Child support is the cash payment that noncustodial parents are legally obligated to pay for the financial support of their children. It is generally established when parents divorce or separate or when the custodial parent applies for welfare. It is usually paid on a monthly basis. Child support payments enable parents who do not live with their children to fulfill their financial responsibility to their children by contributing to the payment of child-rearing costs. The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act) to help strengthen families by securing financial support for children from their noncustodial parent on a consistent and continuing basis and by helping some families to remain self-sufficient and off public assistance. The CSE program is administered by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), which is in the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS's) Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The federal government and the states share CSE program costs at the rate of 66% and 34%, respectively. OCSE does not provide services directly to families. Instead, it partners with federal, state, tribal, and local governments and others to promote parental responsibility so that children receive reliable support from both of their parents as they grow to adulthood. OCSE helps CSE agencies in the states and tribes develop, manage, and operate their CSE programs effectively and according to federal law. The CSE program provides eight major services on behalf of children, which include establishing, reviewing, and modifying child support orders. The child support order is established administratively by a state/county CSE agency or through a state court (or mixture of both—quasi-judicial). The Family Support Act of 1988 ( P.L. 100-485 ) required states to use their state-established guidelines in establishing child support orders. Child support guidelines are a set of rules and tables that are used (by states and tribes) to determine the amount of the child support order. Child support guidelines are designed to (1) protect the best interests of the children by trying to ensure that the child or children in question continue to benefit from the financial resources of both parents in situations in which the parents go their separate ways and (2) make the calculation of child support fair, objective, consistent, and predictable (which in many instances has the added benefit of reducing conflict and tension between the parents). Child support guidelines were created to address three major problems in the issuance of child support orders. First, guidelines were needed to bring uniformity and consistency to the issuance of child support orders, so as to result in greater fairness to families. Second, the predictability resulting from guidelines was intended to promote settlement and reduce conflicts, to the benefit of both the parties and the courts. Third, research at the time (i.e., during the 1980s) showed that orders were too low to reflect the real needs of children. Child support guidelines are part of a process that orders a noncustodial parent to pay financial support for the care of his or her children based on the parent's income (and other factors) and that allows the child to share in the increases (or decreases) in the parent's income as if the parent and child lived together. The guidelines also permit the courts to set child support without the necessity of a review of individual costs of care. The amount of child support is based primarily on how much the parent would share with the child if the parent and child lived together. States decide child support amounts based on the noncustodial parent's income or on both parents' income; other factors may include the age of the child, whether a stepparent is in the home, whether the child is disabled, and the number of siblings. Guidelines ensure the adequacy of child support orders by taking into account economic evidence on the cost of raising children, thereby improving children's well-being. Guidelines development requires making value judgments and balancing competing interests to allocate limited economic resources between children, parents, other relatives, the state CSE agency, courts, taxpayers, and society at large. States currently use one of three basic types of guidelines to determine child support award amounts (i.e., the child support order): income shares , which is based on the combined income of both parents (37 states and Guam); percentage of income , in which the number of eligible children is used to determine a percentage of the noncustodial parent's income to be paid in child support (10 states and the District of Columbia); 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 (three states). Information was not available for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. According to the OCSE, "setting accurate initial child support orders helps to ensure regular payments of child support, facilitating two key goals: economic stability and paternal [or maternal] engagement." Child support orders almost always are expressed in fixed dollar amounts, and over time the needs of the child and the financial circumstances of one or both parents may change. However, without periodic modifications, child support obligations can become inadequate and/or inequitable, or they may not correspond to the noncustodial parent's income or ability to pay. The rationale behind review and modification of child support orders is to ensure that child support orders are equitable, sufficient, and commensurate with a parent's income and/or ability to pay. It is important for custodial parents facing higher child-rearing costs or other substantial changes in circumstance (e.g., increased housing or living expenses) to seek a modification so their children's needs are sufficiently met. Custodial parents who know that the noncustodial parent is experiencing a higher standard of living (e.g., higher-paying job, promotion) are advised to request a modification so their children can share in the other parent's good fortune. Likewise, it is important for noncustodial parents facing job loss or other substantial changes in circumstances to seek a modification to their order quickly so they do not fall behind in their payments and thereby have to contend with child support arrearages (i.e., past-due child support payments). When child support modification policies and procedures are not effective, child support debt increases. In FY2014, $114.8 billion in child support arrearages was owed to families receiving CSE services, but less than 7% ($7.6 billion) of those arrearages was actually paid. Child support debt, in the aggregate, negatively impacts children, custodial parents, and noncustodial parents, and it forces states to expend greater resources on collection and enforcement efforts. From 1975, when the CSE program was enacted (by the Social Services Amendments of 1974; P.L. 93-647 ) until 1988, the only way to modify a child support order was to require a party to petition the court for a modification based on a change in circumstances . What constituted a change in circumstances sufficient to modify the order depended on the state and the court. The person requesting modification was responsible for filing the motion, serving notice, hiring a lawyer, and proving a change in circumstances of sufficient magnitude to satisfy statutory standards. The modification proceeding was a two-step process; the court first determined whether a modification was appropriate and then determined the amount of the new obligation. Especially during the early 1980s, a major issue in the modification of orders was the practice of retroactive modifications. Most of these retroactive modifications had the effect of reducing the amount of child support ordered. Thus, for example, an order of $150 a month for child support, which was unpaid for 36 months, should accumulate an arrearage of $5,400. However, if the noncustodial parent was brought to court, having made no prior attempt to modify the order, the order might be reduced to $100 a month retroactive to 36 months prior to the date of modification. This retroactive modification would reduce the arrearage from $5,400 to $3,600. Cases such as this, which had serious impacts on custodial parents and their children, convinced Congress to take action. Thus, in 1986 Congress passed legislation that required states to change practices involving modification of child support arrears. Pursuant to Section 9103 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 ( P.L. 99-509 ; Section 466(a)(9) of the Social Security Act), often referred to as the Bradley Amendment (named after former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey), state child support orders may not be retroactively modified, except back to the date of service on the other party. Pursuant to the Bradley Amendment, a child support payment becomes a judgment by operation of law when it becomes due and unpaid, and it is entitled to full faith and credit (in the originating state and in any other state) to be enforced as any other judgment of the initiating state. The 1986 provision greatly restricted retroactive modification to make it more difficult for courts and CSE agencies to forgive or reduce arrearages. More specifically, child support orders can be retroactively modified only for a period during which there is pending a petition for modification and only from the date on which notice of the petition has been given to the custodial or noncustodial parent. The Family Support Act of 1988 ( P.L. 100-485 ) required states both to use guidelines as a rebuttable presumption in all proceedings for the award of child support and to review and adjust child support orders in accordance with the guidelines. These provisions reflected congressional intent to simplify the updating of child support orders by requiring a process in which the standard for modification was the state child support guidelines. They also reflected recognition that the traditional burden of proof for changing the amount of the child support order was a barrier to updating.