There were 13,949,218 child support-eligible families in the United States in 1997. A child support-eligible family is defined as a custodial parent with an own child under age twenty-one living in the household whose other parent is living but absent from the household. A majority of the child support-eligible population receives services through the IV-D program. This analysis found that 8.4 million families, or 60 percent of the 13.9 million child support-eligible parents, participated in the IV-D system. Table 1 provides an overview of all of the family variables analyzed in this report, shown for the entire child support-eligible population. Beginning with Table 2, all subsequent tables identify these characteristics within the IV-D and non IV-D populations.

The March CPS can be used to determine the participation of families in a variety of public assistance programs. Approximately 2.4 million (17 percent) of child support-eligible parents lived in families in which at least one member received cash assistance through the TANF program. Participation in the Medicaid program was reported by 34 percent of these families, and 25 percent were enrolled in the Food Stamp program. Approximately one in one eight of the child support-eligible families reported receiving housing subsidies (in the form of public housing or housing assistance), and about 6 percent collected a portion of their family income from the SSI program.

Participation in the four non-cash public assistance programs (Medicaid, food stamps, housing subsidies, and SSI) was used to identify the three categories of families that are shown in each table: families receiving cash assistance, families receiving assistance from other government programs (but not cash assistance), and families not receiving any public assistance. As reported above, about 2.4 million child support-eligible families were receiving cash assistance, while an additional 3.2 million (23 percent) were receiving other public assistance but not cash assistance. Of the 13.9 child support-eligible families, three in five were not receiving any public assistance.

Significant variations in receipt of public assistance existed between the IV-D and non IV-D populations (Table 2). Among those families in the IV-D program, the percentages of those receiving cash assistance (28 percent), those receiving other public assistance only (34 percent), and those receiving no public assistance (38 percent) were split relatively evenly. However, an overwhelming majority (92 percent) of the 5.6 million child support-eligible families not in the IV-D program received no public assistance at all in 1997.This last statistic is affected by the assumption, stated above, that all families in which either income was received from TANF cash assistance or in which either the parent or child was covered by Medicaid, therefore participated in the IV-D program.

About 4.4 million (52 percent) of all IV-D families had a family income under $20,000 in 1997, while 5.7 million (68 percent) had an income under $30,000 (Tables 3A and 3B). Families receiving TANF or other public assistance had, on average, lower incomes than those not receiving assistance. More than four-fifths of child support-eligible families receiving cash assistance, and three-fifths of those reporting other public assistance, had incomes of $20,000 or below. Conversely, only one in five of IV-D families receiving no public assistance had incomes below $20,000.

Families participating in the IV-D program generally had lower incomes than non IV-D families. While the annual incomes of a majority of IV-D families fell below $20,000, only 22 percent of non IV-D families fell into that same income range. In both categories, families receiving no public assistance had higher incomes than those reporting some reliance on government programs.

Ratio of Income to Poverty Level

In addition to family income, the ratio of the family's income to the poverty level is an important measure of economic well-being. Each year, the Census Bureau estimates poverty thresholds that are adjusted for the size of the family unit. In 1997, the weighted average poverty threshold was $12,802 for a family of three and $16,400 for a family of four (Table 4A).

Over 3.3 million, or 40 percent of the IV-D families were below this threshold, and over two-thirds had incomes that fell below 200 percent of the poverty level. In addition, nearly 14 percent of IV-D families were in "deep poverty", or had incomes below 50 percent of the poverty level (Tables 4B and 4C). A large majority (74 percent) of IV-D families receiving cash assistance were poor, as were 44 percent of those families receiving only other government assistance. IV-D families with no public assistance were less poor, with only one in ten having incomes below poverty and 61 percent having incomes at or above 200 percent of the poverty level.

In contrast to those families receiving IV-D services, only 12 percent of non-IV-D families were poor, while more than two-thirds of these families had incomes above 200 percent of the poverty level. Additional outcomes for families both in poverty and near poverty (incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level) can be found later in this analysis.

The vast majority of families in the IV-D system are headed by custodial mothers. There were over 7.5 million IV-D families headed by females in 1997, making up 90 percent of all families receiving IV-D services (Table 5). Only about 840,000 families headed by fathers were in the IV-D caseload. However, while families headed by custodial fathers made up only 10 percent of IV-D families, custodial fathers headed nearly a quarter (22 percent) of child support-eligible families not receiving IV-D services. In addition, custodial fathers were less likely than custodial mothers to depend on public assistance; 58 percent of IV-D families headed by men were receiving no public assistance in 1997, compared to 36 percent of female-headed IV-D families.

Marital Status of Custodial Parent

Among all custodial parents of IV-D families in 1997, 38 percent had never been married, while 41 percent were divorced or separated, 19 percent were currently married, and a small number had been widowed. By contrast, a much lower percentage (18 percent) of non IV-D parents had never been married (Table 6). Of all families headed by a never-married parent, about three-fourths were participating in the IV-D program. Never-married parents also made up a high percentage of the IV-D family heads who also received TANF cash assistance in 1997 (54 percent). Of those families not receiving IV-D services, a large majority 81 percent were headed by parents who were divorced, separated, or currently married.

Residence of Noncustodial Parent

The data indicate that the custodial parent and noncustodial parent did not live in the same state in nearly 2.3 million IV-D families, comprising 27 percent of the IV-D caseload (Table 7). The percentage of interstate cases was not substantially different within the IV-D caseload than out of it (27 percent versus 24 percent). Within the IV-D caseload, custodial mothers receiving TANF or other public assistance were no more likely than those not receiving public assistance to report that the noncustodial parent lived in a different state. However, among those not receiving IV-D services, custodial parents who reported receiving non-cash government assistance were slightly less likely than those not receiving assistance to live in a different state than the noncustodial parent (68 percent as compared to 77 percent).

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of all IV-D families had child support agreements in place in 1997, while 45 percent of families reported the receipt of some amount of child support payment (Table 8). Families receiving no child support payments made up a majority of both the IV-D and non IV-D populations, those families participating in the IV-D program were more likely to at least have a child support agreement (63 percent as compared to 50 percent). IV-D families receiving no public assistance were more likely to have an both an agreement and receipt of payment (54 percent) than IV-D families reporting receipt of TANF (29 percent) or other government assistance (40 percent). In both the IV-D and non IV-D populations, families with both no agreement and no receipt were more likely to receive some public assistance than were other families.

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