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Recent Research on Economic Support and Family Policy

Recent Research on Economic Support and Family Policy. January 2006 Maria Cancian Director, IRP Professor, La Follette School of Public Affairs and School of Social Work. Outline . A unique example of collaborative policy research Family trends and policy challenges

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Recent Research on Economic Support and Family Policy

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  1. Recent Research on Economic Support and Family Policy January 2006 Maria Cancian Director, IRP Professor, La Follette School of Public Affairs and School of Social Work Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  2. Outline • A unique example of collaborative policy research • Family trends and policy challenges • Key results (and questions) from recent projects • Wisconsin Child Support Demonstration Evaluation • Complicated Families Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  3. Collaborative Research Example: UW and DWD/Bureau of Child Support • Longstanding collaboration in support of policy- relevant academic research • Faculty from La Follette, as well as Economics, Law, Political Science, Social Work, Sociology and others • Funding provided by federal grants, the State of Wisconsin (through the UW and DWD), and private foundations Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  4. Family trends & policy challenges • Half of all children will spend at least part of their childhood living apart from one or both parents • Increases in divorce • Increased number of children born to unmarried parents • Trends are long term, and apparent across many countries with very different social policies • Responding to these trends creates challenges for economic support and family policy. • Single-parent families are particularly vulnerable to poverty • Especially given focus on family self-sufficiency, child support is a key policy issue Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  5. Example: Child Support & Welfare • Child Support developed to “pay back” the government for welfare costs. • Until the 1996 welfare reform, if a father paid CS to a mother receiving welfare all but $50 of CS kept by the government • Unintended consequences: • Reduce incentive to establish paternity or a child support order; • Reduce incentive to pay support: giving poor fathers “two bad choices” Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  6. 1996 Welfare Reform & W-2 • Most states: if child support paid, mothers receiving welfare get Zeroextra income • Only in Wisconsin, if child support paid, most mothers receiving W-2 receive 100%of Child support and W-2 benefits • Implemented as an “experimental” program with time-limited federal wavier (expiring this year) Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  7. Wisconsin CSDEChild Support Demonstration Evaluation • State-wide random assignment experiment conducted by UW IRP from 1997-2006 • Key Results: When mothers get to keep child support, fathers pay more; faster paternity establishment; cost neutral • Wisconsin a policy leader: Federal DRA of 2006 permits all states to let participants keep $200/month in Child Support if they have 2 or more children Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  8. Other Recent Collaborative Child Support and Welfare Research • How does the W-2 application process work? • How should child support work when parents share custody? • How should incarcerated parents be treated by the child support system? • How common are “complicated” families and what are the implications for policy (and academic research)? Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  9. Complicated families are common • Among all Wisconsin families with a child support order: • 1 in 3 include a parent who has had children with multiple partners (dad owes support to more than one mom or mom is owed support from more than one dad) • Among families receiving W-2: • 2 in 3 include a parent who has had children with multiple partners; • In 1 in 3 both parents have had children with multiple partners Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  10. Lessons learned from and for policy • Insights regarding the importance of complicated families emerged from policy research • Data collected for policy evaluations supported new academic research • The complex policy “problem” motivates more research • Additional research has provided basis for considering new policy options Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  11. Collaboration supports policy development and academic research Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

  12. For more information on this and other research: For child support research: www.irp.wisc.edu/research/childsup.htm For other IRP research: www.irp.wisc.edu For other La Follette research: www.lafollette.wisc.edu For Maria Cancian: mcancian@wisc.edu Institute for Research on Poverty University of Wisconsin - Madison

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