How to handle child support WITH Greg Doss

Nearly 11 million fathers in the United States do not live with their children. Two-thirds of these fathers do not pay formal child support.1 Society is rightly concerned about the widespread failure of absent fathers to contribute to their children's support. And a variety of recent policy initiatives are strengthening the enforcement tools necessary to ensure that "deadbeat dads" are identified and required to fulfill their child support responsibilities.

But what exactly is a deadbeat dad? Most people would agree that he is someone who shirks his duty for no good reason. Our data show that 4.5 million nonresident fathers who do not pay child support have no apparent financial reason to avoid this responsibility. None of these fathers are poor. On the other hand, these data also show that 2.5 million nonresident fathers who do not pay child support are poor themselves.Although this brief focuses on poor nonresident fathers, it is important to keep in mind the wider context of child support avoidance. Poor fathers are only about one-quarter of all nonresident fathers (figure 1). Even though nonpoor fathers are more likely than poor fathers to pay child support (44 percent versus 10 percent), for every poor father who does not pay child support, there are nearly two nonpoor fathers who do not pay.Of the 2.5 million poor nonresident fathers who do not pay child support, the two largest groups are black (41 percent) and white (40 percent), with Hispanic fathers (14 percent) accounting for most of the rest. The average age of poor nonresident fathers is 34 years, about two years older than the average poor custodial mother who does not receive child support.For poor mothers, the message from Congress is twofold. First, poor mothers should go to work to support their children. But second, if they do so, the government will provide certain supports to help.