Date: 03/11/2014

Final
Presentation by the National Conference of State Legislatures on Child Support Enforcement

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH CARE & HUMAN SERVICES

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
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01:34 PM -- Presentation by the National Conference of State Legislatures on Child Support Enforcement

Rochelle Finzel, National Conference of State Legislatures, provided the committee with an overview of child support enforcement methods and distributed a handout to the committee (Attachment A). She explained that states recover child support payments on behalf of families who are receiving public assistance, and discussed recent reforms in child support enforcement. She explained that states have changed their approach from being merely being a collection agency to providing additional support to families. She discussed various evidence-based strategies for child support, including right sized orders, which improves the likelihood that payments will continue to be made. She explained that if the order is set too high, compliance decreases while arrears increase. Another strategy, debt reduction, is a process whereby a state settles a portion or all of the child support debt owed to the state by a noncustodial parent. Family distribution is a strategy that increases the amount of child support that goes directly to the family or child may help increase collections. In addition, Ms. Finzel noted that research shows that noncustodial fathers who are involved with their children are more likely to pay child support and those fathers who pay child support are more likely to stay involved in their children's lives. Finally, she explained that consistent child support payments can help custodial families achieve economic stability.

14HsePHS0311AttachA.pdf14HsePHS0311AttachA.pdf

01:44 PM

Ms. Finzel discussed other programs related to child support enforcement, including fatherhood programs and programs that work directly with military families. She discussed recent legislative activity in the states, including creating task forces to research best practices, enacting policies that relate specifically to custody and visitation for military families, and connecting noncustodial parents to employment programs.

01:47 PM

Ms. Finzel responded to questions from the committee regarding drivers' license suspensions as a result of failure to pay child support, child support debt reduction policies, states that have created task forces to review child support enforcement policies, and states that have the most effective child support enforcement programs. She further responded to questions from the committee regarding reductions in welfare participation since the enactment of welfare reform and studies of child support enforcement methods.