Demography

The proportion of families with children headed by a lone parent is highest in the USA, at almost thirty per cent. The USA has the highest marriage rate and the highest divorce rate. Women marry on average two to three years younger than their counterparts in Europe, and somewhat over a quarter of all births are to unmarried women. The USA has by far the highest rate of births to teenage women: at 78 thousand this is around twice as high as in the UK and the former GDR, the other countries with high numbers of teenage births, and almost ten times the rate for the Netherlands.

Provision for Lone Parents

There are no specific benefits for lone parents in the USA. Parents who work can get a refundable tax credit (Earned Income Tax Credit) and families with insufficient resources may be eligible for time limited Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). To qualify the family must contain a child under 18, and be subject to deprivation due to the death, incapacity, unemployment or continued absence of a parent. Lone parents account for around 90 per cent of TANF claimants.

When a lone parent registers for TANF she or he must sign a declaration of intent to cooperate with the Child Support Enforcement Unit, provide relevant details, and sign a form giving rights to any maintenance received to the DTA. The parent can refuse if good cause can be demonstrated.

Although the funding for TANF is provided at the federal level, states have a considerable degree of discretion in establishing policy. In some states teenage mothers are required to live with their parents, and there is a large variation in the work requirements imposed on lone mothers.

Calculation for Child Support

Child support enforcement is run by the state and local human services departments who locate absent parents, establish paternity and obligations and enforce payments orders. Women's movements have been active in pressing for legislation on child support and in campaigning for greater enforcement.

1993 legislation laid down a requirement that states establish hospital-based programmes as a way of establishing paternity early in a child's life. These have been successful, although they have only managed to maintain, rather than increase, the proportion of fathers liable for child support, as the proportion of extra-marital births has also increased.

States use a variety of calculation methods; some use an administrative formula, but the majority use a percentage of income. Amounts assessed appear to be similar regardless of the system used.

Enforcement

Enforcement measures available include interception income tax refunds of non-paying parents, deductions from earnings, and revocation of driving licenses. However, it is not clear how much they are used. Non-resident parents who have defaulted on maintenance payments are given three options: pay up, go to jail, or spend 16 weeks in an unpaid community work experience.

Some states have even displayed 'Wanted Lists' of parents who owe child support in post offices to reinforce the message that evasion of child support responsibilities is a serious offence.

Minimum Amount

Some states require a minimum payment even where the non-resident parent is unemployed.

Guaranteed Payments

There is no generally guaranteed payment. Only child support collected can be transferred to the resident parent. The Wisconsin guarantee system is an exceptional case.

Current Issues

About 60 per cent of lone mothers had child support orders in both 1978 and 1991, and the average order amount, adjusted for inflation, was lower in 1991 than 1978. There been no improvement in the percentage of families receiving payments during this period. Case by case handling also resulted in a system that worked differently for poor fathers than for rich fathers: those able to afford a good lawyer paid less, and the minimum amount was also set in such a way that it accounted for a larger proportion of the earnings of the low paid.

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act 1996 (PRWOA) contains the provisions passed by Congress to strengthen state child support collection. Under this Act each state must operate a child support enforcement programme meeting federal requirements in order to be eligible for block grants for social assistance. The new provisions include a national new hire reporting system (where states send details of newly recruited staff for computer matching against lists of non-paying parents so that deductions can be made from wages). The legislation also streamlined paternity establishment, and created uniform interstate child support laws, computerized state-wide collections, new penalties (revoking drivers' and professional licenses, seizing assets and community service, as well as garnishment [deduction from wages] orders), and grants to programmes improving access and visitation of non-resident parents.

States vary dramatically in the extent to which they are successful in recovering maintenance due; some states collect as few as 10 per cent of court orders. The federal government has spent $2 billion setting up new computer systems to help various states track non-paying fathers, but only 12 states have workable systems in place. Almost nine in ten states do not have the infrastructure to cope with collection. Politicians are increasingly calling for child support enforcement to be handled by the Internal Revenue System.