# Income and Demographic Characteristics of Nonresident Fathers  in 1993

###   by Elaine Sorensen and Laura Wheaton  The Urban Institute

**June 2000**
**Prepared for:****Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning andEvaluation****Department of Health and Human Services****200 Independence Avenue, S.W.****Washington, D.C. 20201**
*This report is available on the Internetat:*http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/nonresfathers00/
The authors thank Linda Mellgren for her comments on earlier versions ofthis paper, and Jonathon Fischbach and Joyce Morton for research and programmingassistance. Support for this research was provided by the U.S. Departmentof Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planningand Evaluation. The views expressed in this document are those of the authorsand do not necessarily reflect those of the Urban Institute or its funders.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
I.  Introduction
II.  Data Development-  Identifying Nonresident Fathers  Estimating the Number of Nonresident Fathers Missed by    the SIPPReweighting the Nonresident Fathers
III.  Characteristics of Custodial Mothers and NonresidentFathers-  Socioeconomic Characteristics of Custodial Mothers and    Nonresident Fathers  Receipt and Payment of Child Support
IV.  Characteristics of Nonresident Fathers-  Socioeconomic Characteristics of Nonresident Fathers,    By Payment Status  Socioeconomic Characteristics of Low-Income Nonresident    Fathers, By Payment StatusNonresident Fathers' Child Support Payments, By Poverty    Status
V.  Conclusions
References
Appendix A:  Numbers Behind the Percentages Presentedin the Tables  List of Tables
Table 1:  Identifying Nonresident Fathers inthe 1993 SIPP
Table 2:  Estimated Deficit of NonresidentFathers in the 1993 SIPP
Table 3:  Nonresident Fathers, by Reason MissingFrom the SIPP
Table 4:  Estimating the Characteristics ofNonresident Fathers Not Identified in the SIPP
Table 5:  Adjustments to the 1993 SIPP PopulationWeight used in Reweighting the File
Table 6:  Characteristics of Custodial Mothersand Nonresident Fathers in 1993
Table 7:  Receipt and Payment of Child Supportin 1993
Table 8:  Characteristics of Nonresident Fathers,By Child Support Payment Status
Table 9:  Low-Income Nonresident Fathers, ByChild Support Payment Status
Table 10:  Payment of Child Support, byNonresident Father's Poverty Status
Table 11:  Payment of Child Support, By Raceand Poverty LevelAppendix Tables
Table A.6:  Characteristics of Custodial Mothersand Nonresident Fathers in 1993
 Table A.8:  Characteristics of NonresidentFathers, By Child Support Payment Status
Table A.9:  Low-Income Nonresident Fathers,By Child Support Payment Status
Table A.10:  Payment of Child Support, byNonresident Father's Poverty Status
Executive Summary
During the past few years, research has shown that nonresident fathers, asa whole, can afford to pay more child support, but that a minority of themare poor and have a limited ability to pay child support. This report updatesand improves upon earlier analyses and provides more information on thecircumstances of low-income fathers. The findings of this analysis confirmthat strengthening child support enforcement is warranted, but that poorfathers may need a different approach, one that focuses on building theircapacity to pay child support.
In the 1993 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), 8 millionmen self-identified as nonresident fathers compared to 10 million women whoself-identified as custodial mothers. Thus, making a general assumption thatthere are likely to be an equal number of nonresident fathers and custodialmothers, this survey identifies 80 percent of nonresident fathers, a figurethat is substantially higher than that found in earlier research.
Of the nonresident fathers who are missed by the 1993 SIPP, about 70 percentwere missed because they lived in prisons or military barracks, were in themilitary overseas, or were missed through the problem of the "undercount."The remaining 30 percent of nonresident fathers who are missed by the 1993SIPP are actually present in surveyed households, but cannot be identifiedas nonresident fathers. We reweight the men who self-identify as nonresidentfathers to take the missing fathers into account so that the final analysisis more representative of all nonresident fathers.
Using the reweighted data, we find that nonresident fathers, as a whole,are considerably better off financially than custodial mothers as a whole.In 1993, nearly two-thirds of custodial mothers had family incomes below200 percent of the poverty threshold. In contrast, 60 percent of nonresidentfathers had incomes *above*200 percent of the poverty threshold thatyear. One in four nonresident fathers had incomes above 200 percent of thepoverty threshold in 1993 and did not contribute financially to their nonresidentchildren. This discrepancy in the financial situation of custodial mothersand nonresident fathers suggests that there is potential for some nonresidentfathers to increase the amount of support that they provide their nonresidentchildren.
We also find, however, that 40 percent of nonresident fathers have familyincomes below 200 percent of the poverty threshold and the majority of thesedo not pay child support. Low-income nonresident fathers who pay support,pay a higher percentage of their income than do higher income fathers. Low-incomefathers who do not pay child support tend to be considerably disadvantagedin the labor market--about half do not have a high school degree and abouthalf have not held a job in the past 12 months. Nearly 20 percent of themare incarcerated. Increased enforcement efforts are unlikely to collectsufficient child support from low-income fathers to substantially improvetheir children's financial circumstances. A different approach may work better,one that emphasizes employment-related services and other support servicesthat enable low-income fathers to improve their job skills and parenting.
[ Go to Contents ]     I. Introduction
During the past few years, research has shown that nonresident fathers, asa whole, can afford to pay more child support, but that the minority of themwho are poor have a limited ability to pay. This report updates and improvesupon earlier analyses and provides more information on the circumstancesof low-income fathers. The findings of this analysis confirm that strengtheningchild support enforcement is warranted, but that poor fathers may need adifferent approach, one that focuses on building their capacity to pay childsupport.
We find that nonresident fathers, as a whole, are considerably better offfinancially than custodial mothers. In 1993, 60 percent of nonresident fathershad family incomes that were more than 200 percent of the poverty threshold,while only 35 percent of custodial mothers had family incomes that high.Despite this, just over half of these fathers paid child support in 1993.These findings suggest that there is potential for some nonresident fathersto pay more child support.
However, we also find that 40 percent of nonresident fathers have incomesbelow 200 percent of the poverty threshold. Three-quarters of these men (about3 million) do not pay child support. About half of these fathers do not havea high school diploma and about half of them have not worked for over a year.It appears that many of these fathers could benefit from employment-relatedservices.
Below, we discuss the steps involved in generating nationally representativeestimates of nonresident fathers. Our results follow, focusing first oncomparisons between custodial mothers and nonresident fathers and then providinggreater information about nonresident fathers. We conclude with a summaryof our findings.
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