The Census Bureau
reports that only about half of the
parents entitled to receive child
support receive the full amount that
is due. About one-quarter of parents
to whom support is due receive partial
payments, and the other one-quarter
receive nothing at all. The Census
Bureau estimates that each year, about
$10 billion dollars in court-ordered
child support is not paid.
In addition to that,
there are several million mothers
who have not obtained orders of child
support for their children. A high
proportion of those women had children
out of wedlock.
For women who actually
receive child support, the average
amount owed is $3,767 per year, or
about $314 per month. (These are 1995
figures--the last year in which a
complete survey was done.)
Non-payment by fathers
is not the only child support enforcement
problem. Prosecutors who handle support
collections estimate that between
2 and 5 percent of their cases involve
mothers who did not pay their child
support obligations. Mothers' payment
rates are worse than fathers'. 57
percent of mothers pay all or a portion
of their court-ordered child support
payments; 70 percent of fathers pay
all or a portion of their court-ordered
child support payments.
Payment of child
support correlates with visitation
with time spent with the child. The
Census Bureau reports that 74 percent
of fathers with joint custody or visitation
paid child support, whereas only 35
percent of fathers without joint custody
or visitation paid support.
The cost of trying
to collect unpaid child support is
substantial. According to the U.S.
Office of Child Support Enforcement,
in Fiscal Year 1997, child support
enforcement agencies spent $3.4 billion
to collect about $13.3 billion in
child support. In other words, each
dollar of administrative costs generated
about $3.91 of child support payments
(although some portion of child support
payments would have been made without
involvement of an enforcement agency).
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