Panel Paper:
Testing a New Approach to Serving Noncustodial Parents Who Are behind in Their Child Support Payments
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Participants were, on average, quite disadvantaged. Only 55% had worked in the month prior to enrollment; average earnings among workers were below the poverty threshold for a single person. Less than a third had more than a high school education. Most (65%) had been incarcerated. Most (62%) had children with more than one partner.
Key findings: CSPED reduced current child support orders by $15-$16/month, consistent with efforts to right-size orders for low-earning NCPs. ThIS coincided with an even smaller ($4-$6/month) and less robust reduction in child support payments. CSPED did not improve child support compliance, the outcome used to operationalize CSPED’s central goal of increasing reliable child support. However, CSPED substantially improved NCP’s level of satisfaction with child support services (68% agreed/strongly agreed they were satisfied with services, relative to 46% for those receiving regular services). This is an important achievement, potentially consequential given evidence that NCP’s negative experiences with the child support program contribute to nonpayment.
CSPED had no effect on the main measures of participants’ employment. It increased participants’ earnings by about 4 percent in the first year based on administrative data, but not in survey data, and the impact did not persist into the second year. CSPED increased NCP’s sense of responsibility for children, as reflected in their attitudes about the importance of noncustodial parents being involved in their children’s lives and supporting them financially.
A benefit-cost analysis estimated that over a two-year period, CSPED benefited NCPs, their ex-partners, and their children, but costs for the government outweighed these benefits. When extrapolating the benefits over a longer period, reasonable assumptions suggest that the overall benefits of CSPED would outweigh its costs.
The evaluation suggests that the potential exists for child support agencies to lead broader interventions, incorporating components beyond child support services alone, aimed at helping unemployed/underemployed NCPs to increase the reliability of their financial support for their children. Results suggest these efforts can improve NCP’s attitudes towards the child support program and sense of responsibility for their children, but progress in improving the regular payment of child support will be challenging.