April 2024 CSQ

Through its public hearings around the country, testimony before Congress,
appearances on national television shows, and news media campaign, it
highlighted the critical importance of timely financial support as a way to
raise children out of poverty. Its report to Congress resulted in laws and
processes that are now quite familiar. Many focused on automation—the
establishment of federal and state case registries, federal and state
directories of new hires, automated income withholding, expanded
automated locate resources, and financial institution data matches. In order
to use automated enforcement, Congress also enacted laws to make past
due child support payments vested judgments not subject to retroactive
modification.
As a result, child support collections increased. In 1990, only about 56% of
IV-D cases had orders and only about 18% of IV-D cases had payments. ii
In 2010, about 79% of IV-D cases had orders and about 56% of IV-D cases
had payments. iii But the pendulum swing with its heavy emphasis on
enforcement—needed at the time—was extreme. As enforcement became
increasingly automated, research highlighted that many support orders
exceeded people’s ability to pay. And automated enforcement didn’t offer
avenues to address parenting time, non-adversarial agreements, or fears of
increased domestic violence due to the enforcement.