Child Support Enforcement: Opportunity to Reduce Federal and State Costs
(Testimony, 06/13/95, GAO/T-HEHS-95-181).

The federal Child Support Enforcement Program supports state efforts to
obtain child support for recipients of Aid to Families With Dependent
Children (AFDC) and nonwelfare families. Congress created the program in
1975 with the belief that many families might avoid applying for welfare
if they could obtain the support due from the noncustodial parent.
Preliminary data for fiscal year 1994 show that the program collected
more than $7.3 billion for about 8.2 million nonwelfare clients.  This
testimony focuses on four key points about the non-AFDC child support
program: (1) growth in non-AFDC caseloads and related administrative
costs to provide collection and other services; (2) income
characteristics of non-AFDC clients--specifically, GAO's finding that
many are not the low-income persons that Congress envisioned targeting;
(3) alternatives for boosting non-AFDC cost recovery; and (4) an
alternative fee structure based on child support collections and the
flexibility that states should have in implementing such a cost recovery
system.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-HEHS-95-181
     TITLE:  Child Support Enforcement: Opportunity to Reduce Federal 
             and State Costs
      DATE:  06/13/95
   SUBJECT:  Federal/state relations
             Child support payments
             State-administered programs
             Offsetting collections
             Fees
             Debt collection
             Administrative costs
             Law enforcement
             Aid to families with dependent children
             Cost control
IDENTIFIER:  AFDC
             HHS Child Support Enforcement Program
             
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