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Child Support Assurance: Effect of Applying State Guidelines to Determine Fathers' Payments

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Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date Jan. 21, 1993
Report No. HRD-93-26
Subject
Summary:

Inadequate and unreliable financial support from noncustodial parents contributes to the high incidence of poverty among children living in single-parent families. During the last decade, Congress and the states have tried to tighten child support enforcement laws. Congressional efforts have focused on a system--known as child support assurance--to make child support payments more reliable. Under this system, the government would pay a guaranteed minimum level of support should noncustodial parents become unable to support their children or if they fail to pay. This report provides an empirical analysis of one major element of a child support assurance system--child support guidelines. GAO (1) examines the income of young noncustodial fathers and the burden on them of paying the entire minimum assured benefit and (2) illustrates how many of these fathers would be required to pay the minimum assured benefit under typical child support guidelines.

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