3      5.0      5.1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Award status as of spring 1979, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1990.
\2\In 1989 dollars.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 173 Child Support and Alimony:
  1989, Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Approximately 5.7 million women with children under age 21
(58 percent) had been awarded child support or had an agreement
to receive child support payments, but only 5.0 million (50
percent) of the women were actually ``supposed to receive''
child support in 1989. The rights of the remaining 8 percent
were no longer in force because the father who owed payments
had died, the children had grown past the age of eligibility
for payments, or because of another reason.
    Many of the women who were awarded child support payments
did not receive the full amount they were due. In 1989, about
half (51 percent) of the 5.0 million women owed child support
payments received the full amount, about 24 percent of the
women received less than they were owed, and 25 percent
received no payment at all. Table 11-5 shows that average
amount of child support for women who received payments in 1989
was $2,995, about 19 percent of their average total income. In
1978, the average amount of child support was $1,800, about 20
percent of the woman's income.

 TABLE 11-5.--CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS AWARDED AND RECEIVED IN 1989--WOMEN WITH CHILDREN PRESENT, BY SELECTED
                                              CHARACTERISTICS
         [Women with own children under 21 years of age present from an absent father as of spring 1990]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                           Supposed to receive child support in
                                                                                           1989
                                                              Percent   ----------------------------------------
                                                              awarded                  Actually received support
          Characteristics of women               Total         child                            in 1989
                                              (thousands)     support       Total    ---------------------------
                                                            payments\1\  (thousands)             Mean
                                                                                      Percent   child     Mean
                                                                                               support   income
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  ALL WOMEN

      Total.................................      9,955          57.7        4,953       75.2   $2,995   $16,171

           Current Marital Status

Married\2\..................................      2,531          79.0        1,685       72.1    2,931    14,469
Divorced....................................      3,056          76.8        2,123       77.0    3,322    19,456
Separated...................................      1,352          47.9          527       79.7    3,060    14,891
Widowed\3\..................................         65           (B)           34        (B)      (B)       (B)
Never married...............................      2,950          23.9          583       73.2    1,888     9,495

           Race and Spanish Origin

White.......................................      6,905          67.5        4,048       76.5    3,132    16,632
Black.......................................      2,770          34.5          791       69.7    2,263    13,898
Spanish origin\4\...........................      1,112          40.6          364       69.8    2,965    14,758

          Years of School Completed

Less than 12 years..........................      2,372          36.9          741       66.7    1,754     8,201
High school: 4 years........................      4,704          62.0        2,470       76.4    2,698    13,535
College:
    1 to 3 years............................      1,988          65.0        1,139       76.6    3,338    18,462
    4 years or more.........................        891          74.5          603       77.9    4,850    30,872

             WOMEN BELOW POVERTY

      Total.................................      3,206          43.3        1,190       68.3    1,889     5,047

           Current Marital Status

Married\2\..................................        176          72.2          106       67.0    2,275     4,351
Divorced....................................        820          70.4          525       66.3    2,112     5,581
Separated...................................        612          47.1          221       74.2    1,717     4,917
Widowed.....................................          8           (B)            4        (B)      (B)       (B)
Never Married\3\............................      1,590          24.5          334       68.6    1,553     4,543

                    Race

White.......................................      1,763          54.6          827       67.8    1,972     5,010
Black.......................................      1,314          29.2          325       69.8    1,674     5,174
Spanish origin\4\...........................        536          33.0          148       63.5    1,824     4,958
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Award status as of spring 1989.
\2\Remarried women whose previous marriage ended in divorce.
\3\Widowed women whose previous marriage ended in divorce.
\4\Persons of Spanish origin may be of any race.

Note.--B base less than 75,000.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Series P-23, No. 173, Child Support and Alimony: 1989.

    Of the 10 million women with children by a noncustodial
father, 25 percent were remarried, 45 percent were divorced or
separated, and 30 percent were never married. About 32 percent
had incomes below the poverty level. Of these poor women, only
43 percent had agreements to receive child support and were due
payments in 1989. Another 6 percent had agreements but were not
due payments in 1989 (see table 11-5). Of the poor mothers who
were supposed to receive child support payments in 1989, 68
percent (813,000) actually received payments, while 32 percent
did not.
    For women who actually received child support payments in
1989, the amount of payment tended to be higher than average
for divorced women, white women, and women who had gone to
college for at least a year. Those with lower than average
payment amounts included never-married women, black women, and
women who had not completed 12 years of school (see table 11-
5).
    Only 24 percent of women who had never married were awarded
child support payments; compared with 77 percent of divorced
women, 79 percent of remarried women and 48 percent of women
who were separated. Moreover, among the 5.0 million women who
were supposed to receive child support, the percentages of
those who actually received payments were: 73 percent of never-
married mothers, 72 percent of remarried mothers, 80 percent of
separated mothers, and 77 percent of divorced mothers.
    Of the 3.7 million women who actually received child
support payments in 1989, 44 percent were divorced, 33 percent
were remarried, 11 percent were separated, and 11 percent were
single (never married). The women who had never married
received, on the average, the lowest amount of child support
payments. Among women who were poor despite having been awarded
child support, the percentages differed. Of the 813,000 poor
women who received child support payments in 1989, 43 percent
were divorced, 9 percent were remarried, 20 percent were
separated, and 28 percent were never married.
    Black mothers and mothers of Spanish origin living apart
from the father of their children were much less likely than
their white counterparts to be awarded child support. Almost 68
percent of white mothers were awarded child support payments,
compared with 35 percent of black mothers, and 41 percent of
mothers of Spanish origin. Further, both black and Spanish-
origin mothers received smaller payments, on the average, than
did white mothers.
    Mothers who were not high school graduates were less likely
than the average to be awarded child support, and their support
payments were on the average much smaller than those of mothers
who had completed more than 12 years of school.
    In addition, the age of the woman was related to the
awarding of child support payments. Women aged 30 to 39 were
the most likely to be awarded child support. Women 40 years of
age and older were the most likely to actually receive payments
and they received, on average, higher support payments. Women
under age 30 were the least likely to be awarded payments, and
those who were awarded support received smaller payments, on
average, than older women.
    Another factor related to child support was the number of
children the mother had with her in the absence of their
father. Women with two children were the most likely to receive
support.

                  SERVICES FOR AFDC AND NON-AFDC CASES

    Each State's child support plan must provide that the child
support agency will undertake to secure support for an AFDC
child whose rights to support have been assigned to the State.
This includes nearly all AFDC children, since assignment of
rights to support is a condition of eligibility for AFDC
benefits. The State must also provide in its plan that it will
undertake to establish the paternity of an AFDC child who is
born out of wedlock. These requirements apply in all cases
except where, in accordance with standards established by the
Secretary, the State finds that to apply them would be against
the best interests of the child. For families whose AFDC
eligibility ends due to the receipt of (or an increase in)
child support, States must continue to provide child support
enforcement services, without imposing the application fee.
This policy was established by Public Law 98-378, the Child
Support Enforcement Amendments of 1984.
    With respect to non-AFDC families, the law provides that
the State must make available, once an application is filed
with the State agency, the child support collection and
paternity determination services which are provided under the
plan for AFDC families. The State must charge non-AFDC families
an application fee of up to $25. The amount of the maximum
allowable fee may be adjusted periodically by the Secretary of
the Department of Health and Human Services to reflect changes
in administrative costs. States may charge the fee against the
custodial parent, pay the fee out of State funds, or recover it
from the noncustodial parent.
    States also have the option of charging a late payment fee
equal to between 3 and 6 percent of the amount of overdue
support. Late payment fees may be charged to the noncustodial
parents of AFDC and non-AFDC families and are to be collected
only after the full amount of the support has been paid to the
child. In addition, a State may at its option recover costs in
excess of the application fee. Such recovery may be from either
the custodial parent or the noncustodial parent. If a State
chooses to make recovery from the custodial parent, it must
have in effect a procedure whereby all persons in the State who
have authority to order support are informed that such costs
are to be collected from the custodial parent.
    Finally, child support enforcement services must include
the enforcement of spousal support, but only if a support
obligation has been established with respect to the spouse; the
child and spouse are living in the same household; and child
support is being collected along with spousal support.

                            THE FEDERAL ROLE

    The Federal statute provides that the child support program
must be administered by a separate organizational unit under
the control of a person designated by and reporting directly to
the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Under the
present organizational structure of the Department, this office
is known as the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement
(OCSE). The Family Support Act of 1988 requires the appointment
of an Assistant Secretary for Family Support within HHS to
administer a number of programs, including the Child Support
Enforcement program under title IV-D of the Act. Currently,
this is the Assistant Secretary for the Administration for
Children and Families.
    A primary responsibility of the director is to establish
such standards for State programs for locating absent parents,
establishing paternity, and obtaining child support and support
for the spouse (or former spouse) with whom the absent parent's
child is living as he determines to be necessary to assure that
the programs will be effective. In addition to this broad
statutory mandate, the director is required to establish
minimum organizational and staffing requirements for State
child support agencies, and to review and approve State plans.
    The statute also requires the director of the OCSE to
provide technical assistance to the States to help them
establish effective systems for collecting child and spousal
support and establishing paternity. To fulfill this
requirement, the OCSE operates a National Child Support
Enforcement Reference Center as a central location for the
collection and dissemination of information about State and
local programs. OCSE also provides, under a contract with the
American Bar Association Child Support Project, training and
information dissemination on legal issues to persons working in
the field of child support enforcement. Special initiatives,
such as a recent effort to assist major urban areas in
improving program performance, have also been undertaken by the
OCSE.
    The Child Support Enforcement Amendments of 1984 (Public
Law 98-378) extend the research and demonstration authority in
section 1115 of the Social Security Act to the child support
enforcement program. This will make it possible for States to
test innovative approaches to support enforcement so long as
the modification does not disadvantage children in need of
support nor result in an increase in Federal AFDC costs. Public
Law 98-378 also authorizes special project grants to promote
improvement in interstate enforcement. The authorization is $15
million for each fiscal year after 1986.
    The director of the OCSE has full responsibility for
program evaluation. Audits are required at least every 3 years
to determine whether the standards and requirements prescribed
by law and regulations have been met. Under the penalty
provision, a State's AFDC matching funds must be reduced by an
amount equal to at least 1 but no more than 2 percent for the
first failure to comply substantially with the standards and
requirements, at least 2 but no more than 3 percent for the
second failure, and at least 3 but no more than 5 percent for
the third and subsequent failures.

                       FEDERAL ENFORCEMENT TOOLS

    The statute creates several Federal mechanisms to assist
the States in performing their paternity and child support
enforcement functions. These include use of the Internal
Revenue Service, the Federal courts, and the Federal Parent
Locator Service (FPLS).
    The statute requires the Secretary of HHS, upon the request
of a State, to certify to the Secretary of Treasury for
collection by the IRS any amounts identified by the State as
representing delinquent child support payments. The Secretary
may certify only the amounts delinquent under a court or
administrative order, and only upon a showing by the State that
it has made diligent and reasonable efforts to collect amounts
due using its own collection mechanisms. States must reimburse
the Federal Government for any costs involved in making the
collections. Collections may be made on behalf of both AFDC and
non-AFDC families. Use by the States of this regular IRS
collection mechanism (which may include seizure by the IRS of
property, freezing of accounts, and other procedures) has been
relatively infrequent. Using IRS collection methods, in fiscal
year 1993, collections were made in only 329 cases nationwide,
for a total collection of $155,677.
    The availability of the IRS collection mechanism for child
support was amplified in amendments enacted as part of the
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 (Public Law 97-35) to
allow the collection of past due support from Federal tax
refunds upon a simple showing by the State agency that an
individual owes at least $150 in past-due support which has
been assigned to the State as a condition of AFDC eligibility.
Upon receiving this showing, the Secretary of Treasury is
required to withhold from any tax refunds due that individual
an amount equal to any past-due support. The withheld amount is
sent to the State agency, together with notice of the
taxpayer's current address.
    Public Law 98-378 created a similar IRS offset program for
non-AFDC families owed child support. States must submit to the
IRS for withholding, the names of absent parents who have
arrearages of at least $500 and who, on the basis of current
payment patterns and the enforcement efforts that have been
made, are unlikely to pay the arrearage before the IRS offset
can occur. The law establishes specific notice requirements and
mandates that the absent parent and any spouse be informed of
the procedures which may be taken to protect the unobligated
spouse's portion of the refund. The 1988 provision applied to
refunds payable after December 31, 1985, and before January 1,
1991. Public Law 101-508 makes permanent the IRS offset program
for non-AFDC families.
    In fiscal year 1993, a total of 925,264 cases were offset,
which resulted in child support collections of $609 million.
    States also may have access to the Federal courts to
enforce court orders for support. The director of the Office of
Child Support Enforcement must approve a State's application
for permission to use the courts of the United States to
enforce court orders for support upon a finding that: (1)
another State has not undertaken to enforce the court order of
the originating State against an absent parent within a
reasonable time; and (2) that use of the Federal courts is the
only reasonable method of enforcing such order. This mechanism,
designed to assist the States in enforcing interstate cases,
has gone unused, apparently because the States view it as
costly and complex.
    Finally, the statute also requires the establishment of a
Federal Parent Locator Service to be used to find absent
parents in order to secure and enforce child support
obligations. Upon request, the Secretary of HHS must provide to
an authorized person the most recent address and place of
employment of any absent parent if the information is contained
in the records of the Department of Health and Human Services,
or can be obtained from any other department or agency of the
United States or of any State. The Secretary must also make
available the services of the FPLS to any State that wishes to
locate an absent parent or child for the purpose of enforcing
any Federal or State law with respect to the unlawful taking or
restraint of a child, or making or enforcing a child custody
determination.

                             THE STATE ROLE

    Each State is required to designate a single and separate
organizational unit of State government to administer the
program. Earlier child support legislation, enacted in 1967,
had required that the program be administered by the welfare
agency. The 1975 act deleted this requirement in order to give
each State the opportunity to select the most effective
administrative mechanism. Most States have placed the child
support agency within the social or human services umbrella
agency which also administers the AFDC program. However, two
States have placed the agency in the department of revenue and
two States have placed the agency in the office of the attorney
general. The law allows the programs to be administered either
on the State or local level. Ten programs are locally
administered. A few programs are State administered in some
counties and locally administered in others.
    States must have plans, approved by the director of the
OCSE, which set forth their functions and responsibilities.
Both AFDC and non-AFDC families must be served. States must
also enter into cooperative arrangements with appropriate
courts and law enforcement officials to assist the child
support agency in administering the program. These agreements
may include provision for reimbursing courts and law
enforcement officials for their assistance. States must operate
a parent locator service to locate absent parents, and they
must maintain full records of collections and disbursements,
and otherwise maintain an adequate reporting system.
    In order to facilitate the collection of support in
interstate cases, a State must cooperate with other States in
establishing paternity, locating absent parents, and in
securing compliance with an order issued by another State.
    The law requires the States to use several enforcement
tools. They must use the IRS tax refund offset procedure for
AFDC and non-AFDC families, and they must also determine
periodically whether any individuals receiving unemployment
compensation owe child support obligations. The State
employment security agency is required to withhold unemployment
benefits, and to pay the child support agency any outstanding
child support obligations established by an agreement with the
individual or through legal processes.
    Public Law 98-378 mandated that States use a number of
other enforcement techniques. These include: (1) imposing liens
against real and personal property for amounts of overdue
support; (2) withholding of State tax refunds payable to a
parent who is delinquent in support payments; (3) making
available information regarding the amount of overdue support
owed to a consumer credit bureau upon a request; (4) requiring
individuals who have demonstrated a pattern of delinquent
payments to post a bond or give some other guarantee to secure
payment of overdue support; (5) establishing expedited
processes within the State judicial system or under
administrative processes for obtaining and enforcing child
support orders, and, at the option of the State, determining
paternity; (6) notifying each AFDC recipient at least once each
year of the amount of child support collected on behalf of that
recipient; (7) permitting the establishment of paternity until
a child's 18th birthday; and (8) at the option of the State,
providing for cases not enforced by the State CSE agency, that
child support payments must be made through the agency that
administers the State's income withholding system if either the
custodial or noncustodial parent requests that they be made in
this manner.
    State child support agencies are required to undertake
child support collections on behalf of children receiving
foster care maintenance payments under title IV-E of the Social
Security Act, if an assignment of rights to support has been
secured by the foster care agency. In addition, foster care
agencies are required to take steps, where appropriate, to
secure an assignment to the State of any rights to support on
behalf of a child receiving foster care maintenance payments.
    State agencies are also required, as a result of Public Law
98-378, to petition to include medical support as part of any
child support order whenever health care coverage is available
to the noncustodial parent at a reasonable cost. And, if a
family loses AFDC eligibility as the result of increased
collection of support payments, the State must continue to
provide Medicaid benefits for 4 calendar months beginning with
the month of ineligibility. States also must provide services
to medically needy (Medicaid only) families referred to the
State IV-D agency from the State Medicaid agency.
    Finally, the statute requires each State to comply with any
other requirements and standards that the Secretary determines
to be necessary to the establishment of an effective child
support program.

                        PATERNITY ESTABLISHMENT

    Paternity establishment is a prerequisite for obtaining a
child support order. In 1990, 28 percent of children born in
the U.S. were born to unmarried women. According to the OCSE,
paternity is established in less than one-third of these cases.
Without paternity established, these children have no legal
claim on their fathers' income. A major weakness of the CSE
program is its poor performance in securing paternity for such
children. In addition to financial benefits, establishing
paternity can provide social, psychological, and emotional
benefits and in some cases the father's medical history may be
needed to give a child proper care.
    In 1991, 35 percent of the 14.6 million children living
solely with their mothers had a mother who had never married.
Inasmuch as the percentage of children born to parents that are
not married has been increasing during the last two decades,
paternity establishment has become one of the more crucial
elements of the CSE program.
    In the 1980s legislation was enacted that contained
provisions aimed at increasing the number of paternities
established. P.L. 98-378, the Child Support Enforcement
Amendments of 1984, required States to implement laws that
permitted paternity to be established until a child's 18th
birthday. P.L. 100-485, the Family Support Act of 1988
stipulated the following.
          States are required to meet Federal standards for the
        establishment of paternity.
          States are required to have all parties in a
        contested paternity case take a genetic test upon the
        request of any party, and are permitted to charge non-
        AFDC individuals for the costs of the paternity test.
          States are encouraged to adopt simple civil processes
        for voluntarily acknowledging paternity and civil
        procedures for establishing paternity in contested
        cases.
          States are reimbursed at a 90-percent Federal
        matching rate for laboratory testing to establish
        paternity.
          Each State is required, in administering any law
        involving the issuance of birth certificates, to
        require each parent to furnish his or her SSN, unless
        the State finds good cause for not doing so.
          Retroactive to 1984, any child for whom a paternity
        action was brought but whose suit was dismissed because
        of statute of limitations less than 18 years must be
        allowed to bring a new suit.
    A 1992 OCSE report on paternity establishment says that
paternity establishment has improved because of Federal
requirements, improved genetic testing, and innovative State
and local programs. Many States now have procedures through
which a man may legally admit paternity (by signing a document
that legally establishes paternity) without court involvement.
Many States contend that voluntary acknowledgement of paternity
procedures save money and require less time than paternity
establishment procedures that involve the courts. While the
number of paternities established through CSE reached a record
high in 1991, huge disparities exist among States.
    OBRA 93 required States to have in effect by October 1,
1993, the following paternity establishment procedures:
          (1) for a simple civil process for voluntarily
        acknowledging paternity under which the State must
        explain the rights and responsibilities of
        acknowledging paternity and afford due process
        safeguards. Procedures must include a hospital-based
        program for the voluntary acknowledgment of paternity
        during the period immediately preceding or following
        the birth of a child;
          (2) under which the voluntary acknowledgment of
        paternity creates a rebuttable, or at the option of the
        State, conclusive presumption of paternity, and under
        which such voluntary acknowledgments are admissible as
        evidence of paternity;
          (3) under which the voluntary acknowledgment of
        paternity must be recognized as a basis for seeking a
        support order without first requiring any further
        proceedings to establish paternity;
          (4) which provide that any objection to genetic
        testing results must be made in writing within a
        specified number of days prior to any hearing at which
        such results may be introduced in evidence, and if no
        objection is made the test results are admissible as
        evidence of paternity without the need for foundation
        testimony or other proof of authenticity or accuracy;
          (5) which create a rebuttable or, at the option of
        the State, conclusive presumption of paternity upon
        genetic testing results indicating a threshold
        probability of the alleged father being the father of
        the child;
          (6) which require default orders in paternity cases
        upon a showing that process has been served on the
        defendant and whatever additional showing may be
        required by State law; and
          (7) which require States to have expedited processes
        for paternity establishment in contested cases and to
        require that a State give full faith and credit to
        determinations of paternity made by other States.
    A 1993 Urban Institute report\1\ analyzes national survey
data that was obtained to provide a better understanding of how
paternity establishment is handled by CSE agencies in counties
throughout the U.S. The study found:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Washington, D.C. The Urban Institute. ``Promising Approaches to
Improving Paternity Establishment Rates at the Local Level,''
Sonenstein, Freya L., Pamela A. Holcomb and Kristen S. Seefeldt. Feb.
1993.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

          At the local level paternity establishment is usually
        located in one of three settings: a legal agency like a
        prosecuting attorney's office or court, a non-legal
        agency like the human services department responsible
        for welfare, or a shared situation in which cases with
        cooperative fathers are handled by the human service
        agency and contested cases are transferred to a legal
        agency [35 percent of the counties transferred
        contested cases from the non-legal agency to the legal
        agency].

    Counties generally use one of four approaches to establish
paternity:
          A no-consent process wherein all paternity cases are
        handled through the court and there are no
        opportunities to consent voluntarily outside a court
        hearing; a one-time consent process: alleged fathers
        are given one opportunity to consent voluntarily,
        usually right after notification of the allegation; a
        multi-consent process: alleged fathers are given at
        least two opportunities to consent, usually after
        notification and also after genetic testing; and a
        court-as-last-resort process: alleged fathers have to
        respond to a notification by filing with the court
        their intention to consent to or contest the
        allegation. The court's role after the initial
        notification is generally limited to handing contested
        cases after genetic tests. Multiple opportunities for
        consent are available. [The most common approach, used
        by 37 percent of the counties, was the multi-consent
        approach].

    The report found that counties with the highest rate of
paternity determinations offer multiple opportunities for
voluntary consent and have adopted an organizational approach
in which cooperative fathers are handled by the welfare agency
and contested cases are transferred to a legal agency. The 27
counties that used these combined approaches show an average
paternity rate of 65 percent when other factors are held
constant. Given that it is unrealistic that other factors can
be held constant (compared to rates between 22 and 45 percent
in counties where other approaches were used). The report
cautions readers that the findings from the analysis are merely
suggestive of possible avenues to follow in seeking
improvements in paternity establishment.

                     ENFORCEMENT OF MEDICAL SUPPORT

    Health care for children can be a major expense for the
custodial parent, and can be a burden for the State if public
assistance is being provided to the children. Public Law 95-
142, the Medicare-Medicaid Anti-Fraud and Abuse Amendments of
1977 (Section 1912 of the Social Security Act), permits State
Medicaid agencies to use the CSE agency to assist in the
enforcement of medical support rights due from or through a
noncustodial parent, since it was not intended that the
Medicaid agency establish a separate system for the enforcement
of medical support obligations. On February 11, 1980, the OCSE
and the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) published
joint regulations to implement section 1912 of the act through
optional cooperative agreements between the State Medicaid
agency and the State CSE agency. Under these agreements the
Medicaid agency reimburses the CSE agency for medical support
enforcement activities performed pursuant to the agreement. In
35 jurisdictions the Federal Medicaid reimbursement rate is
lower than the 66 percent matching rate for CSE activities
(based on fiscal year 1993 rates), and nationwide it averages
about 56 percent.
    Section 16 of Public Law 98-378 requires the Secretary of
the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to issue
regulations to require that State CSE agencies petition for the
inclusion of medical support as part of any child support order
whenever health care coverage is available to the noncustodial
parent at reasonable cost. According to the Federal
regulations, any employment-related or other group coverage is
considered reasonable, under the assumption that health
insurance is inexpensive to the employee/noncustodial parent. A
1983 study by the National Center for Health Services Research
of the Public Health Service indicated that, for low-wage
employees with employer-provided insurance coverage, 72 percent
of the premium was paid for by the employer.
    On October 16, 1985, the OCSE published regulations
amending previous regulations and implementing section 16 of
Public Law 98-378. The regulations stated that the CSE agency
must obtain basic medical support information and provide this
information to the State Medicaid agency. Also, if the
custodial parent does not have satisfactory health insurance
coverage, the CSE agency must petition the court or
administrative authority to include medical support in new or
modified support orders and inform the State Medicaid agency of
any new or modified support orders that include a medical
support obligation. The 1985 regulations also required the CSE
agency to take steps to enforce medical support that has been
ordered by a court or administrative process under State law.
In addition, these regulations permit the use of CSE matching
funds at the 66 percent rate for required medical support
activities. Before these regulations were issued, medical
support activities were pursued by CSE agencies only under
optional cooperative agreements with Medicaid agencies. Some of
the functions that the CSE agency may perform under a
cooperative agreement with the Medicaid agency include:
receiving referrals from the Medicaid agency, locating absent
parents, establishing paternity, determining whether the
noncustodial parent has a health insurance policy or plan that
covers the child, obtaining sufficient information about the
health insurance policy or plan to permit the filing of a claim
with the insurer, filing a claim with the insurer or
transmitting the necessary information to the Medicaid agency,
securing health insurance coverage through court or
administrative order (when it will not reduce the noncustodial
parent's ability to pay child support), and recovering amounts
necessary to reimburse medical assistance payments.
    A report by the Urban Institute stated that although the
practice of including medical coverage provisions in child
support orders had increased, the priority and emphasis given
such provision was still quite low (as of September 1985). It
reported that child support staff were reluctant to go to court
just for medical support, and that many judges would not order
medical support if it might cause a reduction in cash support
payments. The report also said that enforcing medical coverage
provisions once they are established is very difficult, and
that it requires the agency to monitor continuation of coverage
and to act to restore coverage when it lapses.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\Nightingale, Demetra Smith, and others. ``The Inclusion of
Medical Coverage in Child Support Cases: Current Status and Options for
the Future.'' Draft. Washington, Urban Institute, May 1986. p. vi.
[Hereafter cited as Urban Institute, ``The Inclusion of Medical
Coverage in Child Support Cases.'']
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Urban Institute study reported that in 1983, 4.6
million children with an absent parent were without public
(Medicaid) or private health insurance. This represented 34
percent of all children with an absent parent. Another 4.9
million children with an absent parent were covered solely by
Medicaid. The study estimated that including medical coverage
in child support orders in 1984 might have benefited 1,353,000
totally uninsured children (those without Medicaid or private
insurance) and perhaps another 300,000 to 466,000 children
covered only by Medicaid at that time.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\Ibid., p. 24-25.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    According to the Census Bureau data on child support and
alimony, 40 percent of the 5.7 million women who had a child
support award in 1989 received health insurance coverage in
their awards. For white women, the figure was 43 percent; for
black women, 28 percent; and for women of Hispanic origin, 21
percent. For divorced women, the figure was 44 percent and for
women who had never married, the figure was 26 percent.
    On September 16, 1988, the OCSE issued regulations amending
the medical support enforcement provisions. These regulations
require the CSE agency to develop criteria to identify existing
child support cases that have a high potential for obtaining
medical support, and to petition the court or administrative
authority to modify support orders to include medical support
for targeted cases even if no other modification is
anticipated. In addition, the CSE agency is required to provide
the custodial parent with information regarding the health
insurance coverage obtained by the noncustodial parent for the
dependent child or children. Moreover, the 1988 regulation
deletes the condition that CSE agencies may secure health
insurance coverage under a cooperative agreement only when it
will not reduce the noncustodial parent's ability to pay child
support. The purpose of the medical support provisions is to
expand the number of children for whom private health insurance
coverage is obtained by increasing the availability of third-
party resources to pay for medical care and thereby result in
Medicaid cost savings to the States and the Federal Government.
The Urban Institute report, however, concluded that while there
is no doubt that many children could benefit from inclusion of
medical insurance, especially those who currently have no
public or private health care coverage, Medicaid savings would
be relatively modest compared to total annual Medicaid
costs.\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\Urban Institute, ``The Inclusion of Medical Coverage in Child
Support Cases,'' p. vi.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    According to OCSE data, 53 percent of support orders
established in fiscal year 1993 included health insurance,
whereas only 30 percent of support orders that were enforced or
modified in fiscal year 1993 included health insurance.
    OBRA 93 included the following health insurance support
provisions:
    (1) prohibit an insurer from denying enrollment of a child
under the health insurance coverage of the child's parent on
the grounds that the child was born out of wedlock, is not
claimed as a dependent on the parent's Federal income tax
return, or does not reside with the parent or in the insurer's
service area;
    (2) require an insurer and an employer doing business in
the State, in any case in which a parent is required by court
or administrative order to provide health coverage for a child
and the child is otherwise eligible for family health coverage
through the insurer, (a) to permit the parent, without regard
to any enrollment season restrictions, to enroll such child
under such family coverage; (b) if the parent fails to provide
health insurance coverage for a child, to enroll the child upon
application by the child's other parent or the State child
support or Medicaid agency; and (c) with respect to employers,
not to disenroll (or eliminate coverage of) the child unless
there is satisfactory written evidence that the order is no
longer in effect, or the child is or will be enrolled in
comparable health coverage through another insurer that will
take effect not later than the effective date of the
disenrollment;
    (3) require an employer doing business in the State, in the
case of health insurance coverage offered through employment
and providing coverage for a child pursuant to a court or
administrative order, to withhold from the employee's
compensation the employee's share of premiums for health
insurance, and to pay that share to the insurer. The Secretary
of Health and Human Services may provide by regulation for such
exceptions to this requirement (and other requirements
described above that apply to employers) as the Secretary
determines necessary to ensure compliance with an order, or
with the limits on withholding that are specified in section
303(b) of the Consumer Credit Protection Act;
    (4) prohibit an insurer from imposing requirements upon a
State agency, which is acting as an agent or assignee of an
individual eligible for medical assistance and covered by the
insurer, that are different from requirements applicable to an
agent or assignee of any other individual;
    (5) require an insurer, in the case of a child who has
coverage through the insurer of a noncustodial parent, (a) to
provide the custodial parent with the information necessary for
the child to obtain benefits; (b) to permit the custodial
parent (or provider, with the custodial parent's approval) to
submit claims for covered services without the approval of the
noncustodial parent; and (c) to make payment on claims directly
to the custodial parent, the provider, or the State agency; and
    (6) permit the State Medicaid agency to garnish the wages,
salary, or other employment income of, and to withhold State
tax refunds to, any person who: (a) is required by court or
administrative order to provide health insurance coverage to an
individual eligible for Medicaid; (b) has received payment from
a third party for the costs of medical services to that
individual; and (c) has not reimbursed either the individual or
the provider. The amount subject to garnishment or withholding
would be the amount required to reimburse the State agency for
expenditures for costs of medical services provided under the
Medicaid program. However, claims for current or past-due child
support shall take priority over any claims for the costs of
medical services.
    These provisions are effective April 1, 1994, or, if the
Secretary determines that State legislation is needed, the
State plan shall not be regarded as failing to comply with the
requirements of title IV-D because it has not met these
additional requirements before the first day of the first
calendar quarter beginning after the close of the first regular
session of the State legislature that begins after August 10,
1993. In the case of a State that has a two-year legislative
session, each year of such session shall be deemed to be a
separate regular session of the State legislature.

   TABLE 11-6.--CHILD SUPPORT AWARD STATUS AND INCLUSION OF HEALTH
     INSURANCE IN AWARD, BY SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN 
    [Women 15 years and older with own children under 21 years of age
             present from absent fathers as of spring 1990]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                        Awarded child support payments
                                      ----------------------------------
                                                      Health insurance
                                                      included in child
                             Total                      support award
     Characteristic       (thousands)     Total    ---------------------
                                       (thousands)               Percent
                                                       Number       of
                                                    (thousands)   total
                                                                 awarded
------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Total.............      9,955        5,748        2,307       40.1

     Current Marital
        Status\1\
Remarried\2\............      2,531        1,999          755       37.8
Divorced................      3,056        2,347        1,038       44.2
Separated...............      1,352          648          298       46.0
Never married...........      2,950          704          186       26.4

Race and Hispanic Origin

White...................      6,905        4,661        1,992       42.7
Black...................      2,770          955          271       28.4
Hispanic\3\.............      1,112          452           96       21.2

           Age

15 to 17 years..........        128           23    ...........  .......
18 to 29 years..........      3,086        1,408          572       40.6
30 to 39 years..........      4,175        2,685        1,097       40.9
40 years and over.......      2,566        1,632          638       39.1

     Years of School
        Completed

Less than 12 years......      2,372          875          233       26.6
High school: 4 years....      4,704        2,916        1,218       41.8
College:
    1 to 3 years........      1,988        1,293          575       44.5
    4 years or more.....        891          664          281       42.3

 Number of Own Children
 Present from an Absent
         Father

One child...............      5,721        3,274        1,316       40.2
Two children............      2,873        1,812          739       40.8
Three children..........      1,030          537          220       41.0
Four children or more...        331          125           33       26.4
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Excludes a small number of current widowed women whose previous
  marriage ended in divorce.
\2\Remarried women whose previous marriage ended in divorce.
\3\Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports. Child
  Support and Alimony: 1989 (Supplemental Report). Series P-60, No. 173,
  September 1991. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991. p.
  11.

                            WAGE WITHHOLDING

    The Family Support Act required immediate income
withholding to begin in November 1990 for all new or modified
orders being enforced by the State's CSE agency. As of January
1, 1994, States were required to provide for immediate wage
withholding for all support orders initially issued on or after
that date, regardless of whether a parent has applied for CSE
services. Immediate income withholding has been enacted by
about half of the States.
    Public Law 98-378 required that States have in effect two
distinct procedures for withholding wages of noncustodial
parents. First, for cases enforced through the CSE agency,
States were required to use a procedure that imposed wage
withholding in child support cases whenever an arrearage
accrued that was equal to the amount of support payable for 1
month. Second, for all child support cases, all new or modified
support orders issued in the State were required to include a
provision for wage withholding when an arrearage occurs. The
intent of the second procedure was to ensure that orders not
enforced through the CSE agency contain the authority necessary
to permit wage withholding to be initiated by someone other
than the CSE agency. The Family Support Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-
485) extended the use of mandatory wage withholding to
nondelinquent support. In fiscal year 1993, 53 percent of total
collections or about $4.7 billion were made through wage
withholding.
    According to the Federal statute, State due-process
requirements govern the scope of notice to provide to an
obligor (i.e., noncustodial parent) when withholding is
triggered. As a general rule, the noncustodial parent is
entitled to advance notice of the withholding procedure. This
notice, where required, must inform the noncustodial parent of
the following: the amount that will be withheld; the
application of withholding to any current or subsequent period
of employment; the procedures available for contesting the
withholding and the sole basis for objection (i.e., mistake of
fact); the period allotted the noncustodial parent to contact
the State to contest the withholding and the result of failure
to contact the State within this timeframe (i.e., issuance of
notification to the employer to begin withholding); the steps
the State will take if the noncustodial parent contests the
withholding including the procedure to resolve such contests.
    If the noncustodial parent contests the income withholding
notice, the State must conduct a hearing, determine if the
withholding is valid, notify the noncustodial parent of the
decision, and notify the employer to commence the deductions if
withholding is upheld. All of this must occur within 45 days of
the initial notice of withholding. Whether a State uses a
judicial or an administrative process, the only basis for a
hearing is a factual mistake about the amount owed (current
and/or arrearage) or the identity of the noncustodial parent.
    When withholding is uncontested or when a contested case is
resolved in favor of the withholding, the administering agency
must serve a withholding notice on the employer. The employer
is required to withhold as much of the noncustodial parent's
wages as is necessary to comply with the order. This will
include the current support amount plus an amount to be applied
toward liquidation of any arrearage. In addition, the employer
may retain a fee to offset the administrative cost of
implementing withholding.
    The Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act (FCCPA)
determines the maximum portion of an individual's total
disposable earnings that is subject to garnishment. The FCCPA
limits apply when enforcing an order for support. These limits
are 50 percent of disposable earnings for a noncustodial parent
who is the head of a household, and 60 percent for a
noncustodial parent who is not supporting a second family.
These percentages increase by 5 percentage points, to 55 and 65
percent, respectively, when the arrearages represent support
that was due more than 12 weeks before the current pay period.
    Upon receiving the notice, the employer must begin
withholding the appropriate amount of the obligor's wages no
later than the first pay period that occurs after 14 days
following the date the notice was mailed. The 1984 amendments
regulate the language in State statutes on the other rights and
liabilities of the employer. For instance, the employer is
subject to a fine for discharging a noncustodial parent or
taking other forms of retaliation as a result of a withholding
order. In addition, the employer is held liable for amounts not
withheld as directed.
    In addition to being able to charge the noncustodial parent
a fee for the administrative costs associated with wage
withholding, the employer can combine all support payments
required to be withheld for multiple obligors into a single
payment and forward it to the CSE agency or court with a list
of the cases to which the payments apply. The employer need not
vary from his normal pay and disbursement cycle to comply with
withholding orders; however, support payments must be forwarded
to the State or other designated agency within 10 days of the
date on which the noncustodial parent is paid.
    When the noncustodial parent changes jobs, the previous
employer must notify the court or agency that entered the
withholding order and provide specified information. The State
must notify the new employer or income source to begin
withholding from the obligor's wages.
    In addition, States must develop procedures to terminate
income withholding orders, for example, when all of the
children are emancipated and no arrearage exists.

                             PROPERTY LIENS

    The use of liens for child support enforcement was
characterized during congressional debate on Public Law 98-378
as ``simple to execute and cost effective and a catalyst for an
absent parent to pay past due support in order to clear title
to the property in question.'' (H. Rept. 527, 98th Cong., 1st
sess., 1983) The report said that liens would complement the
income withholding provisions of the 1984 law and be
particularly helpful in enforcing support payments owed by
noncustodial parents with substantial assets or income but who
are not salaried employees.
    Public Law 98-378 required States to enact laws and
implement ``procedures under which liens are imposed against
real property for amount of overdue support owed by an absent
parent who resides or owns property in the State.'' This can
apply to such things as land, vehicles, houses, antique
furniture, livestock, etc. The law provides, however, that
States need not use liens in cases where, on the basis of
guidelines that generally are available to the public, it
determines that lien procedures would be inappropriate. This
provision implicitly requires States to develop guidelines
about use of liens.
    Generally, a lien for delinquent child support is a
statutorily created mechanism by which an obligee (i.e.,
custodial parent) obtains a nonpossessory interest in property
belonging to the noncustodial parent. The interest of the
custodial parent is a slumbering interest that allows the
noncustodial parent to retain possession of the property, but
affects the noncustodial parent's ability to transfer ownership
of the property to anyone else. A child support lien converts
the custodial parent from an unsecured to a secured creditor.
As such, it gives the custodial parent priority over unsecured
creditors and subsequent secured creditors. In some States a
lien is established automatically upon entry of a support order
and the first incidence of noncompliance by the obligor.
Frequently, the mere imposition of a lien will motivate the
delinquent parent to do whatever is necessary to remove the
lien (i.e., pay past due support). When this is not the case,
it may become necessary to enforce the lien. Liens are not
self-executory. They merely impede the debtor's ability to
transfer property. If a lien exists, a debtor must satisfy the
judgment before the property may be sold or transferred.
However, it is not necessary for the obligee to wait until the
obligor tries to transfer the property before taking action.
The obligee may enforce his judgment by execution and levy
against the property if he believes that the amount of equity
in the property justifies execution.
    Several States have increased their use of liens by
identifying individuals who possess appropriate assets through
use of information obtained from Project 1099. Project 1099 is
a cooperative effort involving State CSE agencies, the OCSE,
and the IRS. It is named after the IRS form on which both
earned and unearned income is reported. (Examples of reported
earned and unearned incomes include: interest paid on savings
accounts, stocks and bonds, and distribution of dividends and
capital gains; rent or royalty payments; prizes, awards, or
winnings; fees paid directors or subcontractors; and
unemployment compensation.) Project 1099 was initiated in 1984
to assist in location efforts. Since fall 1988, Project 1099
routinely provides wage and employer information as well as
location and asset information on noncustodial parents.

                        CREDIT BUREAU REPORTING

    Public Law 98-378 requires that States establish procedures
for reporting overdue child support obligations exceeding
$1,000 to consumer reporting agencies (generally referred to as
credit bureaus), if such information is requested by the credit
bureau. States have the option of using such procedures in
cases where the noncustodial parent is less than $1,000 in
arrears. (Moreover, as in the case of liens, this collection
procedure need not be used in cases found inappropriate under
State guidelines.) The 1984 law requires States to provide the
noncustodial parent an advance notice of its intent to release
information regarding his child support arrearage and an
opportunity for him to contest the accuracy of the information.
The CSE agency may charge the credit bureau a fee for the
information.
    Although some States and counties had agreements in place
with credit bureaus to obtain information about the location of
absent parents, the 1984 provision authorizes the routine
transfer of information concerning overdue child support to
credit bureaus on a much broader basis. Moreover, it is in the
interest of credit bureaus to request such information because
overdue child support adversely affects an obligated parent's
ability to pay other debts.
    Public Law 102-537, the Ted Weiss Child Support Enforcement
Act of 1992, amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require
consumer credit reporting agencies to include in any consumer
report information on child support delinquencies provided by
or verified by State or local CSE agencies, which antedates the
report by 7 years.

                          FEDERAL GARNISHMENT

    The 1975 CSE legislation included a provision allowing
garnishment of wages and other payments by the Federal
Government for enforcement of child support and alimony
obligations. The 1975 law provides that moneys (the entitlement
to which is based upon remuneration for employment) payable by
the United States to any individual are subject to legal
proceedings brought for the enforcement against such individual
of his legal obligation to provide child support or make
alimony payments. The law sets forth in detail the procedures
that must be followed for service of legal process and
specifies that the term ``based upon remuneration for
employment'' includes wages, periodic benefits for the payment
of pensions, retirement or retired pay (included social
security and other retirement benefits), and other kinds of
Federal payments. The following Federal income sources may not
be garnished: any payment as compensation for death under any
Federal program, Federal black lung benefits, veterans'
pensions or compensation benefits for a service-related
disability or death, and amounts paid to defray employment-
related expenses.

                          MILITARY ALLOTMENTS

    Public Law 97-248, the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility
Act of 1982, requires allotments from the pay and allowances of
any member of the uniformed service (on active duty) when he
fails to make child (or child and spousal) support payments.
The requirement arises when the service member fails to make
support payments in an amount at least equal to the value of 2
months' worth of support. Provisions of the Federal Consumer
Credit Protection Act apply, limiting the percentage of the
member's pay that is subject to allotment. The amount of the
allotment is the amount of the support payment, as established
under a legally enforceable administrative or judicial order.

                         INTERSTATE ENFORCEMENT

    State laws require parents to be responsible for the
financial support of their children. During the 1930's and
1940's, such laws were used to establish and enforce support
obligations when the noncustodial parent, custodial parent, and
child lived in the same State. But when noncustodial parents
lived out of State, enforcing child support was cumbersome and
ineffective. Often the only option in these cases was to seek
to extradite the noncustodial parent and, when successful, to
jail the person for nonsupport. Extradition is the process used
to bring an obligor charged with or convicted of a crime (in
this case, criminal nonsupport) from an asylum State back to
the State where the children are located. This procedure,
rarely used, generally punished the irresponsible parent, but
left the abandoned family without financial support.
    A University of Michigan study of separated parents
nationwide found that 12 percent lived in different States 1
year after divorce or separation. That proportion increased to
25 percent 3 years after, and to 40 percent 8 years after.
Estimates based on the Federal income tax refund offset program
and other sources suggest that approximately 30 percent of
child support cases involve interstate residency of the
custodial and noncustodial parents.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\Weaver, Ray L., and Robert G. Williams. ``Problems With URESA:
Interstate Child Support Enforcement Isn't Working But Could.'' Paper
prepared for ABA Third National Child Support Conference, May 10-12,
1989. Washington, American Bar Association 1989, p. 510 [Hereafter
cited as Weaver and Williams, ``Problems With URESA'']
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act (URESA)

    Since 1950, interstate cooperation has been promoted
through the adoption by the States of URESA. This act, which
was first proposed by the National Conference of Commissioners
on Uniform State Laws in 1950, has been enacted, in substance,
in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico,
and the Virgin Islands. The act was amended in 1952 and 1958
and revised in 1968.
    It is generally maintained that the increasing number of
children who received AFDC benefits because of the absence of
their father, together with the more frequent instances in
which the father lived in another State, led many States to
quickly adopt URESA. In 1940, 30.3 percent of AFDC children had
an able-bodied father who was living away from the home. By
1950, the figure had reached 49.3 percent. About 32 States had
enacted the original version of URESA within 5 years of its
promulgation by the National Conference.
    The purpose of URESA was to provide a system for the
interstate enforcement of support orders without requiring the
person seeking support to go (or have her legal representative
go) to the State in which the noncustodial parent resided.
Where the URESA provisions between the two States are
compatible, the law can be used to establish paternity, locate
an absent parent, and establish, modify, or enforce a support
order. However, some observers note that the use of URESA
procedures often result in lower orders for both current
support and arrearages. They also contend that few CSE agencies
attempt to use URESA procedures to establish paternity or to
obtain a modification in a support order.

Long-arm statutes

    Unlike URESA, interstate cases established or enforced by
long-arm statutes use the court system in the State of the
custodial parent rather than that of the noncustodial parent.
When a person commits certain acts within a State, that person
may be subjecting himself to the jurisdiction of that State,
even if he does not live in that State. The long-arm of the law
of the State where the event happens may reach out to grab the
out-of-State person so that issues relating to the event may be
resolved where it happened. Under the long-arm procedure, the
State must authorize by statute that the acts allegedly
committed by the defendant are those that subject the defendant
to the State's jurisdiction. An example is a paternity statute
stating that if conception takes place in the State and the
child lives in the State, the State may exercise personal
jurisdiction over the alleged father. Long-arm statute language
usually speaks of extending the State's jurisdiction over an
out-of-State defendant to the maximum extent permitted by the
U.S. Constitution under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process
Clause. Long-arm statutes may be used to establish paternity,
establish support awards, and enforce support orders.

Federal courts

    The 1975 CSE law mandated that the State plan for CSE
require States to cooperate with other States in establishing
paternity, locating absent parents, and securing compliance
with court orders and authorized the use of Federal courts as a
last resort to enforce an existing order in another State if
that State were uncooperative.
    Federal law allows the U.S. district courts to be used for
the enforcement of child support orders in interstate cases. If
another State fails to undertake to enforce a child support
order on behalf of the requesting State within a reasonable
time, the requesting State may ask the OCSE to certify the case
for use of the Federal courts. If the application meets certain
procedural requirements and it is determined that use of the
Federal courts is the only reasonable method of enforcing an
order, the case is to be certified for action by the U.S.
district court. (OCSE officials say that Federal courts also
can establish support orders.)
    Section 460 of the Social Security Act says that the
district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction,
without regard to any amount in controversy, to hear and
determine any civil action certified by the Secretary of DHHS
under section 452(a)(8) of the act. A civil action under
section 460 may be brought in any judicial district in which
the claim arose, the plaintiff resides, or the defendant
resides. Section 452(a)(8) says that the Secretary of DHHS
shall receive applications from States for permission to use
the courts of the United States to enforce court orders for
support against noncustodial parents and, upon a finding that
(A) another State has not undertaken to enforce a court order
of the originating State against the noncustodial parent within
a reasonable time, and (B) that using the Federal courts is the
only reasonable method of enforcing such order, approve such
applications.
    As a condition to obtaining the certification from the
Federal OCSE, the CSE agency of the initiating State must give
the CSE agency of the responding State at least 60 days after
first seeking assistance in enforcing the order, a 30-day
warning of its intent to seek enforcement in Federal court. If
the initiating State receives no response within the 30-day
limit, or if the response is unsatisfactory, the initiating
State may apply to the OCSE Regional Office for certification.
The application must attest that the above requirements have
been satisfied. Upon certification of the case, a civil action
may be filed in the U.S. District Court. Although this
interstate enforcement procedure has been available since
enactment of the CSE program, there has only been one reported
case of its use by a State (the initiating State was
California, and the responding State was Texas).

Interstate income withholding

    Interstate income withholding is a process in which the
State of the custodial parent seeks the help of the State in
which the noncustodial parent's income is derived to enforce a
support order using the income withholding mechanism. Pursuant
to Public Law 98-378, income withholding availability has been
universal for all valid in-State or out-of-State orders issued
or modified after October 1, 1985, and for all orders in CSE
cases regardless of the date the order was issued. Although
Federal law requires a State to enforce another State's valid
orders through interstate income withholding, there is no
Federal mandate that interstate income withholding procedures
be uniform. Approaches vary from the Model Interstate Income
Withholding Act to URESA registration. The preferred way to
handle an interstate income withholding request is to use the
interstate action transmittal form from one CSE agency to
another. In CSE cases, Federal regulations required that by
August 22, 1988, all interstate income withholding requests be
sent to the enforcing State's central registry for referral to
the appropriate State or local official. The actual wage
withholding procedure used by the State in which the
noncustodial parent lives is the same as that used in
intrastate cases.
    States decide whether or not to make interstate income
withholding available in non-CSE cases. Some States do not
allow non-CSE interstate income withholding, insisting that all
such requests be channeled through the CSE agency. In those
States, it is necessary for a private attorney to refer his
client to the local CSE office.

1988 law

    Public Law 100-485 includes some provisions affecting
interstate child support enforcement. The law requires States
to establish automated statewide, comprehensive case tracking
and monitoring systems, which would improve each State's
ability to manage interstate cases. The law also required the
establishment of a 15-member commission to study interstate
child support establishment and enforcement.
    The U.S. Commission on Interstate Child Support's report to
Congress includes 120 recommendations for improving the CSE
program. The report highlights the following recommendations:
          Establishment of an integrated, automated network
        linking all the States to provide quick access to
        locate and income information (which would include new
        hire information based on W-4 forms);
          Establishment of income withholding across State
        lines from the person seeking enforcement directly to
        the income source in the other State;
          Identical enactment by States of the Uniform
        Interstate Family Support Act (which would replace
        URESA);
          State use of early, voluntary parentage determination
        for child born outside of marriage and uniform
        evidentiary rules for contested paternity cases;
          Universal access to health care insurance for
        children of separated parents;
          More emphasis on staff training and increased
        resources to ensure that all cases can be processed on
        a more timely basis; and
          Revision of CSE funding to ensure that action is
        taken on cases most in need of attention.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\U.S. Commission on Interstate Child Support. ``Supporting Our
Children: A Blueprint for Reform.'' 1992. p. xiii.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1992 law

    Public Law 102-521, the Child Support Recovery Act of 1992,
imposes a Federal criminal penalty for the willful failure to
pay a past-due child support obligation with respect to a child
who resides in another State that has remained unpaid for
longer than a year or is greater than $5,000. For the first
conviction the penalty would be a fine of not more than $5,000
and/or imprisonment for not more than 6 months; for a second
conviction, a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment for up
to 2 years.

Other procedures that aid interstate enforcement

    In 1948, the National Conference of Commissioners on
Uniform State Laws and the American Bar Association approved
the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (UEFJA), which
simplifies the collection of child support arrearages in
interstate cases. Revised in 1964 and adopted in only 30
States, UEFJA provides that upon the filing of an authenticated
foreign (i.e., out-of-State) judgment and notice to the
obligor, the judgment is to be treated in the same manner as a
local one. A judgment is the official decision or finding of a
court on the respective rights of the involved parties. UEFJA
applies only to final judgments. As a general rule, child
support arrearages that have been reduced to judgment are
considered final judgments and thus can be filed under UEFJA.

              SUMMARY INFORMATION ON COLLECTION TECHNIQUES

    Table 11-7 shows the percentage of child support
collections obtained through the use of selected enforcement
techniques. According to the OCSE, most CSE collections come
from noncustodial parents who are complying with their support
orders. However, the information is not provided in the OCSE
annual report, which identifies only collection techniques that
are concentrated on delinquent payments. The report for fiscal
year 1993 shows that 64 percent of the $8.9 billion in child
support payments collected that year was obtained through the
more publicized enforcement techniques: wage withholding,
Federal income tax refund offset, State income tax refund
offset, and unemployment compensation intercept. The remaining
36 percent is listed as collected by other means. Officials
said most of these other collections come from noncustodial
parents who were complying with their support orders by sending
their payments to the CSE agency. The other category also
included collections from noncustodial parents who voluntarily
sent money for their children even though a support order had
never been established for them (less than one percent of all
collections), and other enforcement techniques, such as liens
against property, by posting of bonds or securities, and use of
the full IRS collection procedure.

   TABLE 11-7.--CHILD SUPPORT COLLECTIONS MADE BY VARIOUS ENFORCEMENT TECHNIQUES, FISCAL YEAR 1989-93
                                              [Dollars in millions]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                      Child support collections                Percent of total collections
  Enforcement techniques    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                              1989     1990     1991     1992      1993    1989    1990    1991    1992    1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wage withholding...........   $2,144   $2,636   $3,266   $3,971    4,743    40.9    43.9    47.4    49.9    53.2
Federal income tax offset..      411      444      476      585      570     7.9     7.4     6.9     7.3     6.4
State income tax offset....       62       70       72       80       78     1.2     1.2     1.0     1.0      .9
Unemployment compensation
 intercept.................       54       80      143      269      286     1.0     1.3     2.1     3.4     3.2
Other\1\...................    2,570    2,780    2,929    3,060    3,232    49.0    46.2    42.6    38.4    36.3
                            ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Total collections....    5,241    6,010    6,886    7,965    8,909   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\The OCSE does not designate the source of most of these collections. According to the OCSE, the majority of
  collections in the other category came from noncustodial parents who were complying with their support orders
  by sending their payments to the CSE agency. Moreover, the OCSE officials maintain that reliability of
  collection data lessen when specified by techniques of collection.

 Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Child Support Enforcement. ``Child Support
  Enforcement Statistics, Fiscal Year 1993.''

                BANKRUPTCY AND CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT

    The 1975 child support legislation included a provision
that stated that an assigned child support obligation was not
discharged in bankruptcy (i.e., a person filing bankruptcy was
not relieved of his child support obligation). In 1978 this
provision was repealed and incorporated into the 1978 uniform
law on bankruptcy. The bankruptcy law also listed exceptions to
discharge including alimony, maintenance or support due a
spouse, former spouse, or child of the debtor in connection
with a separation agreement, divorce decree, or property
settlement. In 1981, the provision stating that a child support
obligation assigned to the State as a condition of AFDC
eligibility is not dischargeable in bankruptcy was reinstated.
In 1984, a provision was enacted that provided that child
support obligations that have been assigned to the State as
part of the CSE program may not be discharged in bankruptcy,
regardless of whether they are on behalf of an AFDC family or a
non-AFDC family and regardless of whether the debtor was
married to the child's other parent.

           LINKAGE BETWEEN AFDC AND CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT

    The Social Security Act requires every State operating an
AFDC program to run a CSE program. Federal law requires
applicants for, and recipients of, AFDC to assign their support
rights to the State in order to receive AFDC. In addition, each
applicant or recipient must cooperate with the State if
necessary to (1) establish the paternity of a child born
outside of marriage, and (2) obtain child support payments,
unless it is found not to be in the best interest of the child
to do so.
    Under the law, AFDC recipients or applicants may be excused
from the requirement of cooperation if the AFDC agency
determines that good cause for noncooperation exists, taking
into consideration the best interests of the child on whose
behalf aid is claimed. The determination is made according to
standards in Federal regulations, the so-called good cause
regulations. If good cause is found not to exist and if the
relative with whom a child is living still refuses to
cooperate, the relative is to be disqualified from AFDC and the
child's benefits are to be sent in the form of a protective
payment to a person other than the caretaker relative. (The
same is true of refusal to assign to the State support rights:
the child will not be disqualified from AFDC, but will receive
AFDC benefits only in the form of protective payments.)
Circumstances under which cooperation may be found to be
against the best interests of the child are defined to include:
situations in which cooperation is reasonably anticipated to
result in physical or emotional harm to the child, or physical
or emotional harm to the caretaker relative, of such nature
that it reduces the capacity to care for the child adequately;
situations in which the child was conceived as a result of
incest or rape; and situations in which legal procedures are
underway for the child's adoption. Families who do not receive
AFDC assistance also are eligible for CSE and paternity
determination services if they apply for services.

                                FUNDING

    The Federal Government currently reimburses each State 66
percent of the cost of administering its CSE program. When the
program began in 1975, the Federal match was 75 percent. In
1982, Public Law 97-248 reduced the Federal match to 70 percent
(fiscal years 1983-87). In 1984 Public Law 98-378 reduced the
Federal match to 68 percent in fiscal year 1988 and fiscal year
1989, and to 66 percent in fiscal year 1990 and years
thereafter. These costs include moneys for locate services,
paternity establishment, establishment of child support orders,
and enforcement services.
    The Federal Government also pays 90 percent of State costs
of developing and improving management information systems,
including expenditures on the hardware (i.e., computers) and 90
percent of laboratory costs incurred in determining paternity.
    The Federal Government pays most of the costs of State CSE
programs. States receive Federal funds to pay a majority share
of the costs of operating CSE programs plus Federal incentive
payments based on total collections and cost-effectiveness of
their programs. State programs receive additional funding from
the State government. Although the actual dollars contributed
by the Federal Government are greater, the level of funding
allocated by the State or local government determines the
amount of resources available to the CSE agency.

                      INCENTIVE PAYMENTS TO STATES

    In most States, the State share of CSE collections made on
behalf of AFDC families can be calculated by subtracting the
Federal medical assistance percentage from 100 percent (in some
States, local governments also are entitled to part of the
State's share of collections). In addition, States and
localities receive Federal CSE incentive payments that come
entirely from the Federal share of child support collections.
The revised incentive formula, effective October 1, 1985, was
designed to encourage States to develop CSE programs that
emphasize collections on behalf of both AFDC and non-AFDC
families, and to improve the program's cost effectiveness.
    Under the incentive formula, each State receives an
incentive payment equal to at least 6 percent of the State's
total amount of AFDC support collections for the year, plus at
least 6 percent of the State's total amount of non-AFDC
collections for the year. The amount of the State's incentive
payment could reach a high of 10 percent of the AFDC
collections plus 10 percent of the non-AFDC collections,
depending on the State's ratio of child support collections to
administrative costs. (See table 11-8.)
    There is a limit, however, on the incentive payment for
non-AFDC collections. The incentive payments for such
collections may not exceed 115 percent of incentive payments
for AFDC collections. (This percentage was 100 percent in
fiscal year 1986 and fiscal year 1987, 105 percent in fiscal
year 1988, 110 percent in fiscal year 1989, and 115 percent in
fiscal year 1990 and each year thereafter.)

            TABLE 11-8.--INCENTIVE PAYMENT STRUCTURE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Incentive
                                                                payment
                                                                received
                                                               (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Collection-to-cost ratio:
    Less than 1.4 to 1.......................................        6.0
    At least 1.4 to 1........................................        6.5
    At least 1.6 to 1........................................        7.0
    At least 1.8 to 1........................................        7.5
    At least 2.0 to 1........................................        8.0
    At least 2.2 to 1........................................        8.5
    At least 2.4 to 1........................................        9.0
    At least 2.6 to 1........................................        9.5
    At least 2.8 to 1........................................      10.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The incentive formula seeks to assure that States provide
equitable treatment for both AFDC and non-AFDC families. Under
the old system, a State that incurred administrative costs to
collect support for a non-AFDC family did not receive an
incentive payment since incentives were paid only for AFDC
collections. This practice generally resulted in the neglect of
non-AFDC cases. The new incentive formula aims to remedy that
by making payments for non-AFDC collections. At the same time
it has placed a limit on non-AFDC incentive payments so as to
lessen the possibility that States would merely transfer to the
CSE program child support activities which were previously
financed out of State and/or local moneys, with no increase in
the level of child support services.
    At State option, laboratory costs (for blood testing, etc.)
to establish paternity may be excluded from the State's
administrative costs in calculating the State's collection-to-
cost ratios for purposes of determining the incentive payment.
In addition, for purposes of calculating these ratios,
interstate collections are credited to both the initiating and
responding States. Incentives are paid according to the
collection-to-cost ratios (ratio of AFDC collections to total
administrative costs and ratio of non-AFDC collections to total
administrative costs) shown in table 11-8.
    Before 1984, a State that initiated a successful action to
collect child support from another State generally did not
receive an incentive payment. Rather, the jurisdiction that
made the collection received the incentive payment. Public Law
98-378 provides that both States involved in an interstate
collection be credited with the collection for purposes of
computing incentive payments. This double-counting is intended
to encourage States to pursue interstate cases as energetically
as they pursue intrastate cases. States now will pay incentive
for interstate cases to themselves out of the Federal share of
collections they distribute.
    In addition to substantial Federal reimbursement, States
may use fees and cost recovery to help finance the CSE program
(discussed later). Such fees and costs recovered from non-AFDC
cases must be subtracted from the State's total administrative
cost before calculating the Federal reimbursement amount;
however, the lower administrative cost figure may result in
greater Federal incentive payments by improving the State's
collection-to-cost ratio.

                       PAYMENTS TO AFDC FAMILIES

    Families receiving AFDC benefits automatically qualify
(free of charge) for CSE services. Their cases are referred to
the CSE agency. Federal law requires AFDC families (and
applicants), as a condition of eligibility for aid, to assign
their support rights to the State, to cooperate with the State
in establishing the paternity of a child born outside of
marriage, and to cooperate with the State in obtaining support
payments. The provision requiring the AFDC applicant or
recipient to assign to the State her rights to support covers
both current support and any arrears which have accrued, and
lasts as long as the family receives AFDC. When the family no
longer receives AFDC, the mother or caretaker relative regains
her right to collect current support, but if there are arrears,
the State may claim those arrears up to the amount paid out as
AFDC benefits.
    Child support payments made on behalf of a child receiving
AFDC are supposed to be paid to the CSE agency rather than
directly to the family. If the child support collection is
insufficient to disqualify the family from receiving AFDC
payments, the family receives its full monthly AFDC grant plus
the first $50 of the child support payment made in the child's
behalf for that month. The remainder of that monthly child
support payment is distributed to reimburse the State and
Federal Governments in proportion to their assistance to the
family. If the family's income, including the child support
payment, is sufficient to make the family ineligible for AFDC
payments, the family's AFDC benefits are ended, and future
child support payments are paid directly from the noncustodial
parent to the family.

Supplemental payments in ``fill-the-gap'' States

    Notwithstanding the above procedures, some States are
required to provide monthly supplemental payments to AFDC
recipients who have less disposable income now than they would
have had in July 1975 because child support is paid to the CSE
agency instead of directly to the family. States required to
pay supplemental payment are often referred to as ``fill-the-
gap'' States. These States pay less assistance than their full
need standard, and allow recipients to use child support income
to make up all or part of the difference between the payment
made by the State and the State's need standard.
    Section 402(a)(28) of the Social Security Act requires
States that had a fill-the-gap policy in 1975 and currently
have such a policy, to add to the AFDC benefit all or part of
the child support collection (the amount which would have
caused no reduction in the AFDC benefit if it had been paid
directly to the family).
    Information obtained from the Office of Child Support
Enforcement (June 1990) indicates that seven States that had
fill-the-gap policies in July 1975 also have them now and thus
must follow the benefit calculation rules of section 402(a)(28)
when taking account of child support collections for AFDC
families. They are: Georgia, Maine, Mississippi, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming. Another 13
jurisdictions, which had fill-the-gap policies in July 1975, no
longer have them. Were they to resume a fill-the-gap practice,
they also would be required to treat child support collections
as though they were paid directly to the family. These
jurisdictions are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas,
Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Texas,
Virgin Islands, Washington, and West Virginia.

                     PAYMENTS TO NON-AFDC FAMILIES

    Families who do not receive AFDC assistance also are
eligible if they apply for services, unless they have left the
AFDC rolls and are automatically provided continued CSE
services.
    The entire amount of child support payments collected on
behalf of a non-AFDC child is paid directly to the family. Even
so, the State still receives the Federal reimbursement
(currently 66 percent) for the costs of establishing and
enforcing child support obligations for these non-AFDC cases.
In some States, parents may be ordered by the court to make and
receive support payments directly or through a court registry
or State child support clearinghouse without any formal
application to the CSE agency. When this occurs, the money
collected, since it is outside the CSE system, cannot be
counted in determining the amount of Federal reimbursement to
the State.
    Non-AFDC families participate in the CSE program on a
voluntary basis, except for Medicaid-only cases. Federal
funding for services to non-AFDC families was made a permanent
part of the program in 1980 by Public Law 96-272. Federal law
requires the State to charge an application fee of up to $25
for CSE services for non-AFDC families. Some States charge the
full $25, some less, and others use State funds to pay the fee
or seek collection from the noncustodial parent.
    In addition, CSE agencies are allowed to recover the actual
costs of their services to non-AFDC families from either the
custodial parent or the noncustodial parent, once current
support has been covered. In practice, this means that costs
are deducted from arrears that otherwise would be paid directly
to the non-AFDC client. Recovery of these costs is contingent
on payment of the arrears. However, it is the practice of most
States not to recover the cost of their services. The amount of
fees collected by the States for purposes of processing non-
AFDC cases plus the amount of processing costs recovered by the
States in excess of the fees charged decreases the amount of
States' expenditures eligible for Federal CSE funding.
Moreover, any interest earned on money from fees or recovered
costs is considered CSE program income and must be used by the
States to offset program expenditures. In fiscal year 1992,
fees received and costs recovered for non-AFDC cases amounted
to $29.2 million.
    Several States try to recoup costs in non-AFDC cases by
deducting their costs from the actual child support payment
before sending it to the custodial parent. Because some of
these custodial parents are only dollars away from qualifying
for AFDC and because it generally is easier to get on welfare
than to earn one's way off, some policymakers argue that this
practice can result in welfare dependency; others maintain that
it is unfair to the children.

                               ARREARAGES

    To receive AFDC benefits, a custodial parent must assign to
the State her right to collect child support payments. This
assignment covers current support and any arrears, and lasts as
long as the family receives AFDC. When the family stops
receiving AFDC, the assignment ends. The mother regains her
right to collect current support. However, if there are
arrears, the State may claim those arrears up to the amount
paid out in AFDC. As described earlier, when a mother receives
AFDC and the CSE agency makes a collection on her behalf, it
must distribute the collection in accordance with Federal law.
First, up to the first $50 collected is given to the family (a
disregard that does not affect the family's AFDC benefit or
eligibility status). Second, the Federal and State Governments
are reimbursed for the AFDC benefits paid to the family in that
month. Third, if there is money left, the family receives it up
to the amount of the current month's child support obligation.
Fourth, if there is still money left, the State keeps it to
reimburse itself for any arrears owed to it under the AFDC
assignment. If no arrears are owed the State, the money is used
to pay arrears owed to the family. Such moneys are considered
income under the AFDC program and would reduce the family's
AFDC benefit.
    In the case of non-AFDC families, the sequence is
different. First, if the family never received AFDC, all child
support collections made on the family's behalf are sent to the
family. Second, if the family had received AFDC before,
collections go toward payment on the current month's support
obligation. If any money is left, and it is considered an
arrearage, the State decides whether the arrears will be paid
to the family or State first. If the arrears are paid to the
State, they are distributed between the Federal and State
Governments as reimbursement for past AFDC benefits. Third, if
there are no arrears, the collection is forwarded to the family
and is credited toward future CSE payments.
    According to the OCSE 17th annual report, in fiscal year
1992, the amount of total prior year support due, i.e.,
arrearages, amounted to $23.9 billion; $1.8 billion (8 percent)
was paid in fiscal year 1992 on prior years' arrears.

                      Distribution of Collections

    Collections made on behalf of families receiving AFDC
directly offset AFDC benefit costs and (except for the first
$50 of current monthly support payments, which go directly to
the family, and are disregarded as income for AFDC purposes)
are shared between the Federal Government and the States in
accordance with the matching formula used for the individual
State's AFDC program.
    In general, the initial determination of the Federal share
of CSE collections is based on the rate of Federal financial
participation in AFDC benefit costs. The Federal share of AFDC
benefit costs generally is determined by the Federal medical
assistance percentage. The Federal share of AFDC benefit costs
(and, therefore, the Federal share of CSE/AFDC collections) is
inversely related to State per capita income; within limits,
the lower the State per capita income, the greater the Federal
share. Nationally, this figure is about 55 percent. It ranges
from a minimum of 50 percent to a statutory maximum of 83
percent. In fiscal year 1993, the highest matching rate was
79.01 percent (the Federal match for AFDC benefit costs in
Mississippi). In fiscal year 1994, Mississippi's Federal AFDC
matching rate dropped to 78.85 percent.
    Even though the national average (gross) Federal share of
AFDC collections is about 56 percent, Federal funds reimburse
States for 66 percent of their CSE administrative costs. This
lowers the net Federal share of support collections.

                       USE OF SUPPORT COLLECTIONS

    The Federal share of child support collections paid by
noncustodial parents of children receiving AFDC benefits is
used first to pay incentives to States on their AFDC and non-
AFDC collections. The remainder is used to offset Federal AFDC
benefit costs. In fiscal year 1993, incentive payments amounted
to $339 million, 44 percent of the Federal share of CSE
collections. Payments made on behalf of non-AFDC families go to
the family.
    Neither Federal law nor regulations dictate the use of the
State's share of child support savings; there are no Federal
strings attached. However, child support collections in and of
themselves can (1) prevent families from qualifying for welfare
programs, (2) remove families from welfare rolls when the
amount collected is sufficient, (3) partially offset State AFDC
payments to families whose monthly child support is
insufficient to remove them from welfare rolls, (4) recover or
prevent the need for Medicaid payments through reimbursement
from private health insurers in cases where the noncustodial
parent has coverage, or where coverage is available, and (5)
offset AFDC foster care costs. In addition, many States have
chosen to reinvest child support savings back into the CSE
program to increase the quality and effectiveness of the
program. Some States use child support savings in other
children and family programs. Others use child support savings
wherever the State budget indicates the need.

  EXTENT TO WHICH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BEARS COST OF THE CHILD SUPPORT
                          ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM

    One of the purposes of the CSE program is to reduce public
expenditures on welfare by obtaining support from noncustodial
parents on an ongoing basis. The CSE program also provides
services to nonwelfare parents who apply for services. One
purpose of the non-AFDC component of the program is welfare
cost avoidance, that is, preventing families from going on AFDC
(or other welfare programs) by collecting child support from
noncustodial parents.
    Even with the reduced Federal matching rate (from 75
percent in 1975 to 66 percent in 1991), the Federal Government
has never recovered its costs from the CSE program. Under the
current financing arrangement, States can run inefficient
programs and still make a profit from the CSE program. The cost
of the CSE program to the Federal Government, however, has
continued, since 1984, to increase steadily.
    To illustrate, assume that an inefficient State spends $200
to collect a $300 child support payment from a noncustodial
parent whose children are receiving AFDC benefits. Such a State
(with a collection-to-cost ratio of 1.5) would qualify for an
incentive payment of $19.50 (6.5 percent of AFDC collections,
see table 11-9). Since the State pays 34 percent of
administrative costs, the collection would cost the State $68,
but the State's share of the collection would total $144.50.
This means that the State would pay 34 percent of the cost and
get 48 percent of the collection. Thus, the net gain to the
State would be $76.50.\7\ On the other hand, the collection
would cost the Federal Government $132, and its share of the
collection would amount to $105.50. Thus, the collection would
cost the Federal Government $26.50. In other words, the Federal
Government would pay 66 percent of the cost and get 35 percent
of the collection. The recipient would get nearly 17 percent of
the collection (the $50 passthrough). Table 11-11 shows that
although the CSE program is a net gain for the States, it is a
significant net cost to the Federal Government.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\This is a simplified example. Actually, the State's share of
savings is determined by adding the State's share of AFDC collections
to the State's AFDC and non-AFDC incentive payments. Its share of total
administrative costs is subtracted from these revenues. The
calculations assume a 50-50 matching rate for AFDC benefits.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------


 TABLE 11-9.--STATE AND FEDERAL SHARE OF CHILD SUPPORT COLLECTIONS
                              [AFDC Family]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                  Cost of
                             Collections        collections    Net gain
------------------------------------------------------------------------
State share..........      $125+$19.50=$144.50          $68      +$76.50
Federal share........       125- 19.50= 105.50          132       -26.50
Payment to recipient.                    50.00            0      + 50.00
                      --------------------------------------------------
      Total..........                   300.00          200      +100.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The point at which a State breaks even (exactly recovers
collection costs) in child support payments on behalf of AFDC
recipients primarily depends on the share of AFDC benefit costs
that it pays, and this, in turn, is related inversely to State
per capita income. This can be shown by calculating the
approximate breakeven ratios (collections needed per dollar of
administrative cost) for States with different Federal AFDC
matching rates, but the same collection cost per case. In the
following examples, it is assumed that the cost of making a
collection is $100 per month per AFDC case. (This figure was
the national average cost for fiscal year 1988; it was obtained
by dividing total CSE administrative costs of AFDC cases by the
average number of AFDC cases in which a collection was made).
    Example 1.--State that pays 50 percent of AFDC benefit
costs--maximum State share. (In fiscal year 1990, 11 States and
the District of Columbia were in this position.)
    Under the existing system, the breakeven collection amount
for a State spending $100 per AFDC case to collect child
support payments, retaining the maximum State share (50
percent) of AFDC/CSE collections, paying the standard 34
percent of CSE administrative costs, and receiving the minimum
incentive payment of 6 percent, is $105.\8\ That is, the State
need collect only $1.05 per $1 of total administrative cost in
order to recover its share of costs. Conversely, the Federal
breakeven ratio for this State's collections is approximately
2.17. That is, the State must collect about $217 in order for
the Federal Government to break even.\9\ (See table 11-10 and
chart 11-1.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\State share of collections = State share of costs at breakeven
        .5(C-$50) + .06[(C-$50)+$50] = .34Y
        .56C = .34Y + $25
    Assume State receives 50-50 matching rate for AFDC benefit costs
and assume Y = $100 (national average in fiscal year 1988). C = total
collections, Y = cost of collections, and (C-$50) = X, which is the
public share of collections. The incentive payment equals 6 percent of
total collections.
    \9\Federal share of collections = Federal share of costs at
breakeven
        .5(C-$50) - .08[(C-$50)+$50] = .66Y
        .42C = .66Y + $25
    Assume State receives 50-50 matching rate for AFDC benefit costs
and assume Y = $100 (national average in fiscal year 1988). C = total
collections, Y = cost of collections, and (C-$50) = X, which is the
public share of collections. The incentive payment, a function of the
collection-to-cost ratio, equals 8 percent of total collections in this
example where the collection-to-cost ratio is 2.17 (see table 8).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Example 2.--State that pays the minimum share (less than 20
percent) of AFDC benefit costs.
    This situation is illustrated by the case of Mississippi,
which had a Federal matching rate of 80.18 percent (and, thus,
a State matching rate of 19.82 percent) for AFDC benefit costs.
The breakeven collection amount for Mississippi, assuming it
also spent $100 per AFDC case to collect child support
payments, would be $164. This is a breakeven ratio of 1.64.
Conversely, the Federal breakeven ratio for Mississippi's CSE
program is approximately 1.44. (See table 11-10 and chart 11-
1.)
    These illustrations show that the States that are entitled
to a relatively small proportion of child support collections
(because of paying a small share of AFDC benefit costs) have to
collect more child support payments per administrative dollar
than other States to recover their costs (other things being
equal). (See table 11-10.)

   TABLE 11-10.--STATE AND FEDERAL BREAKEVEN POINTS PER DOLLAR OF
    COLLECTION COSTS\1\ FOR SELECTED FEDERAL AFDC MATCHING RATES
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                   State       Federal
                                                 breakeven    breakeven
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Federal AFDC matching rate:
    50 percent................................        $1.05        $2.17
    60 percent................................         1.17         1.83
    70 percent................................         1.36         1.60
    80 percent................................         1.64         1.44
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\The breakeven point is the amount of collections at which the
  jurisdiction exactly recovers its share of the collection costs. In
  this table collection costs are assumed to be $100 per month, the
  fiscal year 1988 national average cost of AFDC collections. This
  average was obtained by dividing fiscal year 1988 AFDC expenditures by
  the average number of AFDC cases in which a collection was made that
  year.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


  CHART 11-1. STATE/FEDERAL PROFIT/LOSS AT VARIOUS SUPPORT COLLECTION
                    AMOUNTS, AND AFDC MATCHING RATES

<CHART 11-1>

    Table 11-11 shows that during the period 1979-93, the CSE
program has produced new revenue for the States but incurred
cost to the Federal Government. The States' share of
collections has exceeded their share of administrative costs in
each year, but the Federal share of collections has fallen
increasingly short of their share of administrative costs. Net
Federal costs have risen sharply from $43 million in fiscal
year 1979 to $740 million in fiscal year 1993, a real increase
of 745 percent (constant fiscal year 1993 dollars). Although
net State savings increased in current dollars, from $244
million in fiscal year 1979 to $462 million in fiscal year
1993, there was a 7 percent decrease in constant fiscal year
1993 dollars.
    In fiscal year 1992, 11 jurisdictions (Alabama, Arizona,
Guam, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Puerto
Rico, Texas, the Virgin Islands, and West Virginia) did not
achieve a savings from their CSE program. Moreover, in that
same year, in only five States (Indiana, Iowa, North Dakota,
South Dakota, and Wyoming) was the Federal share of child
support savings positive. Despite the discussion above about
breakeven points, it is not clear why these 11 jurisdictions
did not recover their costs from the CSE program, nor why the
Federal Government recovered its costs in the five other States
(mentioned above).

 TABLE 11-11.--FEDERAL AND STATE SHARE OF CHILD SUPPORT ``SAVINGS,''
                        FISCAL YEARS 1979-93
                              [In millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                         Federal      State
                                         share of    share of     Net
                                          child       child      public
                                         support     support    savings
                                        savings\1\   savings
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal year:
    1979.............................        -$43        $244       $201
    1980.............................        -103         230        127
    1981.............................        -128         261        133
    1982.............................        -148         307        159
    1983.............................        -138         312        174
    1984.............................        -105         366        260
    1985.............................        -231         317         86
    1986.............................        -264         274          9
    1987.............................        -337         342          5
    1988.............................        -355         381         26
    1989.............................        -480         403        -77
    1990.............................        -528         338       -190
    1991.............................        -586         385       -201
    1992.............................        -605         434       -171
    1993.............................        -740         462       -278
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Negative ``savings'' are costs.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Child
  Support Enforcement. Annual Reports to Congress, various years.

    Table 11-11 also shows that the CSE program no longer
produces a net public savings ($201 million savings in fiscal
year 1979). Instead, in fiscal year 1993, the net cost of the
program to the taxpayer was estimated at $278 million, up $107
million from fiscal year 1992. In addition, table 11-11 shows
public savings dropping 67 percent from fiscal year 1984 to
fiscal year 1985. This sudden decrease in public savings
primarily was caused by the provision in 1984 law, first
effective in fiscal year 1985, requiring that up to the first
$50 received by the CSE agency on behalf of an AFDC family be
passed through to the family without affecting their
eligibility for AFDC or AFDC benefit payments. In fiscal year
1985, about 3.5 percent of CSE collections, $93.8 million went
to AFDC families (pursuant to the $50 passthrough rule). In
fiscal year 1993, $364.2 million (about 4.1 percent of CSE
collections) was passed through to AFDC families. If these
funds had not been spent to increase the incomes of poor
children and their parents on AFDC, the net public savings from
child support enforcement would have been a positive $86.2
million in fiscal year 1993.
    Some question whether States have sufficient incentive to
minimize costs, most of which are paid by the Federal
Government. However, others argue that the intangible benefits
of the CSE program make it worthwhile, despite considerations
of cost-effectiveness. It is a fact that a large segment of the
program, namely the non-AFDC component, by definition, provides
no direct savings to the States or the Federal Government.
Nevertheless, the non-AFDC component of the CSE program can
achieve welfare cost avoidance in the following ways: by
providing non-AFDC families with additional income sufficient
to make them decide not to apply for public assistance (AFDC,
food stamp, or Medicaid), even though eligible; by making non-
AFDC families ineligible for public assistance and by
continuing to make these families ineligible by reason of
income; and by reducing the benefit levels of non-AFDC families
who do receive public assistance benefits.
    A recent study indicated that there was $1 in indirect
savings, or welfare cost avoidance, for every $4 in child
support collections made on behalf of non-AFDC families. If
this were true in fiscal year 1992, the public avoided over
$1.6 billion in additional welfare costs, more than paying for
the program.
    It also should be noted that once the CSE system matures
(i.e., once the majority of existing cases have child support
orders), the cost-effectiveness of the system probably will
improve. However, because the benefits of establishing
paternity or a child support award occur in future years as
well as the current year, a static, point-in-time, analysis of
costs and collections fails to account for the complexity and
dynamic nature of the CSE system. It is an unfortunate irony
that the more effective the program becomes at cost-avoidance,
the less effective it will appear in such static calculations
of ``savings.''

                       ROLE OF AUTOMATED SYSTEMS

    In 1980, Congress authorized 90 percent Federal matching
funds on an open-ended basis for CSE automated data systems,
instead of the regular program rate (75 percent in 1980, 66
percent in fiscal year 1990 and years thereafter). Funds go to
States that elect to establish an automated data processing and
information retrieval system designed to assist management in
the administration of the State plan, so as to control, account
for, and monitor all factors in the support enforcement,
collection, and paternity determination process. Funds may be
used to plan, design, develop, and install or enhance the
system. The Secretary of DHHS must approve the system as
meeting specified conditions before matching is available.
    In 1984, Congress made the 90 percent rate available to pay
for the acquisition of computer hardware and necessary
software. The 1984 legislation also specified that if a State
met the Federal requirement for 90 percent matching, it could
use its 90 percent matching funds to pay for the development
and improvement of income withholding and other procedures
required by the 1984 law.
    In May 1986, the OCSE established a transfer policy
requiring States seeking the 90 percent Federal matching rate
to transfer existing automated systems from other States rather
than to develop new ones, unless there were a compelling reason
not to.
    In 1988, Congress required States without comprehensive
statewide automated systems to submit an advance planning
document to the OCSE by October 1, 1991, for the development of
such systems. All State systems must be approved as fully
operating by October 1, 1995, at which time the 90 percent
matching rate is to end. The new law allows many requirements
for automated systems to be waived under certain circumstances.
For instance, the DHHS Secretary may waive a requirement if (1)
a State demonstrates that it has an alternative system enabling
it to substantially comply with program requirements or (2) a
State provides assurance that additional steps will be taken to
improve its program.
    All States and territories submitted advance planning
documents for automated child support systems as required by
the Family Support Act of 1988. As of July 1, 1992, OCSE had
approved plans for all States and territories. According to an
August 1992 GAO report (IMTEC-92-46), the Federal Government
had spent $258 million at the end of fiscal year 1991 in
enhanced 90 percent matching funds for child support automtion.
It is estimated that another $863 million in 90 percent
matching funds will be spent by October 1, 1995.
    According to a February 1989 GAO report entitled, ``Child
Support: State Progress in Developing Automated Enforcement
Systems,'' States that develop automated systems with regular
program funds also must obtain advance approval by the OCSE for
expenditures that exceed $200,000. The GAO reported that
oversight of system acquisition and operation under the regular
program funding is less stringent than that of systems with
enhanced funding.

     IMPACT OF CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT ON AFDC AND POVERTY STATUS

    For the 5.0 million women due child support payments in
1989 (including the nearly 1.2 million women who did not
receive any payment), the average annual amount of child
support owed was $2,252. The average annual amount of child
support for the 3.7 million women who received child support
payments was $2,995. If the full amount of payment due had been
made to all women owed child support, the average annual amount
would have been $3,292. (The average AFDC benefit per family in
1989 was about $4,600.) In 1989, 1.2 million (37 percent) of
the 3.2 million women rearing children alone with incomes below
the poverty level were supposed to receive child support
payments. If full payment had been made to those 1.2 million
women, 140,000 (4.4 percent of the 3.2 million and 11.8 percent
of the 1.2 million) of them would have received enough income
from child support payments to put them above the poverty
level. This assumes that none of those poor women was a
recipient of AFDC. For those receiving AFDC, the maximum they
usually receive in the form of child support payments (via the
CSE agency) is $50 monthly.
    It is clear from the above illustration that the low level
of child support awards due in 1989 limited the CSE program's
antipoverty impact. The antipoverty effectiveness of the CSE
program might be marginal for some families, given that Census
Bureau data indicate that even being a member of a two-parent
family is no guarantee against poverty. In 1991, 7.7 percent of
white two-parent families with children under age 18 had
incomes below the poverty level and 12.4 percent of black two-
parent families were poor. This means that being in a two-
parent family is not as much of a protection against poverty
for blacks as it is for whites. Since the costs of achieving a
moderate standard of living are sometimes higher for two
households than for one, when a family breaks up, the father
may have less money available to contribute to the support of
his children. Thus, because the poverty rate of black children
is relatively high even in two-parent families, the potential
of child support for reducing the poverty rate of black
children may be especially limited.
    In 1989, $16.3 billion in child support payments were due,
but actual payments totaled $11.2 billion. In 1985, $10.9
billion in child support payments were due, but actual payments
totaled $7.2 billion. This meant that $3.7 billion or 33
percent of collections owed in 1985 went unpaid. While the
almost $11 billion owed in child support in 1985 is a
substantial amount, two basic studies indicate that fathers
have the ability to pay from $24 to $30 billion annually in
child support.
    One study points out that the size of the estimate of the
total amount that noncustodial fathers can afford to contribute
to their children's maintenance ($26.6 billion annually) says
nothing about the distribution of this money by income group.
The study indicates that children whose fathers are in the
highest income quintile would receive 46 percent of the $26.6
billion and that those whose fathers are in the lowest quintile
would receive 3 percent of the $26.6 billion.
    Another study based on data from the Panel Study of Income
Dynamics, which covers divorces and separations during the
period 1968-1981, indicates that poor children have not
necessarily had poor fathers, and that increased child support
payments from the absent fathers could substantially reduce
their years of poverty. The study states that ``the largest
portion of the times when the custodial mother's family is poor
are times when the absent father has enough income to keep
himself and any new family he has formed out of poverty.'' This
report concludes that if increased child support payments
merely replace welfare support, many childhood years would
remain in poverty. Some of the reasons for this finding are:
(1) the absence of support awards in a large number of cases,
(2) nonpayment or underpayment of existing awards, and (3) low
award levels relative to the income of noncustodial parents.
    Although the antipoverty potential of the CSE program is
limited and difficult to estimate, it is clear that child
support payments could have a large impact on AFDC costs. In
fiscal year 1992, the sum collected by the CSE agency from AFDC
parents equalled 11.4 percent of AFDC benefits. Researchers say
that this overstates the impact of the CSE program, inasmuch as
AFDC mothers would have collected some support if there were no
CSE program and they were not required to give their child
support rights to the welfare agency. One researcher estimates
that only about 25 percent of the gain can be attributed
directly to the CSE program. (This figure, applied to fiscal
year 1992, leads to the estimate that if there had been no CSE
program that year, mothers would have collected 8.5 percent of
AFDC benefits, compared to the actual sum of 11.4 percent
collected by the CSE agency.) The researcher said that if a
successful system of mandatory wage withholding were adopted
and greater efforts made to establish obligations, the CSE
program might recover between 15 percent and 20 percent of
total AFDC benefit expenditures. The OCSE annual fiscal year
1992 data show 10 States recovering at least 20 percent of
total AFDC benefit payments through the efforts of the CSE
program (on average, these are relatively smaller States with
low AFDC benefit levels).
    In addition, there is much research that indicates that
child support payments could help reduce the severity of
poverty for many non-AFDC children even if it did not end their
poverty.

 TABLE 11-12.--ESTIMATED TOTAL NUMBER AND PERCENT OF AFDC FAMILIES AFFECTED BY $50 PASSTHROUGH: 1985, 1990,
                                             1992,\1\ AND 1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Estimated       Percent of families affected
                                                      AFDC      families ---------------------------------------
                      State                         families    affected
                                                      1993        1993      1985      1990      1992      1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.........................................       50,994     18,510      11.7      19.1      33.4      36.3
Alaska..........................................       10,048      1,889      11.9      20.7      18.8      18.8
Arizona.........................................       68,725      2,695       4.8       4.9       7.3       3.9
Arkansas........................................       26,098      7,697      15.9      19.7      27.7      29.5
California......................................      717,181     82,517      13.8      12.7      11.3      11.5

Colorado........................................       41,152      8,510      14.1      15.1      18.5      20.7
Connecticut.....................................       55,072     11,162      25.6      19.3      18.3      20.3
Delaware........................................       11,256      2,511      21.7      18.0      21.6      22.3
District of Columbia............................       24,589      1,872       5.8       7.5       7.9       7.6
Florida.........................................      247,505     37,925      11.4      24.0      15.9      15.3

Georgia.........................................      139,903     26,813       5.3      19.6      17.8      19.2
Guam............................................        1,363        489      10.5      19.9      34.6      35.9
Hawaii..........................................       17,452      3,039      20.5      13.2      19.6      17.4
Idaho...........................................        7,436      3,922      46.7      46.6      49.6      52.7
Illinois........................................      220,972     17,782       5.5       7.9       7.4       8.1

Indiana.........................................       68,904     23,807      25.9      27.8      43.4      34.6
Iowa............................................       34,443      9,150      22.7      22.8      23.9      26.6
Kansas..........................................       27,729      9,664      15.2      24.0      31.5      34.9
Kentucky........................................       73,601     12,534       7.6      13.4      15.5      17.0
Louisiana.......................................       88,712      8,238       6.9       8.5       9.3       9.3

Maine...........................................       21,161      7,339      25.6      39.3      23.0      34.7
Maryland........................................       79,222     14,347      15.0      10.9      18.6      18.1
Massachusetts...................................      106,962     12,252      20.2      16.3      11.2      11.5
Michigan........................................      197,796     53,494      17.2      25.3      23.9      27.1
Minnesota.......................................       57,147     20,076      22.5      28.0      29.8      35.1

Mississippi.....................................       59,509      7,931       4.8       9.2      12.4      13.3
Missouri........................................       84,700     14,833       8.2      18.5      17.9      17.5
Montana.........................................       10,535      1,906      13.9      15.2      18.3      18.1
Nebraska........................................       15,452      4,512      11.3      20.6      27.5      29.2
Nevada..........................................       12,614      4,201      33.6      29.8      32.4      33.3

New Hampshire...................................       10,462      3,589      12.6      13.5      27.1      34.1
New Jersey......................................      121,685     25,361      15.4      15.8      19.9      20.8
New Mexico......................................       29,500      2,927       7.6      11.8       9.5       9.9
New York........................................      415,885     48,495       9.2      11.8      13.0      11.7
North Carolina..................................      127,390     24,211      15.0      19.5      18.9      19.0

North Dakota....................................        5,974      2,340      25.1      36.7      38.5      39.2
Ohio............................................      233,965     35,119      11.6      19.9      14.1      15.0
Oklahoma........................................       47,696      4,626       8.4      13.4       7.5       9.7
Oregon..........................................       38,662      9,980      16.0      17.6      22.5      25.8
Pennsylvania....................................      194,826     50,941      16.3      20.8      24.9      26.2

Puerto Rico.....................................       60,709      1,874       4.7       4.2       3.3       3.1
Rhode Island....................................       21,434      2,728      13.9      17.9      11.1      12.7
South Carolina..................................       52,110     13,173       8.9      26.3      23.8      25.3
South Dakota....................................        7,167      1,897      17.6      21.4      24.2      26.5
Tennessee.......................................      102,909     10,988       9.8      15.2      11.4      10.7

Texas...........................................      270,257     18,049       3.1       5.8       6.1       6.7
Utah............................................       18,229      4,721      26.9      23.7      25.7      25.9
Vermont.........................................        8,570      3,439      21.9      36.5      35.9      40.1
Virgin Islands..................................        1,083        139      10.2      11.6      11.7      12.8
Virginia........................................       72,824     17,424      14.9      24.9      24.5      23.9

Washington......................................       85,259     27,243      18.0      24.8      28.7      32.0
West Virginia...................................       33,042      3,641       6.6       7.1       9.0      11.0
Wisconsin.......................................       71,994     29,193      37.8      38.9      38.7      40.6
Wyoming.........................................        6,324      1,535       8.0      21.7      26.2      24.3
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
  Nationwide total..............................    4,616,169    775,230      13.2      16.3      16.3      16.8
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NA=Not available.

\1\These estimates are based on the number of ``paying'' child support cases and are a low estimate of the
  number of families affected.

Note: These estimates are based on the number of ``paying'' child support cases adjusted for comparability with
  AFDC families.

Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


                                TABLE 11-13.--STATE PROFILE OF COLLECTIONS AND EXPENDITURES, FISCAL YEAR 1993\1\
                                                                [In millions of dollars]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                  Child support collections
                                                                                                                     per dollar of total       Incentive
                                                              Total         AFDC       Non-AFDC       Total     administrative expenditures    payments
                          State                            collections  collections  collections  expenditures ------------------------------ (estimate)
                                                                                                                           AFDC/FC  Non-AFDC
                                                                                                                 Total     total     total
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama..................................................      $113.2        $22.5        $90.7        $34.6        3.27      0.65      2.62       $3.8
Alaska...................................................        39.1         11.7         27.4         10.6        3.71      1.11      2.60        2.2
Arizona..................................................        66.6         18.6         48.0         37.1        1.79      0.50      1.29        2.2
Arkansas.................................................        49.1         16.2         32.9         15.3        3.20      1.06      2.15        2.1
California...............................................       736.9        335.2        401.6        290.6        2.54      1.15      1.38       48.4
Colorado.................................................        67.7         26.2         41.5         27.4        2.47      0.95      1.51        4.1
Connecticut..............................................        93.5         41.3         52.2         29.3        3.19      1.41      1.78        5.1
Delaware.................................................        26.7          7.8         18.9         11.1        2.39      0.70      1.69        1.1
District of Columbia.....................................        21.8          5.2         16.6          8.7        2.51      0.60      1.91        1.0
Florida..................................................       290.0         78.1        211.9         76.7        3.78      1.02      2.76       10.7
Georgia..................................................       205.6         84.6        120.9         46.0        4.47      1.84      2.63       13.9
Guam.....................................................         5.0          2.3          2.7          2.7        1.89      0.88      1.00        0.4
Hawaii...................................................        37.3          9.1         28.3          9.8        3.79      0.92      2.87        1.2
Idaho....................................................        32.1          8.7         23.4          9.4        3.43      0.93      2.50        1.5
Illinois.................................................       183.9         55.7        128.1         77.8        2.36      0.72      1.65        8.1
Indiana..................................................       141.2         52.0         89.1         21.9        6.45      2.38      4.07       10.9
Iowa.....................................................       109.3         36.8         72.5         21.2        5.14      1.73      3.41        5.3
Kansas...................................................        59.6         22.4         37.2         23.2        2.57      0.97      1.61        3.1
Kentucky.................................................       103.6         36.6         67.0         34.0        3.05      1.08      1.97        5.7
Louisiana................................................       103.1         26.8         76.2         32.3        3.19      0.83      2.36        3.6
Maine....................................................        45.0         25.7         19.3         13.3        3.39      1.93      1.45        3.0
Maryland.................................................       219.1         51.3        167.8         48.0        4.56      1.07      3.49        5.5
Massachusetts............................................       195.4         77.3        118.1         45.4        4.30      1.70      2.60       11.6
Michigan.................................................       874.5        169.6        704.9        103.7        8.43      1.64      6.80       24.9
Minnesota................................................       214.5         56.0        158.5         51.1        4.20      1.10      3.10        6.8
Mississippi..............................................        53.5         21.6         31.9         24.3        2.20      0.89      1.31        3.0
Missouri.................................................       189.1         51.2        138.0         43.9        4.30      1.16      3.14        7.9
Montana..................................................        20.1          6.5         13.7          7.3        2.76      0.88      1.87        1.1
Nebraska.................................................        71.7          9.8         61.9         17.2        4.17      0.57      3.60        1.3
Nevada...................................................        37.6          7.0         30.6         15.8        2.39      0.45      1.94        1.7
New Hampshire............................................        31.5          7.6         23.9         11.0        2.87      0.70      2.17        0.8
New Jersey...............................................       407.8         84.0        323.8        101.4        4.02      0.83      3.19       10.6
New Mexico...............................................        27.1         12.9         14.2          8.8        3.08      1.47      1.61        1.1
New York.................................................       536.4        184.6        351.8        172.9        3.10      1.07      2.03       22.2
North Carolina...........................................       197.3         70.3        127.0         61.7        3.20      1.14      2.06        9.2
North Dakota.............................................        18.7          6.1         12.6          4.6        4.05      1.32      2.73        1.0
Ohio.....................................................       714.1        105.7        608.4        130.4        5.48      0.81      4.67       12.7
Oklahoma.................................................        52.2         18.8         33.4         16.7        3.13      1.13      2.00        2.9
Oregon...................................................       124.9         28.4         96.6         25.2        4.95      1.12      3.83        5.0
Pennsylvania.............................................       814.5        124.5        690.0         89.6        9.09      1.39      7.70       15.5
Puerto Rico..............................................        97.4          1.3         96.0          8.3       11.73      0.16     11.57        0.5
Rhode Island.............................................        26.7         15.0         11.7          6.1        4.35      2.44      1.91        1.8
South Carolina...........................................        79.3         24.6         54.7         20.4        3.88      1.20      2.68        2.8
South Dakota.............................................        18.1          5.1         13.1          3.7        4.90      1.37      3.53        0.8
Tennessee................................................       116.2         33.4         82.7         21.4        5.42      1.56      3.86        4.5
Texas....................................................       309.5         66.2        243.3        134.1        2.31      0.49      1.81        9.8
Utah.....................................................        56.2         19.5         36.7         19.6        2.86      0.99      1.87        2.4
Vermont..................................................        15.8          7.6          8.2          5.2        3.06      1.48      1.59        1.3
Virgin Islands...........................................         5.0          0.3          4.6          1.1        4.50      0.31      4.19        0.0
Virginia.................................................       151.9         39.6        112.3         49.2        3.09      0.80      2.28        6.0
Washington...............................................       307.3        100.3        206.9         89.8        3.42      1.12      2.30       15.6
West Virginia............................................        49.0         16.9         32.1         17.7        2.77      0.95      1.82        1.5
Wisconsin................................................       332.8         65.4        267.4         46.6        7.15      1.41      5.74        9.2
Wyoming..................................................        13.8          4.3          9.5          5.9        2.34      0.74      1.61        0.8
                                                          ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      U.S. Totals........................................    $8,909.3     $2,416.2     $6,492.7     $2,241.1        3.98      1.08      2.90     $339.2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Totals may not add because of rounding.

Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


           TABLE 11-14.--TOTAL  CHILD  SUPPORT  COLLECTIONS,  SELECTED  FISCAL  YEARS 1979-93
                                           [In thousands of dollars]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               State                    1979       1983       1987       1990       1991       1992       1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama............................      6,854      8,643     39,976     66,174     80,952     98,141    113,273
Alaska.............................      3,844      9,704     17,139     26,788     30,721     35,613     39,148
Arizona............................      6,411     10,563     20,114     27,837     33,277     46,447     66,580
Arkansas...........................      3,921      7,401     16,267     26,010     32,783     42,065     49,147
California.........................    199,945    254,586    394,882    522,646    591,243    653,681    736,855
Colorado...........................      4,020     17,178     22,376     39,601     46,997     58,030     67,723
Connecticut........................     23,033     39,227     57,182     66,724     75,778     84,190     93,454
Delaware...........................      5,814      8,097     13,871     20,161     22,692     25,926     26,663
District of Columbia...............      1,086      3,521      5,690     13,598     16,578     19,733     21,798
Florida............................     10,524     19,080     81,759    176,603    214,153    252,473    289,976
Georgia............................      5,554     13,439     48,082    113,095    143,014    174,467    205,566
Guam...............................        160        391        627      1,440      3,162      4,697      5,003
Hawaii.............................      5,150     10,087     15,985     27,638     30,096     34,404     37,327
Idaho..............................      2,501      4,690     13,490     22,909     23,442     27,846     32,127
Illinois...........................     10,740     32,025     89,622    136,019    150,134    183,308    183,889
Indiana............................      9,073     20,789     60,613     96,145    110,117    124,614    141,164
Iowa...............................     13,017     29,185     48,516     70,982     80,693     96,046    109,278
Kansas.............................      3,975      9,921     22,199     44,958     54,832     66,053     59,601
Kentucky...........................      4,881     19,702     32,456     59,998     73,928     93,902    103,587
Louisiana..........................     12,678     26,754     40,047     60,527     67,988     84,373    103,054
Maine..............................      4,574     10,235     22,421     35,741     36,554     38,005     44,963
Maryland...........................     20,856     77,129     97,889    151,352    163,626    194,009    219,085
Massachusetts......................     36,338     72,319    128,809    176,915    169,545    185,086    195,374
Michigan...........................    248,414    273,799    531,137    644,734    697,634    782,804    874,483
Minnesota..........................     21,370     44,893     79,467    139,345    160,363    189,495    214,480
Mississippi........................      1,662      4,887     15,444     30,532     40,277     48,289     53,505
Missouri...........................      5,829     18,118     71,905    129,851    141,372    166,339    189,161
Montana............................      1,213      2,415      5,328      8,822     12,968     17,436     20,150
Nebraska...........................      2,468     20,044     37,667     52,378     57,055     66,177     71,708
Nevada.............................      3,487      5,556      9,844     16,210     23,346     32,080     37,641
New Hampshire......................      2,089     11,621     17,542     20,604     22,659     27,360     31,497
New Jersey.........................     94,005    143,225    245,697    281,923    326,879    372,506    407,849
New Mexico.........................      1,680      4,614      8,672     14,416     16,792     19,088     27,117
New York...........................    136,361    174,454    269,218    373,718    437,371    487,738    536,374
North Carolina.....................      9,168     30,830     69,768    120,344    140,222    167,894    197,254
North Dakota.......................      1,723      2,723      5,483     10,414     12,309     15,599     18,693
Ohio...............................     22,832     34,862    180,696    489,515    552,649    665,999    714,132
Oklahoma...........................      1,826      5,233     16,365     32,169     39,922     46,540     52,170
Oregon.............................     88,502     38,052     53,470     78,374     91,252    107,435    124,929
Pennsylvania.......................    186,718    285,829    459,950    614,222    699,676    775,782    814,480
Puerto Rico........................      1,916     31,985     66,164     74,535     77,252     84,329     97,357
Rhode Island.......................      3,575      7,196     11,823     20,044     21,609     24,880     26,671
South Carolina.....................      3,545      7,461     33,581     52,320     58,857     68,798     79,280
South Dakota.......................      1,407      2,847      6,275     11,024     13,119     15,881     18,112
Tennessee..........................      8,976     19,077     38,406     71,502     77,032     84,818    116,152
Texas..............................      8,207     17,941     61,184    132,318    192,797    251,157    309,502
Utah...............................      6,624     13,594     24,766     38,071     43,895     52,610     56,199
Vermont............................      1,449      2,828      5,682      9,353     11,023     13,518     15,831
Virgin Islands.....................        260        684      3,018      3,131      3,338      4,049      4,992
Virginia...........................      9,197     13,617     58,859    110,560    129,919    145,114    151,919
Washington.........................     27,018     41,643     72,320    175,750    222,409    267,455    307,251
West Virginia......................      1,592      3,434      9,724     21,658     23,527     35,561     49,016
Wisconsin..........................     34,267     56,041    154,701    241,272    276,712    293,460    332,814
Wyoming............................        520      1,017      3,229      7,155      9,079     11,220     13,810
                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Nationwide
    total..........................  1,332,847  2,024,184  3,917,399  6,010,125  6,885,619  7,964,522  8,909,166
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


                  TABLE 11-15.--TOTAL AFDC COLLECTIONS, SELECTED FISCAL YEARS 1979-93
                                            [In thousands of dollars]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               State                    1979       1983       1987       1990       1991       1992       1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama............................      6,830      7,789     15,050     19,484     22,788     23,001     22,539
Alaska.............................        334      1,780      4,242      8,160      9,940     11,145     11,722
Arizona............................        642      1,459      4,805      6,102      7,401     12,693     18,616
Arkansas...........................      2,428      4,593      8,771     11,799     13,800     15,766     16,249
California.........................    117,532    136,963    198,152    248,440    286,261    314,232    335,235
Colorado...........................      3,525      9,330     11,155     16,765     19,281     23,287     26,197
Connecticut........................     11,416     20,628     26,403     27,405     33,816     37,744     41,292
Delaware...........................      1,386      2,276      4,150      5,826      6,661      7,306      7,798
District of Columbia...............        907      2,421      2,912      4,118      4,407      4,927      5,197
Florida............................      8,598     10,408     33,511     48,364     57,071     69,765     78,081
Georgia............................      4,772     11,355     25,244     45,937     57,765     74,546     84,627
Guam...............................        159        259        299        520      1,635      2,524      2,344
Hawaii.............................      2,544      4,482      5,698      8,343      7,699      8,161      9,058
Idaho..............................      2,047      3,806      5,034      6,952      7,482      8,543      8,746
Illinois...........................      9,916     18,971     38,705     44,149     48,968     58,842     55,749
Indiana............................      8,116     17,646     31,466     38,124     45,030     49,247     52,040
Iowa...............................     10,654     19,978     27,834     28,552     30,585     35,401     36,775
Kansas.............................      3,454      7,807     12,155     15,209     17,454     20,869     22,402
Kentucky...........................      4,615      6,316     11,676     22,286     27,502     34,702     36,565
Louisiana..........................      5,244      9,641     15,798     20,861     23,089     25,975     26,827
Maine..............................      4,133      8,402     15,557     21,089     21,063     21,477     25,683
Maryland...........................     10,929     27,773     27,417     42,318     37,162     46,348     51,313
Massachusetts......................     29,145     40,476     53,962     68,968     66,969     71,784     77,292
Michigan...........................     76,375     97,694    127,508    145,251    153,690    168,317    169,581
Minnesota..........................     14,510     25,708     35,822     43,950     47,802     53,305     55,961
Mississippi........................      1,556      4,544      7,596     14,530     19,494     21,523     21,641
Missouri...........................      4,165     11,500     23,525     38,056     37,021     49,653     51,153
Montana............................        685      1,834      3,365      4,394      5,251      6,413      6,464
Nebraska...........................      2,083      3,675      6,160      6,990      7,431      9,195      9,797
Nevada.............................        517      1,824      2,673      3,311      4,465      6,807      7,021
New Hampshire......................      2,089      2,649      2,744      3,606      4,385      6,337      7,638
New Jersey.........................     28,622     41,103     58,890     61,473     76,644     83,509     84,020
New Mexico.........................      1,160      2,891      4,120      5,573      6,421      7,850     12,922
New York...........................     56,588     68,622    102,115    134,040    157,582    174,587    184,583
North Carolina.....................      7,714     18,795     33,249     46,176     54,712     64,004     70,304
North Dakota.......................      1,379      2,011      3,517      5,103      5,600      6,016      6,098
Ohio...............................     21,974     33,403     66,866     76,888     84,304    100,833    105,719
Oklahoma...........................      1,260      3,648      7,143     11,875     14,894     17,682     18,784
Oregon.............................     12,977     12,645     14,744     18,877     21,989     25,637     28,357
Pennsylvania.......................     33,190     47,135     77,932     96,328    113,735    123,784    124,490
Puerto Rico........................        439        917      1,803      1,707      1,600      1,428      1,344
Rhode Island.......................      3,438      4,217      6,064     10,168     10,550     13,486     14,954
South Carolina.....................      3,065      6,015     13,218     15,933     17,779     21,066     24,588
South Dakota.......................      1,137      2,175      3,058      3,717      4,213      4,888      5,056
Tennessee..........................      3,871      5,567     12,086     22,926     27,865     22,777     33,422
Texas..............................      6,370     10,879     19,703     39,659     47,255     59,165     66,199
Utah...............................      5,442     11,643     11,733     14,999     16,261     18,939     19,488
Vermont............................      1,201      2,626      4,079      5,578      6,380      6,649      7,638
Virgin Islands.....................        143        140        241        210        233        282        343
Virginia...........................      9,081     11,758     15,536     27,770     33,910     38,281     39,610
Washington.........................     18,319     26,495     38,429     65,291     77,402     91,083    100,337
West Virginia......................      1,430      3,311      5,647      4,085      6,859      9,500     16,867
Wisconsin..........................     26,044     39,582     57,468     59,303     61,179     63,813     65,439
Wyoming............................        379        790      1,489      2,584      3,226      3,749     4,345
                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Nationwide total...............    596,532    879,862  1,348,520  1,750,125  1,983,962  2,258,844  2,416,511
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


                TABLE 11-16.--TOTAL NON-AFDC COLLECTIONS, SELECTED FISCAL YEARS 1979-93
                                            [In thousands of dollars]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                State                   1979       1983      1987        1990       1991       1992       1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.............................        16        854     24,926     46,691     58,165     75,140    $90,733
Alaska..............................     3,510      7,924     12,897     18,628     20,781     24,468     27,426
Arizona.............................     5,769      9,104     15,309     21,735     25,875     33,754     47,963
Arkansas............................     1,494      2,808      7,496     14,211     18,984     26,299     32,899
California..........................    82,412    117,623    196,730    274,205    304,982    339,449    401,620
Colorado............................       496      7,848     11,221     22,836     27,715     34,743     41,527
Connecticut.........................    11,617     18,599     30,779     39,319     41,960     46,445     52,161
Delaware............................     4,428      5,821      9,721     14,335     16,032     18,620     18,865
District of Columbia................       179      1,100      2,778      9,481     12,171     14,806     16,601
Florida.............................     1,926      8,672     48,248    128,239    157,081    182,707    211,896
Georgia.............................       783      2,084     22,838     67,158     85,249     99,921    120,939
Guam................................     (\1\)        131        327        920      1,527      2,172      2,659
Hawaii..............................     2,606      5,605     10,287     19,295     22,397     26,243     28,269
Idaho...............................       454        884      8,457     15,957     15,960     19,302     23,381
Illinois............................       823     13,054     50,917     91,870    101,167    124,467    128,140
Indiana.............................       957      3,142     29,147     58,021     65,087     75,368     89,125
Iowa................................     2,363      9,701     20,682     42,430     50,109     60,645     72,503
Kansas..............................       520      2,114     10,044     29,749     37,379     45,183     37,199
Kentucky............................       266     13,387     20,780     37,711     46,426     59,200     67,022
Louisiana...........................     7,434     16,113     24,250     39,665     44,898     58,398     76,227
Maine...............................       441      1,833      6,864     14,652     15,490     16,528     19,280
Maryland............................     9,927     49,356     70,473    109,034    126,464    147,660    167,771
Massachusetts.......................     7,193     31,844     74,846    107,948    102,576    113,302    118,082
Michigan............................   172,039    176,105    403,629    499,483    543,944    614,488    704,903
Minnesota...........................     6,861     19,184     43,645     95,395    112,561    136,190    158,519
Mississippi.........................       106        343      7,848     16,002     20,783     26,766     31,864
Missouri............................     1,664      6,618     48,380     91,795    104,351    116,686    138,008
Montana.............................       528        582      1,963      4,427      7,718     11,024     13,686
Nebraska............................       385     16,369     31,507     45,387     49,624     56,983     61,911
Nevada..............................     2,970      3,731      7,172     12,899     18,881     25,273     30,620
New Hampshire.......................         0      8,972     14,798     16,999     18,274     21,023     23,859
New Jersey..........................    65,383    102,122    186,808    220,450    250,235    288,997    323,829
New Mexico..........................       520      1,722      4,552      8,843     10,371     11,239     14,195
New York............................    79,773    105,831    167,103    239,678    279,289    313,151    351,791
North Carolina......................     1,454     12,035     36,519     74,167     85,510    103,890    126,951
North Dakota........................       344        712      1,966      5,312      6,708      9,583     12,595
Ohio................................       858      1,459    113,830    412,627    468,346    565,166    608,413
Oklahoma............................       566      1,585      9,222     20,293     25,028     28,858     33,386
Oregon..............................    75,525     25,406     38,726     59,497     69,263     81,798     96,572
Pennsylvania........................   153,528    238,694    382,018    517,893    517,893    651,998    689,990
Puerto Rico.........................     1,477     31,068     64,360     72,828     75,652     82,901     96,014
Rhode Island........................       137      2,979      5,759      9,876     11,059     11,394     11,717
South Carolina......................       480      1,446     20,363     36,387     41,078     47,732     54,692
South Dakota........................       270        672      3,217      7,307      8,906     10,993     13,056
Tennessee...........................     5,105     13,510     26,321     48,575     49,167     62,041     82,730
Texas...............................     1,837      7,062     41,481     92,659    145,543    191,993    243,303
Utah................................     1,183      1,952     13,032     23,073     27,634     33,671     36,712
Vermont.............................       249        202      1,603      3,775      4,643      6,869      8,193
Virgin Islands......................       116        544      2,777      2,920      3,105      3,767      4,649
Virginia............................       116      1,858     43,323     82,789     96,008    106,833    112,309
Washington..........................     8,699     15,148     33,891    110,459    145,006    176,372    206,914
West Virginia.......................       162        123      4,076     17,574     16,668     26,061     32,149
Wisconsin...........................     8,224     16,459     97,233    181,969    215,533    229,647    267,374
Wyoming.............................       141        227      1,739      4,571      5,853      7,471      9,465
                                     ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Nationwide total..................   736,315  1,144,322  2,568,880  4,260,000  4,901,657  5,705,678  6,492,655
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Less than $500.

Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


    TABLE 11-17.--AVERAGE NUMBER OF AFDC CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT CASES IN WHICH A COLLECTION WAS MADE,
                                       SELECTED FISCAL YEARS 1978-93
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         State            1978      1983      1985      1987      1989      1990      1991      1992      1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.............   458,439   594,679   684,114   608,986   657,585   700,803   755,328   831,172   872,579
                       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama...............     7,966    16,301     9,133    11,572    12,316    10,860     8,347     9,209     9,077
Alaska................       246     1,154     1,120     1,038     1,213     1,387     1,718     1,949     2,168
Arizona...............       819     1,164     1,851     1,470     2,545     3,128     1,930     2,822     3,343
Arkansas..............     2,509     3,683     5,207     5,506     6,278     6,372     7,071     8,188     8,301
California............    92,325    86,277   103,742    74,081    84,367    89,304   104,903   116,118   123,776
Colorado..............     3,177     4,129     5,687     4,092     4,771     4,437     4,581     5,126     5,210
Connecticut...........     8,002    13,591    15,565    13,337     7,470     6,578     7,128     8,445     9,437
Delaware..............     1,156     2,254     2,891     2,858     2,111     2,223     2,495     2,663     2,913
District of Columbia..       708     1,508     1,925     2,138     2,553     1,758     1,940     2,281     2,437
Florida...............     7,376    11,856    16,468    30,114    34,883    38,500    40,687    40,135    44,727
Georgia...............     6,350     7,826     6,657    10,710    14,833    19,310    23,280    24,729    26,676
Guam..................     (\1\)       186       206       197       182       339       573       616       683
Hawaii................     1,757     2,718     4,622     3,175     3,831     2,658     2,773     4,651     4,551
Idaho.................     1,346       936     4,343     1,245     1,522     1,752     1,992     2,356     2,719
Illinois..............     9,624    15,551    18,299    14,352    14,986    16,968    23,511    23,639    26,028
Indiana...............     9,488    19,514    22,058    16,188    17,716    20,444    26,344    30,823    31,159
Iowa..................     8,396    10,135    11,871     7,015     7,241     7,289     7,153     7,681     7,365
Kansas................     2,859     4,205     4,769     3,798     3,565     4,595     5,268     6,120     6,857
Kentucky..............     3,083     4,601     6,729     6,853     8,699    10,741    12,513    13,516    15,217
Louisiana.............     5,204     6,944     7,836     9,916    11,582    11,842    12,198    12,510    12,164
Maine.................     2,368     6,141     7,178     4,734     5,200     5,515     5,767     5,287     7,013
Maryland..............    14,002    15,576    15,861     9,073     5,250     9,237    18,330    19,366    18,684
Massachusetts.........    17,782    22,655    25,350    17,211    16,610    16,029    16,106    17,961    18,378
Michigan..............    61,985    73,442    59,049    58,364    47,388    51,747    46,647    45,112    45,211
Minnesota.............     9,818    12,891    14,872    12,442    13,822    14,192    12,658    14,563    16,440
Mississippi...........     1,846     3,216     3,742     4,544     6,410     7,237     8,808     9,604    10,157
Missouri..............     (\2\)     2,465     7,716     6,483     9,894    11,178    11,241    13,430    14,135
Montana...............       748     1,178     1,600       849     1,086     1,140     1,298     1,551     1,816
Nebraska..............     1,509     1,841     2,362     2,555     2,666     2,811     3,255     4,802     4,811
Nevada................       494     2,261     2,370     1,645     1,917     2,269     2,404     3,096     3,506
New Hampshire.........     1,530     1,512     1,021       981       988     1,091     1,454     2,240     2,703
New Jersey............    16,243    24,712    27,686    25,182    18,415    17,591    19,728    24,376    26,241
New Mexico............     1,429     2,027     2,034     2,175     3,147     3,766     4,383     3,865     4,385
New York..............    36,287    44,168    48,979    30,993    36,695    40,219    46,382    51,290    51,407
North Carolina........    11,232    12,089    14,216    17,089    19,157    20,381    24,699    28,028    29,649
North Dakota..........       759     1,193     1,656     1,130     1,338     1,647     1,665     1,597     1,579
Ohio..................    24,419    28,064    32,582    35,273    40,308    35,973    34,446    38,445    39,857
Oklahoma..............     1,101     2,487     3,543     1,468     6,605     7,787     3,895     4,794     5,294
Oregon................     6,761     4,020     6,687     5,935     5,829     6,437     7,437     8,321     9,495
Pennsylvania..........    15,172    35,405    42,088    49,100    45,772    47,039    52,269    59,514    61,998
Puerto Rico...........       413     2,281     3,736     3,588     3,991     3,696     3,103     3,026     2,811
Rhode Island..........     2,419     2,441     3,233     3,092     4,141     4,295     3,100     3,346     4,070
South Carolina........     3,343     4,182     5,785    10,495    13,954    14,614    15,349    16,764    19,026
South Dakota..........     1,087     1,223     1,532     1,887     1,744     1,234     1,262     1,526     1,642
Tennessee.............     4,705     6,642     8,336     9,430    13,114    16,659    11,625    12,179    11,391
Texas.................     5,446     4,099     5,652     9,167    13,509    15,447    18,229    20,387    23,075
Utah..................     3,784     5,346     5,209     3,627     3,652     3,333     3,669     3,973     4,033
Vermont...............       953     2,223     2,329     1,984     2,462     2,596     2,826     3,556     4,114
Virgin Islands........       232        82       199       220       184       133       135       165       193
Virginia..............     4,729    13,554    13,054    10,813    11,854    14,138    16,761    18,679    19,399
Washington............    14,860    14,160    15,895    18,110    22,921    27,063    23,263    28,618    27,020
West Virginia.........     1,430     2,044     2,331     2,107     2,426     2,484     2,622     3,347     4,108
Wisconsin.............    16,868    26,106    44,799    26,847    31,438    30,143    30,426    32,693    31,984
Wyoming...............       294       420       453       738     1,034     1,197     1,681     2,094     2,146
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Data not reported for this item or insufficient data reported to perform indicated computation.
\2\Less than $500.

Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


     TABLE 11-18.--AVERAGE NUMBER OF NON-AFDC CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT CASES IN WHICH A COLLECTION WAS MADE, SELECTED FISCAL YEARS 1978-93
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        State                           1978      1983      1985      1987       1989        1990        1991        1992        1993
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Total.........................................   248,590   507,031   653,803   934,177   1,247,228   1,362,821   1,554,740   1,749,427   1,953,580
                                                     ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.............................................       110       221     5,023    11,583      16,602      19,971      28,512      33,741      39,586
Alaska..............................................     2,309     3,035     3,205     3,184       3,637       3,947       4,211       4,598       4,997
Arizona.............................................     (\1\)     5,525     4,770     4,668       6,740       7,333       9,144      11,107      10,283
Arkansas............................................       764     2,803     3,613     5,074       7,241       8,473      11,232      15,088      18,449
California..........................................    69,696    66,164    64,686    77,448      91,029      96,101     101,913      97,597     104,864
Colorado............................................     1,017     3,647     3,976     4,537       6,054       7,281       9,008      10,492      11,360
Connecticut.........................................     (\1\)     7,826     9,392     9,884      10,606      11,289      13,289      14,441      15,721
Delaware............................................     3,210     3,611     4,395     5,073       6,380       6,770       8,058       8,303       9,191
District of Columbia................................        93       478     1,007     1,264       2,653       4,252       4,964       5,704       6,278
Florida.............................................     1,200     8,002     7,593    25,573      50,995      56,329      66,748      67,948      77,734
Georgia.............................................     1,207     4,091     5,487    14,883      24,992      30,217      34,545      35,419      40,698
Guam................................................     (\1\)        63        65       114         207         378         495         616         803
Hawaii..............................................     (\1\)       308       352     2,804       6,682       8,103      10,398      15,305      16,299
Idaho...............................................       455       591     1,047     2,529       5,540       6,493       7,403       8,689       9,889
Illinois............................................       196     6,433    10,030    14,479      21,781      26,184      36,363      36,246      40,744
Indiana.............................................       450     1,784     2,881    12,759      17,990      25,586      27,111      34,855      36,865
Iowa................................................       671     4,192     4,913     3,441      10,807      12,400      14,103      16,352      19,266
Kansas..............................................       210     1,449       758     5,260       9,308      11,520      13,855      16,003      18,846
Kentucky............................................       255     3,657     3,647    15,549      13,686      17,473      20,489      23,531      28,950
Louisiana...........................................     6,866     9,517    10,636    11,695      14,883      16,739      20,001      24,194      28,146
Maine...............................................       638       296     1,496     3,862       5,774       6,425       6,510       5,479       7,630
Maryland............................................       130    27,384    26,154    12,685      15,969      27,339      49,380      52,024      54,989
Massachusetts.......................................     (\1\)         0         0    26,549      27,950      22,921      14,264      24,605      25,899
Michigan............................................     (\1\)    51,304    88,675   126,187     120,969     115,081     129,461     133,652     141,489
Minnesota...........................................     2,766    10,263    12,615    16,137      23,502      26,712      27,174      35,791      43,272
Mississippi.........................................        81       320     1,319     4,348       6,937       7,917      10,077      12,997      16,007
Missouri............................................     (\1\)     1,631     5,362    14,676      22,802      26,994      32,317      38,492      41,022
Montana.............................................       444       348       344       800       1,012       1,448       2,208       2,748       3,750
Nebraska............................................       176     4,942     7,874    10,540      13,464      14,748      14,883      15,185      17,771
Nevada..............................................     4,026     4,084     5,360     3,212       4,085       4,451       5,327       6,676       7,819
New Hampshire.......................................     (\1\)     5,433     4,939     5,474       5,809       5,260       5,875       7,077       7,870
New Jersey..........................................    20,000    38,557    45,868    51,706      65,947      66,885      68,753      78,789      84,267
New Mexico..........................................       286     1,806     2,249     2,462       4,490       5,360       5,758       5,947       5,849
New York............................................    39,623    54,296    63,829    67,460      78,638      83,651      94,031     103,924     108,419
North Carolina......................................     1,715     5,910    10,137    15,323      22,584      27,632      31,810      37,172      43,884
North Dakota........................................       154       171       266       865       1,427       1,911       2,357       3,320       4,026
Ohio................................................     1,430     4,594    10,853    39,114     100,069     101,553     107,806     135,535     149,104
Oklahoma............................................     (\1\)     1,269     1,968     4,867       8,635      10,509       8,558       8,479      10,707
Oregon..............................................    17,957    16,262    19,331    20,620      23,747      25,657      19,754      21,810      25,063
Pennsylvania........................................    49,621    92,084   108,498   123,248     140,750     147,885     171,525     182,098     190,671
Puerto Rico.........................................       710    17,908    26,873    30,490      35,346      35,295      36,731      33,075      41,130
Rhode Island........................................        57     1,407     1,969     2,750       3,559       3,705       3,017       3,060       3,291
South Carolina......................................       203     1,198     2,777     3,165       4,671       4,896      10,393      25,764      27,771
South Dakota........................................       297       512       502     2,175       3,154       2,739       3,262       3,881       4,607
Tennessee...........................................     6,360    10,271    12,156    14,957      21,649      28,174      31,554      35,358      40,003
Texas...............................................     2,861     4,224     8,833    15,079      26,643      37,741      51,039      65,152      79,037
Utah................................................       400       698     1,068     4,008       5,437       6,738       8,605       9,704      10,573
Vermont.............................................       181       194       393       967       1,459       1,659       1,870       2,433       3,154
Virgin Islands......................................         1       262     1,288     1,252       1,499       1,247       1,301       1,348       1,538
Virginia............................................        38     1,554       876    19,273      26,638      31,492      34,242      38,267      46,760
Washington..........................................     4,822     7,422     9,802    13,656      24,331      34,791      46,930      55,788      64,929
West Virginia.......................................       130       186       288     1,953       5,246       8,045       7,555       9,513      11,971
Wisconsin...........................................     4,685     6,719    20,288    41,953      63,554      56,769      65,718      70,780      88,601
Wyoming.............................................        89       125        77       563       1,669       2,352       2,853       3,275       1,738
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Data not reported for this item or insufficient data reported to perform indicated computation.

 Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


  TABLE 11-19.--SUPPORT ORDERS ESTABLISHED, ENFORCED, AND MODIFIED TO INCLUDE HEALTH INSURANCE, FISCAL YEAR
                                                    1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                              Total
                                                                                   Total      number
                                                 Total       Total     Percent   number of   enforced   Percent
                                               number of     number      with      orders       or        with
                    State                        orders       with      health    enforced   modified    health
                                              established    health   insurance      or        with    insurance
                                                           insurance              modified    health
                                                                                            insurance
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.....................................      13,671       3,127      22.87    296,358      5,351       1.81
Alaska......................................       1,259       1,217      96.66      1,207        870      72.08
Arizona.....................................       3,898       3,405      87.35    156,764     10,789       6.88
Arkansas....................................       6,954       5,811      83.56      4,702      3,990      84.86
California..................................     104,092      80,317      77.16    594,850    363,218      61.06
Colorado....................................       7,355       5,735      77.97     29,463     14,497      49.20
Connecticut.................................      20,448      10,001      48.91    104,204     37,691      36.17
Delaware....................................       1,634       1,632      99.88      3,693      3,682      99.70
District of Columbia........................       1,428         660      46.22      4,510         NA          0
Florida.....................................      11,892          NA          0     46,388         NA          0
Georgia.....................................      33,303      33,303     100.00    474,018      9,581       2.02
Guam........................................         380         358      94.21        578        499      86.33
Hawaii......................................       2,553       2,553     100.00      1,060      1,060     100.00
Idaho.......................................       2,630       2,630     100.00     69,399      6,246       9.00
Illinois....................................      21,479       7,548      35.14      7,770      2,124      27.34
Indiana.....................................      34,882          NA          0         NA         NA          0
Iowa........................................      10,345       8,903      86.06    228,412     77,990      34.14
Kansas......................................       6,627       6,053      91.34    117,887     32,802      27.82
Kentucky....................................      36,589       3,564       9.74     43,530        128       0.29
Louisiana...................................      17,345      16,649      95.99    103,682     59,051      56.95
Maine.......................................       4,243       2,528      59.58     10,080      1,096      10.87
Maryland....................................      17,139      13,416      78.28     69,111     10,715      15.50
Massachusetts...............................      12,106       6,077      50.20     13,102      6,349      48.46
Michigan....................................      36,121      36,121     100.00    925,860     39,269       4.24
Minnesota...................................      15,966      11,948      74.83     32,975     23,533      71.37
Mississippi.................................       8,726          NA          0      7,779         NA          0
Missouri....................................      24,647      16,926      68.67     86,297     38,578      44.70
Montana.....................................      20,438         288       1.41      6,187      3,601      58.20
Nebraska....................................       3,728         836      22.42        855        150      17.54
Nevada......................................       4,189       2,259      53.93     36,363      1,393       3.83
New Hampshire...............................       2,759       4,024     145.85     14,420      1,238       8.59
New Jersey..................................      28,064      14,425      51.40    194,291     23,189      11.94
New Mexico..................................       4,377       3,025      69.11      1,294        843      65.16
New York....................................      34,433      13,770      39.99     42,884     17,151      39.99
North Carolina..............................      33,313      21,730      66.23      9,200      1,868      20.30
North Dakota................................       1,608       1,483      92.23      2,186        108       4.94
Ohio........................................      38,166      19,329      50.64    232,759     47,212      20.28
Oklahoma....................................       7,541       4,195      55.63      7,333      1,403      19.13
Oregon......................................      13,049      10,659      81.68     51,173     19,086      37.30
Pennsylvania................................     105,333      59,590      56.57    369,348    165,558      44.82
Puerto Rico.................................      13,716          NA          0      1,941         91       4.69
Rhode Island................................       2,820       1,604      56.88      9,910      4,080      41.17
South Carolina..............................      10,439       7,837      75.07     22,068     14,900      67.52
South Dakota................................       1,533       1,449      94.52     10,764      8,876      82.48
Tennessee...................................      98,464       3,296       3.35     32,843     11,183      34.05
Texas.......................................      34,463      34,483     100.00     64,537     18,258      28.29
Utah........................................       7,080       5,376      75.93    204,877    128,339      62.64
Vermont.....................................       1,124       1,124     100.00      3,969      3,969     100.00
Virgin Islands..............................         412         157      38.11      1,049        329      31.35
Virginia....................................      41.496      17,887      43.11     68,550     15,321      22.36
Washington..................................      35,897      26,374      73.47    467,001    306,612      65.66
West Virginia...............................       2,568       2,428      94.55      4,561      1,442      31.62
Wisconsin...................................      28,378       9,095      32.05     88,485     49,526      55.97
Wyoming.....................................       4,583       3,178      69.34      4,333        322       7.43
                                             -------------------------------------------------------------------
      Nationwide totals.....................   1,037,683     550,363      53.04  5,386,860  1,595,157      29.61
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


 TABLE 11-20.--PERCENTAGE OF AFDC ASSISTANCE PAYMENTS RECOVERED THROUGH CHILD SUPPORT COLLECTIONS, SELECTED
                                            FISCAL YEARS 1979-93
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          State              1979       1985       1987       1989       1990       1991       1992       1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total...............        5.8        7.3        9.1       10.0       10.3       10.7       11.4       12.0
                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.................        8.5       21.0       23.2       30.8       31.7       33.7       27.0       23.8
Alaska..................        1.5        4.6        8.3       12.6       13.7       14.6       12.7       11.9
Arizona.................        2.0        2.5        5.1        3.8        4.4        4.2        5.4        7.1
Arkansas................        4.8       15.2       17.6       21.0       20.7       23.6       26.5       28.0
California..............        6.5        4.5        6.1        6.0        5.9        6.3        6.5        7.1
Colorado................        4.8        9.3        9.5       11.4       12.3       13.0       15.0       16.7
Connecticut.............        6.5       10.1       12.2       12.7        9.5       10.2       10.5       11.2
Delaware................        4.4       14.6       17.3       21.2       20.3       20.6       19.7       19.8
District of Columbia....        1.0        3.3        3.8        4.7        4.9        4.5        4.7        4.6
Florida.................        5.5       10.0       11.5       11.9       11.6       11.1        9.9        9.6
Georgia.................        4.3        9.8       10.4       12.4       14.3       15.4       18.2       20.1
Guam....................        5.3        6.4        9.1       11.9       10.8       32.7       34.6       28.7
Hawaii..................        2.9        6.6        8.9        7.3        8.8        7.4        6.9        6.7
Idaho...................        8.9       22.6       25.0       33.2       35.7       34.7       36.5       35.3
Illinois................        1.5        3.2        4.8        5.0        5.6        5.7        7.0        6.6
Indiana.................        7.2       16.1       21.5       23.0       22.4       23.8       24.0       24.5
Iowa....................        9.0       15.0       19.3       19.2       20.1       20.6       23.2       24.3
Kansas..................        5.0       11.6       14.1       13.4       15.9       17.8       19.4       19.7
Kentucky................        3.8        6.8        8.5       12.0       12.4       15.0       18.8       20.0
Louisiana...............        5.2        8.4        9.1       10.5       11.1       12.4       14.2       15.3
Maine...................        7.3       13.4       20.6       26.1       22.9       21.5       18.8       24.5
Maryland................        6.1       11.6       11.2       13.0       14.5       11.4       14.2       16.9
Massachusetts...........        6.6       11.3       10.7       12.0       11.8       10.4       10.5       11.4
Michigan................        9.0        9.7       12.5       13.0       13.9       15.1       15.7       16.6
Minnesota...............        7.8       10.5       12.7       14.2       14.4       14.6       16.3       17.3
Mississippi.............        2.9        7.9        9.4       13.7       16.8       22.3       24.2       24.9
Missouri................        2.8        9.6       12.0       15.0       17.8       15.6       19.0       18.9
Montana.................        4.4       10.7        8.6        9.9       11.1       12.9       16.0       15.0
Nebraska................        5.4       10.0       11.5       12.9       13.0       13.2       16.0       16.9
Nevada..................        6.3       14.9       16.4       12.4       12.2       14.1       17.1       16.6
New Hampshire...........        9.4       12.4       15.2       12.4       11.3       10.1       12.3       14.4
New Jersey..............        5.9        9.7       12.5       14.4       14.0       16.4       16.5       16.4
New Mexico..............        3.4        7.3        7.4        9.4        9.2        7.8        8.0       11.6
New York................        3.5        4.0        5.0        5.6        6.4        6.7        7.2        7.0
North Carolina..........        5.6       15.0       17.4       18.9       18.8       18.4       19.6       20.5
North Dakota............        9.6       14.7       16.8       17.4       21.0       23.4       24.0       24.1
Ohio....................        4.8        6.2       10.1        9.9       10.0       10.3       11.7       12.2
Oklahoma................        1.6        7.5        6.4        8.0        9.0        9.9       10.7       11.1
Oregon..................        9.0       13.3       13.0       13.0       13.5       13.5       12.5       13.4
Pennsylvania............        4.6        8.4       11.0       13.2       12.6       13.7       14.0       13.7
Puerto Rico.............         .7        2.4        2.7        2.3        2.4        2.1        1.8        1.7
Rhode Island............        6.1        7.0        7.6        8.9       10.4        9.2       10.8       11.6
South Carolina..........        5.4        8.6       13.1       15.9       16.8       16.8       17.9       21.1
South Dakota............        6.5       12.9       14.4       17.9       17.1       18.1       18.8       19.5
Tennessee...............        5.0        6.5       10.3       14.1       13.7       14.3       11.2       15.7
Texas...................        5.4        6.9        6.2        9.4        9.5       10.2       11.8       12.9
Utah....................       13.7       22.7       19.6       22.1       23.4       23.2       25.6       26.2
Vermont.................        4.1        8.4       11.1       13.4       12.7       13.0       12.7       14.7
Virgin Islands..........        8.5        7.6        8.3        7.9        7.3        7.1        8.5       10.2
Virginia................        6.3        8.3        9.0       13.5       15.7       17.2       17.3       17.3
Washington..............       12.5        9.8       10.9       14.4       17.1       18.1       20.0       20.8
West Virginia...........        2.6        5.1        7.8        6.1        5.1        8.1       10.6       18.2
Wisconsin...............        9.5        8.8       12.4       15.4       15.5       15.7       16.2       17.0
Wyoming.................        5.6        5.5        8.2       10.0       13.5       13.3       14.3       17.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Payments to AFDC Unemployed Parent (UP) families have been excluded from the maintenance assistance
  payments totals in those States having AFDC-UP programs.

Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


        TABLE 11-21.--FEDERAL INCOME TAX REFUND OFFSET PROGRAM COLLECTIONS, FISCAL YEARS 1983-93
                                           [In thousands of dollars]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              State                 1983      1985      1987      1989      1990      1991      1992      1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.........................     1,555     3,208     5,135     7,450     8,009     8,827    20,586    17,321
Alaska..........................       212       364       891       995     1,208     1,387     1,711     1,357
Arizona.........................       385     1,062     2,049     2,592     2,605     2,876     4,007     8,049
Arkansas........................     1,104     1,886     3,770     4,490     4,669     5,575     7,106     6,631
California......................    35,034    34,926    46,287    50,472    57,624    57,098    67,569    60,173
Colorado........................     3,016     2,393     3,020     4,947     5,604     6,179     7,614     7,430
Connecticut.....................     4,455     4,224     6,140    12,132     9,907     9,250    10,190     8,863
Delaware........................       166     1,284     1,319     1,812     1,966     2,467     2,683     2,223
District of Columbia............       567       747       779     1,202     1,942     1,606     1,788     1,646
Florida.........................     1,980     3,938     7,318    21,294    21,038    24,880    31,569    29,354
Georgia.........................     1,526     3,711     7,258    11,566    13,032    15,693    22,016    21,778
Guam............................        13        14        44        26        13        11        51        42
Hawaii..........................       817       846     1,122     1,511     1,573     1,976     2,328     3,496
Idaho...........................     1,183     1,204     1,594     1,959     2,173     2,270     2,690     2,473
Illinois........................     4,525     9,019    15,415    13,887    19,307    18,876    26,631    19,924
Indiana.........................     4,940     8,975    11,390    15,642    15,860    16,853    21,169    18,882
Iowa............................     5,526     6,784     7,798     8,990     8,828     9,439    11,240     9,941
Kansas..........................     2,525     2,905     3,704     4,947     5,300     6,101     7,525     6,782
Kentucky........................     1,165     2,299     3,262     6,812     6,680     7,891    12,919    11,390
Louisiana.......................     1,536     2,487     4,722     5,797     6,582     6,519     8,438     9,182
Maine...........................     1,844     2,126     3,377     4,866     5,383     4,925     5,477     4,611
Maryland........................     5,688     6,118     9,646    17,039    14,343    14,182    15,542    14,867
Massachusetts...................     3,325     4,225     5,269    10,101    11,899    10,936    13,077    10,841
Michigan........................    18,250    20,013    25,893    30,246    29,854    32,776    44,968    42,748
Minnesota.......................     5,576     5,904     6,762     7,936     8,096     8,831     9,904     8,734
Mississippi.....................     1,019     1,976     2,252     4,147     4,958     6,392     8,270     8,389
Missouri........................     4,289     4,849     8,482    12,438    14,205    10,189    17,711    15,498
Montana.........................       431       858     1,209     1,366     1,301     1,374     1,636     1,597
Nebraska........................       502     1,205     1,395     2,598     2,485     2,548     3,121     3,068
Nevada..........................       354       389       433       630       768     1,363     2,449     2,184
New Hampshire...................       757       662     1,284     1,137     1,177     1,350     2,028     1,906
New Jersey......................     9,458    11,449    14,268    16,201    16,171    18,266    20,132    17,253
New Mexico......................       533     1,315     2,278     2,279     2,585     2,863     3,259     2,905
New York........................     9,945    11,996    27,991    23,472    24,763    31,307    33,734    29,445
North Carolina..................     4,235     4,291     7,229    11,359    11,270    12,718    16,410    16,971
North Dakota....................       352       534       848       773     1,302     1,501     1,767     1,586
Ohio............................     2,886     7,229    11,186    14,346    16,514    21,027    27,476    27,305
Oklahoma........................       703     2,179     2,218     4,197     4,647     5,803     7,575     6,752
Oregon..........................     3,782     3,567     4,863     5,113     5,381     5,622     6,259     5,364
Pennsylvania....................     6,112    13,550    17,123    21,332    24,354    27,946    32,560    27,636
Puerto Rico.....................         2        13        13        47         6        63       231       208
Rhode Island....................       838       775       880     1,401     1,548     1,522     1,799     1,359
South Carolina..................       368       832     1,789     2,788     3,233     3,449     4,678     5,091
South Dakota....................       374       623       998     1,465     1,498     1,648     2,110     1,925
Tennessee.......................       642     1,592     3,025     7,110     7,539     8,341    16,033    12,126
Texas...........................     3,906     5,928    11,316    17,934    19,926    24,133    34,346    35,816
Utah............................     2,540     2,765     2,991     3,730     4,066     4,297     5,604     5,184
Vermont.........................       611       748       887     1,154     1,017     1,074     1,294     1,031
Virgin Islands..................  ........  ........        37        34         7        25        44        62
Virginia........................     1,674     3,532     6,840     8,913     9,761    10,298    12,594    12,108
Washington......................     4,278     6,201    10,510    12,537    13,732    13,957    17,417    16,447
West Virginia...................     1,038     1,823     2,013     2,944     3,066     3,265     3,705     3,378
Wisconsin.......................     6,266     7,973    10,029    12,902    13,290    14,384    17,486    17,117
Wyoming.........................       222       280       503       534       684     1,131     1,190       888
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Nationwide total............   175,021   229,798   338,853   443,594   474,748   515,279   661,711   609,336
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


               TABLE 11-22.--ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENDITURES FOR THE CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM, SELECTED FISCAL YEARS 1979-93
                                                                [In thousands of dollars]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                           State                              1979       1987        1988        1989        1990        1991        1992        1993
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama...................................................     4,633      14,878      17,839      23,101      23,802      30,212      31,572      34,594
Alaska....................................................     2,137       5,625       5,751       5,699       6,464       8,450       9,084      10,559
Arizona...................................................     2,014       9,096      10,052      13,212      18,744      21,675      29,555      37,121
Arkansas..................................................     2,385       5,532       6,870       6,724       9,284      10,931      13,341      15,336
California................................................    75,579     156,472     160,416     176,209     201,823     225,008     252,868     290,648
Colorado..................................................     3,861      11,806      13,746      15,160      14,043      14,590      21,494      27,450
Connecticut...............................................     5,463      19,682      22,097      24,412      27,135      28,465      28,363      29,288
Delaware..................................................       852       4,519       5,924       6,006       6,448       7,988       9,007      11,133
District of Columbia......................................     1,652       5,876       5,745       7,116       7,630       8,825       8,455       8,697
Florida...................................................     7,047      41,385      46,094      55,167      66,445      74,947      83,228      76,721
Georgia...................................................     3,238      15,200      22,588      29,030      36,927      39,586      40,954      45,968
Guam......................................................       108         411         465         641       1,163       1,808       2,509       2,652
Hawaii....................................................     1,408       5,157       4,170       5,417       7,598       7,419       8,739       9,837
Idaho.....................................................     1,063       3,321       4,320       4,822       5,697       7,309       7,691       9,360
Illinois..................................................     6,930      35,746      39,467      40,719      52,073      57,029      63,146      77,820
Indiana...................................................     4,269      11,601      13,119      14,458      15,643      15,626      19,006      21,897
Iowa......................................................     4,239       7,925       8,733      11,043      14,227      16,063      16,591      21,241
Kansas....................................................     1,819       8,609      11,037      16,256      16,290      15,970      17,708      23,166
Kentucky..................................................     4,027      12,533      15,621      19,460      23,519      31,727      31,637      33,985
Louisiana.................................................     7,079      17,587      17,108      17,970      19,408      27,101      30,756      32,263
Maine.....................................................     1,229       5,986       6,306       7,917       9,351      11,729      12,838      13,274
Maryland..................................................     8,177      32,384      33,791      38,281      39,805      43,013      43,254      48,042
Massachusetts.............................................     6,710      37,266      37,083      51,432      46,587      50,618      44,298      45,445
Michigan..................................................    24,614      55,775      65,825      71,196      82,380      86,420      94,058     103,693
Minnesota.................................................     9,273      22,656      27,480      33,242      38,947      42,877      44,399      51,081
Mississippi...............................................     1,574       4,590       6,230      10,883      19,551      22,943      21,717      24,272
Missouri..................................................     5,355      15,811      20,797      22,814      27,577      29,766      34,096      43,941
Montana...................................................       943       1,685       1,865       1,669       3,223       4,659       7,327       7,306
Nebraska..................................................     1,378       7,242       8,559      10,312      11,698      14,125      18,683      17,201
Nevada....................................................     1,891       4,285       5,537       5,912       7,654       9,247      10,493      15,759
New Hampshire.............................................       847       3,292       3,825       5,042       5,558       7,912       8,401      10,971
New Jersey................................................    21,677      54,968      65,428      69,957      77,113      93,525      92,697     101,411
New Mexico................................................     1,437       4,347       5,608       6,258       7,213       8,376       8,307       8,808
New York..................................................    61,665     136,254     126,133     119,132     146,468     153,007     151,589     172,888
North Carolina............................................     5,721      18,234      25,951      32,113      37,868      44,495      52,514      61,668
North Dakota..............................................       702       2,071       2,256       2,541       2,879       3,432       3,971       4,619
Ohio......................................................    11,581      32,001      28,784      64,637      67,891      92,006     124,551     130,380
Oklahoma..................................................     2,771       7,384       8,651      11,450      14,073      16,532      17,284      16,682
Oregon....................................................     7,475      13,267      13,985      15,164      17,457      20,364      21,078      25,229
Pennsylvania..............................................    19,639      60,842      60,040      62,328      70,542      87,180      83,729      89,583
Puerto Rico...............................................       862       3,495       4,156       5,789      10,795       5,476       8,084       8,302
Rhode Island..............................................     1,079       3,570       4,052       4,413       7,945       7,507      10,750       6,124
South Carolina............................................     1,777      11,150      12,522      15,379      20,127      19,539      19,148      20,437
South Dakota..............................................     1,060       2,118       2,358       2,588       2,785       2,963       3,292       3,700
Tennessee.................................................     3,046      12,507      12,389      16,482      16,709      18,050      21,904      21,430
Texas.....................................................    11,733      23,522      29,733      45,563      68,709      77,055      99,077     134,053
Utah......................................................     3,094      10,379      10,453      11,307      12,317      15,689      17,072      19,626
Vermont...................................................       649       1,956       2,116       2,897       2,588       3,229       4,794       5,168
Virgin Islands............................................       483         730         824         990         749       1,613         969       1,109
Virginia..................................................     4,787      24,399      31,738      31,573      47,061      41,482      49,972      49,212
Washington................................................    10,733      28,293      35,926      47,853      56,189      65,314      81,400      89,812
West Virginia.............................................     1,676       4,870       6,740       6,201       7,869       9,238      11,952      17,677
Wisconsin.................................................     7,562      24,959      31,512      35,719      41,906      41,404      42,982      46,552
Wyoming...................................................       160         696         901       1,552       2,121       2,592       2,306       5,897
                                                           ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Nationwide total........................................   383,163   1,065,942   1,170,714   1,363,209   1,606,065   1,804,106   1,994,690   2,241,094
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


   TABLE 11-23.--TOTAL CHILD SUPPORT COLLECTIONS PER DOLLAR OF TOTAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENDITURES, SELECTED
                                           FISCAL YEARS 1978-93
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        State            1978     1985     1986     1987     1988     1989     1990     1991     1992      1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. ratio............     3.35     3.31     3.45     3.68     3.94     3.85     3.75     3.82     3.99     3.98
                       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama...............      .75     2.00     2.45     2.69     2.50     2.46     2.78     2.68     3.11     3.27
Alaska................     3.19     2.26     2.61     3.05     3.46     4.06     4.14     3.64     3.92     3.71
Arizona...............      .88     2.15     1.46     2.21     2.11     1.84     1.49     1.54     1.57     1.79
Arkansas..............     1.00     1.90     2.62     2.94     2.94     3.38     2.80     3.00     3.15     3.20
California............     2.15     2.32     2.37     2.52     2.75     2.66     2.59     2.63     2.59     2.54
Colorado..............     1.78     2.08     1.89     1.90     1.99     2.21     2.82     3.22     2.70     2.47
Connecticut...........     4.20     3.38     3.49     2.91     2.73     2.76     2.46     2.73     2.97     3.19
Delaware..............     7.14     5.62     2.46     3.07     2.62     3.01     3.13     2.87     2.88     2.39
District of Columbia..      .73     1.06      .92      .97     1.21     1.33     1.78     1.88     2.33     2.51
Florida...............     1.20     2.10     2.12     1.98     2.28     2.58     2.66     2.86     3.03     3.78
Georgia...............     2.22     2.23     2.59     3.16     2.88     3.06     3.06     3.61     4.26     4.47
Guam..................  .......     1.46     1.39     1.53     1.62     1.28     1.24     1.98     1.87     1.89
Hawaii................     1.71     2.38     2.26     3.10     3.62     3.62     3.64     4.06     3.94     3.79
Idaho.................     2.10     1.93     3.58     4.06     3.79     3.95     4.02     3.21     3.62     3.43
Illinois..............     2.10     2.14     2.40     2.51     2.68     2.77     2.61     2.63     2.90     2.36
Indiana...............     2.42     3.79     4.82     5.22     5.49     5.34     6.15     7.27     6.56     6.45
Iowa..................     3.49     5.92     6.77     6.12     6.36     5.66     4.99     5.02     5.79     5.14
Kansas................     3.01     2.05     2.15     2.58     2.51     2.00     2.76     3.43     3.73     2.57
Kentucky..............     1.14     2.68     2.52     2.59     2.44     2.63     2.55     2.33     2.97     3.05
Louisiana.............     1.82     2.13     1.99     2.28     2.60     2.85     3.12     2.51     2.74     3.19
Maine.................     3.40     3.98     3.74     3.75     4.01     4.14     3.82     3.06     2.84     3.39
Maryland..............     2.14     3.86     3.77     3.02     3.31     3.36     3.80     3.80     4.49     4.56
Massachusetts.........     5.12     3.57     3.50     3.46     4.09     3.24     3.80     3.41     4.18     4.30
Michigan..............     9.50     7.62     8.33     9.52     8.80     8.58     7.83     8.07     8.20     8.43
Minnesota.............     2.15     2.91     3.02     3.51     3.59     3.65     3.58     3.74     4.27     4.20
Mississippi...........      .87     2.02     2.29     3.36     3.06     2.23     1.56     1.76     2.22     2.20
Missouri..............      .89     3.24     3.89     4.55     4.22     4.45     4.71     4.75     4.88     4.30
Montana...............     1.58     2.46     2.59     3.16     2.97     4.21     2.74     2.78     2.38     2.76
Nebraska..............     2.10     6.32     5.44     5.20     5.02     4.69     4.48     3.83     3.54     4.17
Nevada................     1.83     2.04     2.10     2.30     1.95     2.22     2.12     2.52     3.06     2.39
New Hampshire.........     4.05     4.96     4.39     5.33     4.93     3.18     3.71     2.86     3.26     2.87
New Jersey............     4.16     4.67     4.64     4.47     4.12     3.85     3.66     3.49     4.02     4.02
New Mexico............     1.17     1.90     2.27     1.99     1.76     1.96     2.00     2.00     2.30     3.08
New York..............     1.75     1.96     1.83     1.98     2.36     2.74     2.55     2.81     3.22     3.10
North Carolina........     1.50     2.94     3.26     3.83     3.32     3.20     3.18     3.15     3.20     3.20
North Dakota..........     1.83     2.29     2.46     2.65     3.14     3.31     3.62     3.59     3.93     4.05
Ohio..................     2.50     3.38     4.41     5.65    10.83     6.07     7.21     6.01     5.35     5.48
Oklahoma..............      .76     1.46     1.78     2.22     2.48     2.28     2.29     2.41     2.69     3.13
Oregon................     9.48     4.05     4.47     4.03     4.27     4.45     4.49     4.48     5.10     4.95
Pennsylvania..........     9.14     6.68     7.78     7.56     8.52     8.97     8.71     8.03     9.27     9.09
Puerto Rico...........      .92    11.95    14.02    18.93    17.60    13.61     7.84    15.68    10.43    11.73
Rhode Island..........     3.51     3.52     3.90     3.31     3.65     3.67     2.52     2.22     2.31     4.35
South Carolina........     2.38     1.70     2.37     3.01     3.23     3.01     2.60     3.01     3.59     3.88
South Dakota..........      .99     2.36     2.74     2.96     3.50     3.99     3.96     4.43     4.82     4.90
Tennessee.............     2.49     2.88     3.31     3.07     4.09     3.57     4.28     4.27     3.87     5.42
Texas.................      .74     2.17     2.01     2.60     2.81     2.41     1.93     2.50     2.53     2.31
Utah..................     1.99     1.95     2.21     2.39     2.86     2.92     3.09     2.80     3.08     2.86
Vermont...............     2.24     2.58     2.34     2.95     3.31     2.93     3.61     3.77     2.82     3.06
Virgin Islands........      .40     3.27     2.14     4.13     4.16     3.11     4.18     2.07     4.10     4.50
Virginia..............      .72     1.85     1.57     2.41     2.39     3.03     2.35     3.13     2.91     3.09
Washington............     2.96     2.48     2.42     2.56     2.48     2.66     3.13     3.41     3.29     3.42
West Virginia.........      .74     1.66     1.98     2.00     2.16     2.95     2.75     2.55     2.98     2.77
Wisconsin.............     3.80     3.73     4.78     6.20     6.01     6.18     5.76     6.68     6.83     7.15
Wyoming...............     3.18     1.64     3.27     4.64     4.91     3.50     3.37     3.50     4.87     2.34
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


 TABLE 11-24.--AFDC CHILD SUPPORT COLLECTIONS PER DOLLAR OF TOTAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENDITURES, FISCAL YEARS
                                                  1980-93
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  State                    1980    1983    1985    1987    1989    1990    1991    1992    993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.................................    1.22    0.85    1.16    1.01    0.81    0.82     .75     .73     .65
Alaska..................................     .26     .44     .43     .75    1.21    1.26    1.18    1.23    1.11
Arizona.................................     .27     .25     .27     .53     .34     .33     .34     .43     .50
Arkansas................................     .75    1.01    1.20    1.59    1.73    1.27    1.26    1.18    1.06
California..............................    1.05    1.08    1.17    1.27    1.29    1.23    1.27    1.24    1.15
Colorado................................     .68    1.17    1.06     .94     .98    1.19    1.32    1.08     .95
Connecticut.............................    2.05    1.73    1.66    1.34    1.24    1.01    1.26    1.33    1.41
Delaware................................    1.68     .69    2.02     .92     .88     .90     .83     .81     .70
District of Columbia....................     .48     .49     .59     .50     .51     .54     .50     .58     .60
Florida.................................    1.11     .66    1.21     .81     .76     .73     .76     .84    1.02
Georgia.................................    1.38    1.38    1.63    1.66    1.23    1.24    1.46    1.82    1.84
Guam....................................     .79     .82     .95     .73     .55     .45     .92    1.01     .88
Hawaii..................................    1.41    1.21    1.05    1.10    1.14    1.10    1.04     .93     .92
Idaho...................................    1.99    1.77    1.43    1.52    1.27    1.22    1.02    1.11     .93
Illinois................................    1.07    1.16    1.09    1.08     .92     .85     .86     .93     .72
Indiana.................................    1.66    2.61    2.77    2.71    2.58    2.44    2.93    2.59    2.38
Iowa....................................    2.69    3.29    4.11    3.51    2.41    2.01    1.90    2.13    1.73
Kansas..................................    1.35    1.50    1.75    1.41     .79     .93    1.09    1.18     .97
Kentucky................................     .82     .82    1.01     .93     .96     .95     .87    1.10    1.08
Louisiana...............................     .86     .75     .81     .90    1.08    1.07     .85     .84     .83
Maine...................................    2.78    2.86    2.97    2.60    2.63    2.26    1.74    1.53    1.93
Maryland................................    1.27    1.70    1.30     .85     .88    1.06     .86    1.07    1.07
Massachusetts...........................    3.12    2.04    1.68    1.45    1.35    1.57    1.32    1.62    1.70
Michigan................................    2.91    2.36    2.50    2.29    1.94    1.76    1.78    1.74    1.64
Minnesota...............................    1.36    1.48    1.52    1.58    1.27    1.13    1.11    1.20    1.10
Mississippi.............................    1.14    1.55    1.41    1.65    1.07     .74     .85     .99     .89
Missouri................................     .78    1.27    1.69    1.49    1.35    1.38    1.24    1.46    1.16
Montana.................................     .83    1.63    2.01    2.00    2.35    1.36    1.13     .88     .88
Nebraska................................    1.56    1.04    1.24     .85     .65     .60     .53     .49     .57
Nevada..................................     .28     .53     .48     .62     .51     .43     .48     .65     .45
New Hampshire...........................    2.09    1.21     .98     .83     .60     .65     .55     .75     .70
New Jersey..............................    1.24    1.14    1.19    1.07     .88     .80     .77     .90     .83
New Mexico..............................     .76     .90    1.13     .95     .82     .77     .77     .94    1.47
New York................................     .75     .79     .78     .75     .99     .91    1.02    1.15    1.07
North Carolina..........................    1.29    1.53    1.54    1.82    1.29    1.22    1.23    1.22    1.14
North Dakota............................    1.68    1.61    1.67    1.70    1.65    1.77    1.63    1.51    1.32
Ohio....................................    1.65    1.68    1.94    2.09    1.09    1.13     .92     .81     .81
Oklahoma................................     .40     .60    1.04     .97     .87     .84     .90    1.02    1.13
Oregon..................................    1.40    1.15    1.44    1.11    1.11    1.08    1.08    1.22    1.12
Pennsylvania............................    1.35    1.10    1.13    1.28    1.49    1.37    1.30    1.48    1.39
Puerto Rico.............................     .62     .27     .34     .52     .28     .16     .30     .18     .16
Rhode Island............................    2.52    1.97    2.09    1.70    1.72    1.28    1.08    1.25    2.44
South Carolina..........................    2.04    2.08    1.19    1.19     .93     .79     .91    1.10    1.20
South Dakota............................    1.29    1.81    1.73    1.44    1.49    1.33    1.42    1.48    1.37
Tennessee...............................     .92     .79     .72     .97    1.21    1.37    1.54    1.04    1.56
Texas...................................     .49     .72    1.14     .84     .76     .58     .61     .60     .49
Utah....................................    1.45    1.71    1.33    1.13    1.24    1.22    1.04    1.11     .99
Vermont.................................    1.87    2.74    2.21    2.14    1.78    2.16    2.33    1.39    1.48
Virgin Islands..........................     .28     .44     .29     .33     .23     .28     .14     .28     .31
Virginia................................    1.33    1.53    1.58     .64     .72     .59     .82     .77     .80
Washington..............................    1.51    1.56    1.40    1.36    1.11    1.16    1.19    1.12    1.12
West Virginia...........................     .96    1.30    1.61    1.16     .77     .52      74     .79     .95
Wisconsin...............................    2.34    1.92    2.21    2.30    1.68    1.42    1.48    1.48    1.41
Wyoming.................................    2.29    2.12    1.06    2.14    1.19    1.22    1.24    1.63     .74
                                         -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Nationwide total....................    1.30    1.27    1.34    1.27    1.17    1.09    1.10    1.13    1.08
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


  TABLE 11-25.--NON-AFDC CHILD SUPPORT COLLECTIONS PER DOLLAR OF TOTAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENDITURES, FISCAL
                                               YEARS 1980-93
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  State                    1980    1983    1985    1987    1989    1990    1991    1992    1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.................................    0.00    0.09    0.83    1.68    1.65    1.96    1.93    2.38    2.62
Alaska..................................    1.82    1.97    1.83    2.29    2.86    2.88    2.46    2.69    2.60
Arizona.................................    1.81    1.55    1.87    1.68    1.50    1.16    1.19    1.14    1.29
Arkansas................................     .68     .62     .70    1.35    1.65    1.53    1.74    1.97    2.15
California..............................    1.10     .92    1.15    1.26    1.38    1.36    1.36    1.34    1.38
Colorado................................     .40     .98    1.01     .95    1.23    1.63    1.90    1.62    1.51
Connecticut.............................    1.99    1.56    1.73    1.56    1.52    1.45    1.47    1.64    1.78
Delaware................................    4.71    1.76    3.60    2.15    2.12    2.22    2.04    2.07    1.69
District of Columbia....................     .14     .22     .47     .47     .82    1.24    1.38    1.75    1.91
Florida.................................     .16     .55     .90    1.17    1.82    1.93    2.10    2.20    2.76
Georgia.................................     .18     .25     .59    1.50    1.83    1.82    2.15    2.44    2.63
Guam....................................     .01     .42     .51     .80     .74     .79    1.06     .87    1.00
Hawaii..................................    2.02    1.51    1.32    1.99    2.48    2.54    3.02    3.00    2.87
Idaho...................................     .52     .41     .49    2.55    2.68    2.80    2.18    2.51    2.50
Illinois................................     .11     .80    1.04    1.42    1.85    1.76    1.77    1.97    1.65
Indiana.................................     .26     .46    1.02    2.51    2.77    3.71    4.34    3.97    4.07
Iowa....................................     .69    1.64    1.81    2.61    3.25    2.98    3.12    3.66    3.41
Kansas..................................     .31     .41     .30    1.17    1.21    1.83    2.34    2.55    1.61
Kentucky................................    2.26    1.74    1.67    1.66    1.67    1.60    1.46    1.87    1.97
Louisiana...............................    1.07    1.25    1.32    1.38    1.76    2.04    1.66    1.90    2.36
Maine...................................     .38     .62    1.01    1.15    1.51    1.57    1.32    1.31    1.45
Maryland................................    1.28    3.02    2.56    2.18    2.48    2.74    2.94    3.41    3.49
Massachusetts...........................    1.16    1.61    1.89    2.01    1.89    2.32    2.09    2.56    2.60
Michigan................................    7.96    4.26    5.12    7.24    6.64    6.06    6.29    6.45    6.80
Minnesota...............................     .72    1.11    1.39    1.93    2.38    2.45    2.63    3.07    3.10
Mississippi.............................     .10     .12     .61    1.71    1.16     .82     .91    1.23    1.31
Missouri................................     .74     .73    1.55    3.06    3.11    3.33    3.51    3.42    3.14
Montana.................................     .69     .52     .45    1.17    1.86    1.37    1.66    1.50    1.87
Nebraska................................     .30    4.62    5.08    4.35    4.04    3.88    3.30    3.05    3.60
Nevada..................................     .98    1.09    1.55    1.67    1.71    1.69    2.04    2.41    1.94
New Hampshire...........................     .08    4.08    3.98    4.50    2.58    3.06    2.31    2.50    2.17
New Jersey..............................    2.90    2.83    3.47    3.40    2.97    2.86    2.73    3.12    3.19
New Mexico..............................     .34     .54     .77    1.05    1.14    1.23    1.24    1.35    1.61
New York................................    1.47    1.22    1.18    1.23    1.75    1.64    1.79    2.07    2.03
North Carolina..........................     .28     .98    1.40    2.00    1.91    1.96    1.92    1.98    2.06
North Dakota............................     .43     .57     .62     .95    1.66    1.84    1.95    2.41    2.73
Ohio....................................     .06     .07    1.43    3.56    4.98    6.08    5.09    4.54    4.67
Oklahoma................................     .19     .26     .42    1.25    1.41    1.44    1.51    1.67    2.00
Oregon..................................    8.15    2.30    2.61    2.92    3.34    3.41    3.40    3.88    3.83
Pennsylvania............................    6.70    5.56    5.55    6.28    7.48    7.34    6.72    7.79    7.70
Puerto Rico.............................    1.56    9.21   11.61   18.42   13.32    6.75   15.38   10.25   11.57
Rhode Island............................     .10    1.39    1.43    1.61    1.95    1.24    1.14    1.06    1.91
South Carolina..........................     .39     .50     .51    1.83    2.08    1.81    2.10    2.49    2.68
South Dakota............................     .38     .56     .64    1.52    2.50    2.62    3.01    3.34    3.53
Tennessee...............................    1.55    1.92    2.16    2.10    2.36    2.91    2.72    2.83    3.86
Texas...................................     .19     .47    1.03    1.76    1.65    1.35    1.89    1.94    1.81
Utah....................................     .31     .29     .62    1.26    1.68    1.87    1.76    1.97    1.87
Vermont.................................     .35     .21     .37     .82    1.15    1.46    1.44    1.43    1.59
Virgin Islands..........................     .46    1.70    2.97    3.80    2.88    3.90    1.92    3.81    4.19
Virginia................................     .08     .24     .27    1.78    2.31    1.76    2.31    2.14    2.28
Washington..............................     .85     .89    1.08    1.20    1.55    1.97    2.22    2.17    2.30
West Virginia...........................     .07     .05     .05     .84    2.18    2.23    1.80    2.18    1.82
Wisconsin...............................     .65     .80    1.52    3.90    4.50    4.34    5.21    5.34    5.74
Wyoming.................................     .96     .61     .58    2.50    2.31    2.16    2.26    3.24    1.61
                                         -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Nationwide total......................    1.88    1.66    1.97    2.41    2.68    2.65    2.72    2.86    2.90
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


          TABLE 11-26.--TOTAL NUMBER OF PATERNITIES ESTABLISHED, SELECTED FISCAL YEARS 1979-93
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
             State                  1979      1983      1987      1989      1990      1991      1992      1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................   137,645   208,270   269,161   339,243   393,304   472,105   515,857  553,135
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.........................     6,161     4,833     6,998     7,839     6,517     6,612     7,942    10,779
Alaska..........................         3       105       364       797       767       673       906     1,070
Arizona.........................       154       595     1,009     1,327     1,237     2,674     3,056     5,007
Arkansas........................     2,586     1,489     5,326     4,453     3,191     4,703     5,175     6,580
California......................    19,364    21,714    28,570    35,193    41,065    56,912    65,062    77,324
Colorado........................     1,046     1,033     1,291     1,939     1,864     2,887     4,135     5,258
Connecticut.....................     3,029     4,563     3,908     3,888     4,499     5,309     6,196     5,368
Delaware........................       205     1,346     1,867     1,641       801       728     1,573     1,395
District of Columbia............       386       811     1,021     2,079     2,791     3,895     2,792     2,884
Florida.........................     7,078    10,679    12,136    13,399    19,534    17,907    16,119    10,879
Georgia.........................     3,642     6,102    14,112    18,198    24,615    28,015    30,181    29,329
Guam............................        NA       173       122       109       563       884       642       440
Hawaii..........................       854     1,181     1,061     1,295     1,843     1,672     1,419     1,746
Idaho...........................       287        84       384     1,100     1,310     1,551     1,722     1,509
Illinois........................     3,025     7,339    20,848    29,926    25,496    21,157    18,900    19,017
Indiana.........................     1,644     3,036     3,570     4,943     5,309     6,291     5,631     4,950
Iowa............................       575       922     1,664     1,980     3,045     1,904     4,416     4,952
Kansas..........................       696       682     1,119     2,101     3,644     3,125     3,198     4,445
Kentucky........................       784     2,986     3,881     4,498     6,092     6,816     7,951     7,979
Louisiana.......................     1,304     3,195     2,926     4,451     5,525    11,098    11,764    13,272
Maine...........................       382       604       951     1,609     1,381     1,376     3,189     1,370
Maryland........................    13,307     8,211     6,671     9,995     7,538    12,081    11,259     9,993
Massachusetts...................     2,096     3,766     7,025     6,194     6,339     5,742     8,195     6,234
Michigan........................     7,529    17,374    18,274    23,142    25,574    27,955    29,087    28,076
Minnesota.......................     1,786     2,994     3,856     6,098     5,661     7,695     5,348     3,749
Mississippi.....................       932     1,797     1,824     7,929    10,740    11,950     8,978     8,588
Missouri........................        NA    17,522    14,308    11,146    16,242    21,976    23,982    24,292
Montana.........................        92        37       179       388       429       677     1,155       413
Nebraska........................        NA       410       710       759       885     1,280     1,628     2,019
Nevada..........................       233       409       531       664     1,033     1,655     1,702     1,602
New Hampshire...................        35        30       195       518       614       645       580       604
New Jersey......................     8,242    10,616    13,938    13,182    12,243    10,595    10,314     7,453
New Mexico......................       322     1,141       412     1,571     1,992     1,601     1,591     2,491
New York........................    17,503    15,884    18,239    18,056    20,492    30,197    34,434    42,748
North Carolina..................     6,592     7,368     9,916    11,663    14,504    18,186    19,308    21,371
North Dakota....................       293       440     1,134       820       784       935     1,446     1,386
Ohio............................     4,808     7,767     9,133    11,637    15,823    20,857    23,672    28,151
Oklahoma........................        43     1,811       512     1,361     2,710     4,939     2,721     2,764
Oregon..........................     1,521     2,173     1,902     3,131     4,081     3,836     4,942     5,830
Pennsylvania....................     4,450    11,906    15,277    18,921    20,231    23,063    24,239    23,246
Puerto Rico.....................        22        19         6       144       216       264       198       206
Rhode Island....................       347       451       601       673       868       764     1,425     2,001
South Carolina..................     1,378     2,552     3,994     5,243     5,273     6,066     6,996     8,331
South Dakota....................        60       172       552       504       509       687       916     1,333
Tennessee.......................     5,003     6,592     7,666     9,647     8,976    10,309    10,902    11,463
Texas...........................       202     1,085       684     6,465    12,623    19,627    24,890    30,002
Utah............................       487     1,546     1,292     1,801     2,087     2,484     2,957     3,496
Vermont.........................        44       349     1,091       468       533       438       800     1,065
Virgin Islands..................         4       104       235       270       160       215       344       492
Virginia........................     1,452     2,351     2,667     8,471    13,647    15,971    18,038    21,506
Washington......................       656     1,700     4,066     5,762     6,985     8,601    10,540    12,539
West Virginia...................       156       467       288       820       997     1,324     2,373     2,790
Wisconsin.......................     4,803     5,688     8,750     8,695    10,808    12,931    15,435    17,678
Wyoming.........................        44        66       105       340       618       370     3,493     3,670
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NA=Not available.

Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.


                                       TABLE 11-27.--OUT-OF-WEDLOCK BIRTHS AND IV-D PATERNITIES: 1987-91
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                          Births to unmarried women                    Paternities/births (percent)
                           State                           ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              1987       1988       1989       1990       1991     1987    1988    1989    1990    1991
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama...................................................    15,955     16,934     18,640     19,131     20,000    43.9    44.5    42.1    34.1   33.05
Alaska....................................................     2,564      2,627      2,869      3,113      3,148    14.2    22.9    27.8    24.6   21.38
Arizona...................................................    17,227     18,815     20,708     22,532     23,899     5.9     3.8     6.4     5.5   11.19
Arkansas..................................................     8,498      9,273      9,944     10,713     10,601    62.7    63.7    44.8    29.8   44.36
California................................................   136,785    152,607    171,189    193,559    204,229    20.9    23.6    20.6    21.2   27.87
Colorado..................................................    10,171     10,431     10,787     11,374     12,684    12.7    14.8    18.0    16.4   22.76
Connecticut...............................................    11,045     11,460     13,005     13,330     13,581    35.4    30.4    29.9    33.8   39.09
Delaware..................................................     2,742      2,819      3,125      3,222      3,559    68.1    56.2    52.5    24.9   20.46
District of Columbia......................................     6,094      6,507      7,580      7,692      7,806    16.8    16.2    27.4    36.3   49.90
Florida...................................................    48,200     52,867     58,305     63,169     64,101    25.2    28.1    23.0    30.9   27.94
Georgia...................................................    28,647     31,348     34,926     36,979     38,116    49.3    68.0    52.1    66.6   73.50
Hawaii....................................................     3,968      4,222      4,609      5,088      5,195    26.7    34.2    28.1    36.2   32.18
Idaho.....................................................     2,073      2,216      2,561      2,738      2,924    18.5    26.6    43.0    47.8   53.04
Illinois..................................................    50,677     54,436     58,867     62,148     63,225    41.1    49.3    50.8    41.0   33.46
Indiana...................................................    17,260     18,543     19,898     22,562     24,294    20.7    27.7    24.8    23.5   25.90
Iowa......................................................     6,147      6,736      7,575      8,282      8,657    27.1    28.1    26.1    36.8   21.99
Kansas....................................................     6,633      7,025      7,577      8,397      8,746    16.9    21.4    27.7    43.4   35.73
Kentucky..................................................    10,658     11,206     12,048     12,829     13,796    36.4    38.4    37.3    47.5   49.41
Louisiana.................................................    23,594     24,752     25,692     26,601     27,694    12.4    14.0    17.3    20.8   40.07
Maine.....................................................     3,338      3,489      3,806      3,931      4,180    28.5    50.9    42.3    35.1   32.92
Maryland..................................................    22,866     24,716     22,607     23,789     24,292    29.2    37.4    44.2    31.7   49.73
Massachusetts.............................................    17,616     19,559     21,798     22,886     22,873    39.9    41.4    28.4    27.7   25.10
Michigan..................................................    28,724     30,195     36,441     40,289     40,941    63.6    66.9    63.5    63.5   68.28
Minnesota.................................................    11,114     12,235     13,142     14,192     14,984    34.7    35.0    46.4    39.9   51.35
Mississippi...............................................    14,499     15,824     16,958     17,627     18,317    12.6    18.5    46.8    60.9   65.24
Missouri..................................................    17,823     19,124     21,123     22,643     23,736    80.3    40.9    52.8    71.7   92.59
Montana...................................................     2,379      2,430      2,539      2,757      2,898     7.5    13.0    15.3    15.6   23.36
Nebraska..................................................     4,006      4,333      4,662      5,056      5,181    17.7    17.7    16.3    17.5   24.71
Nevada....................................................     2,740      3,432      4,607      5,480      7,016    19.4    18.4    14.4    18.9   23.59
New Hampshire.............................................     2,511      2,503      2,797      2,967      2,996     7.8    13.8    18.5    20.7   21.53
New Jersey................................................    26,647     28,580     29,364     29,756     31,972    52.3    45.6    44.9    41.1   33.14
New Mexico................................................     8,067      8,711      9,447      9,704     10,445     5.1    11.2    16.6    20.5   15.33
New York..................................................    80,939     84,381     92,996     98,110     99,738    22.5    20.3    19.4    20.9   30.28
North Carolina............................................    23,262     25,622     28,315     30,718     32,340    42.6    43.8    41.2    47.2   56.23
North Dakota..............................................     1,429      1,578      1,615      1,699      1,952    79.4    64.8    50.8    46.1   47.90
Ohio......................................................    39,237     42,448     45,921     48,289     50,826    23.3    19.7    25.3    32.8   41.04
Oklahoma..................................................     9,892     10,600     11,258     11,998     12,973     5.2     9.9    12.1    22.6   38.07
Oregon....................................................     8,672      9,435     10,436     11,041     11,324    21.9    18.9    30.0    37.0   33.87
Pennsylvania..............................................    41,143     43,919     47,093     49,258     51,360    37.1    36.7    40.2    41.1   44.90
Rhode Island..............................................     3,064      3,262      3,684      3,997      4,073    19.6    24.6    18.3    21.7   18.76
South Carolina............................................    15,333     16,722     18,116     19,148     20,000    26.1    34.0    28.9    27.5   30.33
South Dakota..............................................     2,225      2,334      2,415      2,515      2,720    24.8    24.6    20.9    20.2   25.26
Tennessee.................................................    17,897     19,511     21,281     22,662     24,026    42.8    43.1    45.3    39.6   42.91
Texas.....................................................    57,464     59,820     60,303     55,435     56,528     1.2     1.7    10.7    22.8   34.72
Utah......................................................     3,929      4,221      4,504      4,910      5,196    32.9    35.0    40.0    42.5   47.81
Vermont...................................................     1,459      1,510      1,685      1,666      1,811    74.8   115.0    27.8    32.0   24.19
Virginia..................................................    20,562     22,126     24,410     25,874     27,125     1.3    26.0    34.7    52.7   58.88
Washington................................................    14,629     16,150     17,638     18,746     19,861    27.8    28.8    32.7    37.3   43.31
West Virginia.............................................     4,722      4,948      5,212      5,743      6,040     6.1    16.0    15.7    17.4   21.92
Wisconsin.................................................    14,698     15,528     16,815     17,656     18,235    59.5    55.8    51.7    61.2   70.91
Wyoming...................................................     1,189      1,229      1,276      1,383      1,546     8.8     6.4    26.7    44.7   23.93
                                                           ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      U.S. total..........................................   933,013  1,005,299  1,094,169  1,165,384  1,213,769    28.8    30.5    31.0    33.7   38.78
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources: National Center for Health Statistics. Monthly Vital Statistics Report, vol. 41, no. 9, Supplement, Feb. 25, 1993, page 36, U.S. Department of
  Health and Human Services, Office of Child Support Enforcement.


                 TABLE 11-28.--STATE SHARE OF SAVINGS FOR FIVE CONSECUTIVE FISCAL YEARS
                                            [In thousands of dollars]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          State                              1989        1990       1991      1992        1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama..................................................        380       -518     -1,982     -3,053     -2,529
Alaska...................................................      2,264      2,469      2,982      3,431      3,797
Arizona..................................................     -1,219     -2,899     -3,125     -3,320     -4,242
Arkansas.................................................      1,574      1,013      1,830      1,009        530
California...............................................     79,779     76,552     88,584     98,465    101,406
Colorado.................................................      4,552      4,991      5,954      5,661      6,064
Connecticut..............................................     11,330      7,310     10,332     11,711     13,396
Delaware.................................................        797        812        923        902        455
District of Columbia.....................................     -3,145        -89       -574        144        757
Florida..................................................      5,601      2,932      7,179     11,482     14,368
Georgia..................................................      2,861      1,299      3,930      7,937     12,856
Guam.....................................................        -87       -227       -293       -450       -305
Hawaii...................................................      1,648      1,622      1,502      1,655      1,873
Idaho....................................................      1,029        895        751        955        922
Illinois.................................................     10,935      5,159      5,785      9,767      3,716
Indiana..................................................     14,027     11,731     16,134     20,359     20,257
Iowa.....................................................     11,767     11,631     10,840     11,765     11,000
Kansas...................................................      1,170      2,229      3,694      4,041      3,711
Kentucky.................................................        207        207       -475      1,958      3,467
Louisiana................................................        696        150     -1,049     -1,845     -1,241
Maine....................................................      5,236      4,229      3,852      3,890      5,877
Maryland.................................................      6,860      8,631      6,120     10,366     12,037
Massachusetts............................................     23,373     23,391     21,789     25,917     29,957
Michigan.................................................     57,413     54,088     58,032     53,107     52,078
Minnesota................................................     13,969     12,083     11,468     12,377     12,274
Mississippi..............................................       -232     -2,987     -2,549     -1,243     -1,065
Missouri.................................................      8,046      9,002      7,846     11,772     10,303
Montana..................................................      1,093        769        454        532        618
Nebraska.................................................       -252       -572       -582     -2,093     -1,054
Nevada...................................................        -32       -417       -334        608       -172
New Hampshire............................................        362        185        271        826        443
New Jersey...............................................     15,081      6,836      9,100     13,551     11,876
New Mexico...............................................        305       -148       -361       -224      1,278
New York.................................................     24,201     22,865     30,313     41,091     41,790
North Carolina...........................................      5,857      3,598      4,257      6,343      6,962
North Dakota.............................................        955      1,074      1,231        973        989
Ohio.....................................................     21,558     12,040      6,054        445      3,453
Oklahoma.................................................        705         69        380      1,110      2,457
Oregon...................................................      3,703      2,658      3,358      4,863      5,935
Pennsylvania.............................................     22,018     19,846     21,226     27,102     29,234
Puerto Rico..............................................     -1,075     -3,121     -2,165     -2,008     -2,171
Rhode Island.............................................      2,999      3,439      3,940      4,375      5,427
South Carolina...........................................        490     -1,639         91        437      1,309
South Dakota.............................................        969      1,254        820        672      1,048
Tennessee................................................      1,278      3,432      5,989      1,578      5,915
Texas....................................................      2,163     -4,832     -4,774     -6,111     13,969
Utah.....................................................      1,362      1,111        892        980        343
Vermont..................................................      1,440      1,957      1,918      1,621      2,066
Virgin Islands...........................................       -223       -184       -459       -227       -256
Virginia.................................................      2,567     -1,113      4,292      4,324      6,347
Washington...............................................     15,386     14,053     22,038     19,695     24,875
West Virginia............................................        -59     -1,214       -722     -1,047         16
Wisconsin................................................     21,306     18,451     16,740     15,553     15,386
Wyoming..................................................        574        363        340        589        226
                                                          ------------------------------------------------------
      Nationwide total...................................    403,400    338,469    384,691    433,317    462,092
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note.--Numbers may not sum to total due to rounding.

Source: Office of Child Support Enforcement.

                LEGISLATIVE CHANGES IN THE 103D CONGRESS

1. State Paternity Establishment Programs

    Public Law 103-66, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of
1993, increases the percentage of children for whom the State
must establish paternity and requires States to adopt laws
requiring civil procedures to voluntarily acknowledge paternity
(including hospital-based programs).

2. Enforcement of Health Insurance Support

    Public Law 103-66, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of
1993, requires States to adopt laws to ensure the compliance of
health insurers and employers in carrying out court or
administrative orders for medical child support and includes a
provision that forbids health insurers to deny coverage to
children who are not living with the covered individual or who
were born outside of marriage.

   TABLE 11-29.--CBO FEDERAL BUDGET COST ESTIMATES FOR CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT AMENDMENTS IN THE OMNIBUS
                           BUDGET RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1993 (PUBLIC LAW 103-66)
                                            [In millions of dollars]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                            Fiscal years
                                                           ---------------------------------------------  Total
                                                              1994     1995     1996     1997     1998
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paternity establishment programs..........................        0        0      -30      -70     -110     -210
Medical child support.....................................        0      -15      -20      -20      -25      -80
                                                           -----------------------------------------------------
      Total...............................................        0      -15      -50      -90     -135     -290
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Congressional Budget Office.

                LEGISLATIVE CHANGES IN THE 102D CONGRESS

1. Criminal Penalties for Willful Failure to Pay Child Support in
        Interstate Cases

    Public Law 102-521, the Child Support Recovery Act of 1992,
imposes a Federal criminal penalty for the willful failure to
pay a past-due child support obligation with respect to a child
who resides in another State that has remained unpaid for
longer than a year or is greater than $5,000. For the first
conviction the penalty would be a fine of up to $5,000 and/or
imprisonment for not more than 6 months; for a second
conviction, a fine of not more than $250,000 and/or
imprisonment for up to 2 years.

2. Inclusion of Child Support Debt Information By Consumer Credit
        Reporting Agencies

    Public Law 102-537, the Ted Weiss Child Support Enforcement
Act of 1992, amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require
consumer credit reporting agencies to include in any consumer
report information on child support delinquencies provided by
or verified by State or local CSE agencies, which antedates the
report by 7 years.

               LEGISLATIVE CHANGES IN THE 101ST CONGRESS

1. Extension of IRS Intercept for non-AFDC Families

    The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-
508) permanently extends the Federal provision that allows
States to ask the IRS to collect child support arrearages of at
least $500 out of income tax refunds otherwise due to
noncustodial parents. The minor child restriction is to be
eliminated for adults with a current support order who are
disabled, as defined under OASDI or SSI. In addition, the
offset can be used for spousal support when spousal and child
support are included in the same support order.

2. Extension of Interstate Child Support Commission

    The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-
508) extends the life of the Interstate Child Support
Commission from July 1, 1991, to July 1, 1992, and requires it
to submit its report no later than May 1, 1992. Also, the
provision authorizes the Commission to hire its own staff.

3. Medicaid Transition in Child Support Cases

    The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 (P.L. 101-
239) made permanent the requirement that Medicaid benefits
continue for 4 months after a family loses AFDC eligibility as
a result of collection of child support payments.

               LEGISLATIVE CHANGES IN THE 100TH CONGRESS

    During the second session of the 100th Congress, The Family
Support Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-485) was enacted. It emphasized
the duties of parents to work and support their children. The
Act emphasized child support enforcement as the first line of
defense against welfare dependence. It contained these
provisions:

1. Guidelines for Child Support Award Amounts

    Judges and other officials are required to use State
guidelines for child support unless they are rebutted by a
written finding that applying the guidelines would be unjust or
inappropriate in a particular case. States must review
guidelines for awards every 4 years. Beginning 5 years after
enactment, States generally must review and adjust individual
case awards every 3 years for AFDC cases. The same applies to
other IV-D cases, except review and adjustment must be at the
request of a parent.

2. Establishment of Paternity

    States are required to meet Federal standards for the
establishment of paternity. The standard relates to the
percentage obtained by dividing the number of children in the
State who are born out of wedlock, are receiving cash benefits
or IV-D child support services, and for whom paternity has been
established by the number of children who are born out of
wedlock and are receiving cash benefits or IV-D child support
services. To meet Federal requirements, this percentage in a
State must: (1) be at least 50 percent; (2) be at least equal
to the average for all States; or (3) have increased by 3
percentage points from fiscal years 1988 to 1991 and by 3
percentage points each year thereafter.
    States are mandated to require all parties in a contested
paternity case to take a genetic test upon request of any
party.
    The Federal matching rate for laboratory testing to
establish paternity is set at 90 percent.

3. Disregard of Child Support

    The child support enforcement disregard authorized under
the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 is clarified so that it
applies to a payment made by the noncustodial parent in the
month it was due even though it was received in a subsequent
month.

4. Requirement for Prompt State Response

    The Secretary of Health and Human Services is required to
set time limits within which States must accept and respond to
requests for assistance in establishing and enforcing support
orders as well as time limits within which child support
payments collected by the State IV-D agency must be distributed
to the families to whom they are owed.

5. Requirement for Automated Tracking and Monitoring System

    Every State that does not have a Statewide automated
tracking and monitoring system in effect must submit an advance
planning document that meets Federal requirements by October 1,
1991. The Secretary must approve each document within 9 months
after submission. By October 1, 1995, every State must have an
approved system in effect. Federal matching rates of 90 percent
for this activity will expire after September 30, 1995.

6. Interstate Enforcement

    A Commission on Interstate Child Support is established to
hold one or more national conferences on interstate child
support enforcement reform, and to report to Congress no later
than October 1, 1990 on recommendations for improvements in the
system and revisions in the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of
Support Act.

7. Exclude Interstate Demonstration Grants in Computing Incentive
        Payments

    Amounts spent by States for interstate demonstration
projects are excluded from calculating the amount of the
States' incentive payments.

8. Use of INTERNET System

    The Secretaries of Labor and HHS are required to enter into
an agreement to give the Federal Parent Locator Service prompt
access to wage and unemployment compensation claims information
useful in locating absent parents.

9. Wage Withholding

    With respect to IV-D cases, each State must provide for
immediate wage withholding in the case of orders that are
issued or modified on or after the first day of the 25th month
beginning after the date of enactment unless: (1) one of the
parties demonstrates, and the court finds, that there is good
cause not to require such withholding; or (2) there is a
written agreement between both parties providing for an
alternative arrangement. Present law requirements for mandatory
wage withholding in cases where payments are in arrears apply
to orders that are not subject to immediate wage withholding.
    States are required to provide for immediate wage
withholding for all support orders initially issued on or after
January 1, 1994, regardless of whether a parent has applied for
IV-D services.

10. Work and Training Demonstration Programs for Noncustodial Parents

    The Secretary of HHS is required to grant waivers to up to
5 States to allow them to provide services to noncustodial
parents under the JOBS program. No new power is granted to the
States to require participation by noncustodial parents.

11. Data Collection and Reporting

    The Secretary of HHS is required to collect and maintain
State-by-State statistics on paternity determination, location
of absent parent for the purpose of establishing a support
obligation, enforcement of a child support obligation, and
location of absent parent for the purpose of enforcing or
modifying an established obligation.

12. Use of Social Security Number

    Each State must, in the administration of any law involving
the issuance of a birth certificate, require each parent to
furnish his or her social security number (SSN), unless the
State finds good cause for not requiring the parent to furnish
it. The SSN shall not appear on the birth certificate, and the
use of the SSN obtained through the birth record is restricted
to child support enforcement purposes except under certain
circumstances.

13. Notification of Support Collected

    Each State is required to inform families receiving AFDC of
the amount of support collected on their behalf on a monthly
basis, rather than annually as provided under present law.
States may provide quarterly notification if the Secretary of
HHS determines that monthly reporting imposes an unreasonable
administrative burden. This provision is effective 4 years
after the date of enactment.

  TABLE 11-30.--CBO FEDERAL BUDGET COST ESTIMATES FOR CHILD SUPPORT
ENFORCEMENT AMENDMENTS IN THE FAMILY SUPPORT ACT OF 1988 (PUBLIC LAW 100-
                                485)
                        [In millions of dollars]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                            Fiscal years--
                            --------------------------------------------
                               1990     1991     1992     1993    Total
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mandate income withholding.  .......      -25      -55      -90     -170
Mandate child support
 guidelines................      -25      -70     -115     -160     -370
Mandate increases in
 paternity establishment...  .......       40       25       15       80
Mandate ADP for most States        2        7        7        7       23
Other......................       10        9        6        8       33
                            --------------------------------------------
      Total................      -13      -39     -132     -220     -404
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Congressional Budget Office.

    The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (P.L. 100-
203) required States to provide child support enforcement
services to all families with an absent parent who receives
Medicaid and have assigned their support rights to the State,
regardless of whether they are receiving AFDC.

                LEGISLATIVE CHANGES IN THE 99TH CONGRESS

    During the second session of the 99th Congress, Public Law
99-509 was enacted. Titled the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation
Act of 1986, the new law included one child support enforcement
amendment prohibiting the retroactive modification of child
support awards. Under this new requirement, State laws must
provide for either parent to apply for modification of an
existing order with notice provided to the other parent. No
modification is permitted before the date of this notification.

                LEGISLATIVE CHANGES IN THE 98TH CONGRESS

    In November 1983, the House of Representatives adopted H.R.
4325, the Child Support Enforcement Amendments, which had been
developed by the Subcommittee on Public Assistance and
Unemployment Compensation and approved by the Committee on Ways
and Means. In August 1984, the amendments were signed into law.
The new law strengthens the child support enforcement and
paternity establishment program. It requires States to
implement effective enforcement tools and provides incentives
to the States to make available services to both AFDC and non-
AFDC families. The main provisions of the Child Support
Enforcement Amendments of 1984 (P.L. 98-378) are summarized
below:
    1. Improved child support enforcement through requiring
State laws and procedures.--States are required to enact laws
establishing the following procedures with respect to their IV-
D cases:
    A. Mandatory wage withholding for all families (AFDC and
non-AFDC) if support payments are delinquent in an amount equal
to 1 month's support. States must also allow absent parents to
request withholding at an earlier date.
    B. Imposing liens against real and personal property for
amounts of overdue support.
    C. Withholding of State tax refunds payable to a parent of
a child receiving IV-D services, if the parent is delinquent in
support payments.
    D. Making available information regarding the amount of
overdue support owed by an absent parent, to any consumer
credit bureau, upon request of such organization.
    E. Requiring individuals who have demonstrated a pattern of
delinquent payments to post a bond, or give some other
guarantee to secure payment of overdue support.
    F. Establishing expedited processes within the State
judicial system or under administrative procedures for
obtaining and enforcing child support orders and, at the option
of the State, for determining paternity.
    G. Notifying each AFDC recipient at least once each year of
the amount of child support collected on behalf of that
recipient.
    H. Permitting the establishment of paternity until a
child's 18th birthday.
    I. At the option of the State, providing that child support
payments must be made through the agency that administers the
State's income withholding system if either the custodial or
noncustodial parent requests that they be made in this manner.
    2. Federal matching of administrative costs.--The Federal
matching share is gradually reduced from 70 percent as follows:
68 percent in fiscal years 1988 and 1989, and 66 percent in
fiscal year 1990 and each year thereafter.
    3. Federal incentive payments.--The prior incentive formula
which gave States 12 percent of their AFDC collections (paid
for out of the Federal share of the collections) is replaced
with a new formula that is designed to encourage States to
develop programs that emphasize collections on behalf of both
AFDC and non-AFDC families, and to improve program cost
effectiveness. The basic incentive payment will be equal to 6
percent of the State's AFDC collections, and 6 percent of its
non-AFDC collections. States may qualify for higher incentive
payments, up to a maximum of 10 percent of collections, if
their AFDC or non-AFDC collections exceed combined
administrative costs for both AFDC and non-AFDC components of
the program.
    The total dollar amount of incentives paid for non-AFDC
families may not exceed the amount of the State's incentive
payment for AFDC collections for fiscal years 1986 and 1987.
However, thereafter the incentive paid for non-AFDC collections
will be capped at an amount equal to 105 percent of the
incentive for AFDC collections in fiscal year 1988, 110 percent
in fiscal year 1989, and 115 percent in fiscal year 1990 and
any fiscal year thereafter.
    4. Matching for automated management systems used in income
withholding and other procedures.--The Act specifies that the
90 percent Federal matching rate that is currently available to
States that elect to establish an automatic data processing and
information retrieval system may be used, at the option of the
State, for the development and improvement of the income
withholding and other procedures required in the new law
through the monitoring of child support payments, the
maintenance of accurate records regarding the payment of child
support, and the provision of prompt notice to appropriate
officials with respect to any arrearages that occur. Also, the
Act specifies that the 90 percent matching is available to pay
for the acquisition of computer hardware.
    5. Fees for services to non-AFDC families.--States will be
required to charge an application fee for non-AFDC cases not to
exceed $25. The amount of the maximum allowable fee may be
adjusted periodically by the Secretary to reflect changes in
administrative costs. The State may charge the fee against the
custodial parent, pay the fee out of State funds, or recover
the fee from the noncustodial parent.
    In addition, at the option of the State, a late payment fee
equal to between 3 and 6 percent of the amount of overdue
support may be charged to the noncustodial parents of AFDC and
non-AFDC families. The State may not take any action which
would have the effect of reducing the amount of support paid to
the child and will collect the fee only after the full amount
of the support has been paid to the child. The late payment fee
provision is effective upon enactment.
    6. Continuation of support enforcement for AFDC recipients
whose benefits are being terminated.--States must provide that
families whose eligibility for AFDC is terminated due to the
receipt of (or an increase in) child support payments will be
automatically transferred from AFDC to non-AFDC status under
the IV-D program, without requiring application for IV-D
services or payment of a fee.
    7. Special project grants to promote improvement in
interstate enforcement.--The Secretary is authorized to make
demonstration grants to States which propose to undertake new
or innovative methods of support collection in interstate
cases. The authorization is $7 million in FY 1985, $12 million
in FY 1986, and $15 million in FY 1987 and years thereafter.
    8. Periodic review of State programs; modification of
penalty.--The Director of the Federal Office of Child Support
Enforcement is required to conduct audits at least every 3
years to determine whether the standards and requirements
prescribed by law and regulations have been met. Under the
penalty provision, a State's AFDC matching funds must be
reduced by an amount equal to at least 1 but no more than 2
percent for the first failure to comply substantially with the
standards and requirements, at least 2 but no more than 3
percent for the second failure, and at least 3 but no more than
5 percent for the third and any subsequent consecutive
failures.
    9. Extension of sec. 1115 demonstration authority to the
child support program.--The sec. 1115 demonstration authority
is expanded to include the child support enforcement program
under specified conditions.
    10. Child support enforcement for certain children in
foster care.--State child support agencies are required to
undertake child support collections on behalf of children
receiving foster care maintenance payments under title IV-E, if
an assignment of rights to support to the State has been
secured by the foster care agency. In addition, foster care
agencies are required to take steps, where appropriate, to
secure an assignment to the State of any rights to support on
behalf of a child receiving foster care maintenance payments
under the title IV-E foster care program.
    11. Collection of spousal support.--Child support
enforcement services must include the enforcement of spousal
support, but only if a support obligation has been established
with respect to the spouse, the child and spouse are living in
the same household, and child support is being collected along
with spousal support.
    12. Modification in content of annual report by the
Secretary.--The present annual report information requirements
are expanded to include data needed to evaluate State programs.
    13. Requirement to publicize the availability of child
support services.--States must frequently publicize, through
public service announcements, the availability of child support
enforcement services, together with information as to the
application fee for such services and a telephone number or
postal address to be used to obtain additional information.
    14. State commissions on child support.--The Governor of
each State is required to appoint a State Commission on Child
Support. The Commission must include representation from all
aspects of the child support system including custodial and
non-custodial parents, the IV-D agency, the judiciary, the
Governor, the legislature, child welfare and social services
agencies, and others.
    Each State commission is to examine the functioning of the
State child support system with regard to securing support and
parental involvement for both AFDC and non-AFDC children,
including but not limited to such specific problems as: (1)
visitation; (2) establishment of appropriate objective
standards for support; (3) enforcement of interstate
obligations; and (4) additional Federal and State legislation
needed to obtain support for all children.
    15. Requirement to include medical support as part of any
child support order.--The Secretary of Health and Human
Services is required to issue regulations to require State
agencies to petition to include medical support as part of any
child support order whenever health care coverage is available
to the absent parent at a reasonable cost. The regulations must
also provide for improved information exchange between the
State IV-D agencies and the medicaid agencies with respect to
the availability of health insurance coverage.
    16. Increased availability of Federal parent locator
services to State agencies.--The prior law requirement that the
States exhaust all State child support locator resources before
they request the assistance of the Federal Parent Locator
Service is repealed.
    17. Extension of medicaid eligibility when support
collection results in termination of AFDC eligibility.--If a
family loses AFDC eligibility as the result (wholly or partly)
of increased collection of support payments under the IV-D
program, the State must continue to provide medicaid benefits
for 4 calendar months beginning with the month of
ineligibility. (The family must have received AFDC in at least
3 of the 6 months immediately preceding the month of
ineligibility.)
    18. Guidelines for determining support obligations.--Each
State must develop guidelines to be used at the discretion of
the court or administrative entity in determining support
obligations.
    19. Availability of social security numbers for purposes of
child support enforcement.--The absent parent's social security
number may be disclosed to child support agencies both through
the Federal Parent Locator Service and by the IRS.
    20. Collection of overdue support from Federal tax
refunds.--Prior law requires the Secretary of the Treasury,
upon receiving notice from a State child support agency that an
individual owes past due support which has been assigned to the
State as a condition of AFDC eligibility, to withhold from any
tax refunds due that individual an amount equal to any past due
support. The act extends this requirement to provide for
withholding of refunds on behalf of non-AFDC families, under
specified conditions.
    21. Wisconsin child support initiative.--The Secretary of
HHS is required to grant waivers to the State of Wisconsin to
allow it to implement its proposed child support initiative in
all or parts of the State as a replacement for the AFDC and
child support programs. The State must meet specified
conditions and give specific guarantees with respect to the
financial well-being of the children involved.
    22. Sense of the Congress that State and local governments
should focus on the problems of child custody, child support,
and related domestic issues.--The act incorporates the language
of S. Con. Res. 84 urging State and local governments to focus
on the vital issues of child support, child custody, visitation
rights, and other related domestic issues that are within the
jurisdictions of such governments.
    Cost estimates for the major provisions of Public Law 98-
378 appear below:

    TABLE 11-31.--CBO FEDERAL BUDGET ESTIMATES FOR CHILD SUPPORT
         ENFORCEMENT AMENDMENTS OF 1984 (PUBLIC LAW 98-378)
                        [In millions of dollars]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                               Fiscal year--
                                 ---------------------------------------
                                   1984    1985    1986    1987    Total
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alter incentive payments to
 States.........................  ......  ......      15      15      30
Reduce Federal matching to 68
 percent in fiscal year 1988; 66
 percent in fiscal year 1990....  ......  ......  ......  ......       0
Require application fees;
 optional late payment fees.....  ......      -5     -10     -10     -25
Mandate State enforcement
 techniques.....................  ......     -15     -25     -25     -65
Require IRS tax intercept for
 non-AFDC families thru fiscal
 year 1989......................  ......      25      20      10      55
Authorize funds for interstate
 projects.......................  ......       7      12      15      34
Provide Medicaid for 4 months
 for families losing AFDC due to
 child support collection
 through fiscal year 1988.......       5      25      25      30      85
Other provisions................  ......      15      20      10      45
Impact of H.R. 4325 on CSE case
 levels:
    CSE expenditures............  ......      10      30      55      95
    Offsetting effects on public
     assistance.................  ......      -5     -20     -30     -55
                                 ---------------------------------------
      Total.....................       5      57      67      70     199
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: The cost of disregarding the first $50 of child support payments
  is shown in the AFDC section.

Source: Congressional Budget Office.

    The Tax Reform Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-369) was also
enacted during the 98th Congress and included two tax
provisions pertaining to alimony and child support.
    Under prior law, alimony was deductible by the payor and
includible in the income of the payee. The 1984 law revises the
rules relating to the definition of alimony. Generally, only
cash payments that will terminate on the death of the payee
spouse will qualify as alimony. Alimony payments, if in excess
of $10,000 per year, generally must be payable for at least 6
years and must not decline by more than $10,000. The prior law
requirement that the payment be based on a legal support
obligation has been repealed and payors are now required to
furnish to the IRS the social security number of the payee
spouse. A $50 penalty for failure to do so will be imposed. The
provision is effective for divorce or separation agreements or
orders executed after 1984.
    The 1984 law also provides that the $1,000 dependency
exemption for a child of divorced or separated parents
generally will be allocated to the custodial parent unless the
custodial parent signs a written declaration that he or she
will not claim the exemption for the year. Each parent may
claim the medical expenses that he or she pays for the child,
for purposes of computing the medical expense deduction. The
provision is effective for taxable years beginning after 1984.