New Report Underlines Welfare Reform Opportunity through Child Support Cooperation
- BY FGA
Naples, FL – Child support is a critical tool for increasing incomes and reducing dependency among single-parent families. But just one in four single-parent families on food stamps receive child support of any kind. A new report, released today by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), highlights how states can move more families out of dependency and ensure poor children receive more of the support they deserve.
The report, authored by FGA’s Vice President of Research Jonathan Ingram, emphasizes the opportunity policymakers have to help disadvantaged families by requiring cooperation with state efforts to establish and collect child support. Although most states already require this for families on cash assistance, few have expanded the reform to food stamps.
Based on experience at the state level, families could see up to $300 million in additional child support payments if all states adopted the reform in the food stamp program. In Kansas, for example, child support collections among those impacted increased by nearly 40 percent in the six months following the reform’s implementation.
“Without paid child support, families are losing out on thousands of dollars and are more likely to be trapped in welfare,” said Ingram. “Child support cooperation is a proven solution that allows children to receive more of the support they need and deserve. Policymakers should adopt this simple reform and make it easier for single-parent families on welfare to escape poverty and dependency.”
The full report can be viewed here.
The Foundation for Government Accountability is a non–profit, multi–state think tank that specializes in health care, welfare, and regulatory reform. To learn more, visit TheFGA.org.
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