Child Support Updated through Version 33.2 Version History

The Child Support module performs a variety of functions related to child support. Certain functions are performed just for custodial mother families (families containing a mother and one or more children whose father lives elsewhere). Other functions affect other types of custodial families as well. All child support is considered to be currently due child support. Child support arrears (past due child support) are not modeled.

Unlike most other TRIM3 modules, the Child Support module accepts the CPS reported amount of child support (including allocated amounts) as "truth" for most families. Other child support characteristics (such as custodial mother and child status, whether child support is due, and the amount due) are imputed to families based on data from the Child Support Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS-CSS). In some cases, information required by the Child Support module is not available in the CPS-CSS and is obtained from other data sources, including the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), TANF Microdata, and state child support administrative data.

In addition to identifying custodial mothers and imputing the amount of child support they are due to receive, the Child Support module assigns child support reported on a parent's record to some or all of the parent's children, corrects for underreporting of child support collected on behalf of TANF recipients (who tend to underreport receipt of child support in survey data), and simulates certain types of child support expansions.

The various functions of the child support module are described in the following sections:

1. Identification of Custodial Mothers and Their Children
2. Imputation of Amount Due for Custodial Mothers
3. Assignment of Child Support to Children
4. Correction for Underreporting of Child Support by TANF Families
5. Behavioral Response by TANF Families to a More Generous TANF Pass-Through and Disregard Policy
6. Imputation of Whether a Non-TANF Family Without Child Support is Due Support

1. Identification of Custodial Mothers and Their Children

A woman is considered to be a custodial mother if she has at least one never-married child under the age of 21 living in the household who has a father living elsewhere. The "child" can also be a parent. Widows are not counted as custodial mothers, as it is assumed that the father of the child is dead. CustodialMomIdentificationOption specifies the treatment of married or single mothers whose children all have a biological or adoptive father in the household. If set to 1, CustodialMomIdentificationOption prevents a women in such a family from being identified as a custodial mother unless she reports child support income. If set to 2, it prevents her from being identified as a custodial mother. Procedures for identifying custodial mothers differ for married and single mothers, and they differ depending on the setting of ImputationVersion, which indicates whether original or 2010 CPS-CSS based imputations should be used. The result variables CustodialMotherType and CustodialChildType identify custodial mothers and children and indicate the method used to identify them. The program rule UseParentIDandType specifies if reported mother and father identifiers and types (biological, step, adoptive) are used when identifying custodial parents and children. If the reported identifiers and types are used, then the appropriate variables have to specified in MotherID, FatherID, MotherType, and FatherType.

Married Custodial Mothers

A "married mother" is a mother who is married, with spouse present, or married with spouse absent (but not separated). A married mother is counted as a custodial mother if any of the following conditions is met:

• The married mother reports receiving child support.
• The married mother has a child who reports receiving child support.
• The married mother has at least one child who reports (unallocated) coverage by the health insurance plan of somebody outside the household.
• TRIM3 imputes the married mother to be a custodial mother.

Once a married custodial mother has been identified, TRIM3 must determine which of the married mother's children are custodial children -- children with an absent father.

The following approach is used to determine which of a married custodial mother's children are custodial children:

• If the married custodial mother has one child, then that child is counted as a custodial child.
• Otherwise, if any of the children are covered by the (unallocated) health insurance plan of someone outside the household and the mother's husband is present within the household, then all children covered by the health insurance plan of someone outside the household are counted as custodial children.
• Otherwise, if the married custodial mother has two or more children, none of whom is covered by the health insurance of someone outside the household, TRIM3 imputes which of the children are custodial children.

In addition, children who appear to be reporting child support paid on their own behalf are automatically flagged as custodial children (assuming their mother is found to be a custodial mother). Children who are the same age or older than the self-reporting child are also flagged as custodial children. Younger children may be identified as custodial children through imputation or by having health insurance coverage from outside the household.

For further details concerning the identification of married custodial mothers, click here. For further information about the use of imputation in identifying a married mother's custodial children, click here.

Single Custodial Mothers

Tabulations from the 1998 CPS-CSS suggest that as many as 11 percent of single mothers (divorced, separated, or never-married) are not custodial mothers (i.e., do not have a child with a father living elsewhere). There are several reasons why a single mother might not be a custodial mother:

• The father is living in the household, but is not married to the mother
• The father is dead
• The child was adopted by a single parent
• The father gave up his legal rights to the child

A single mother is automatically identified as a custodial mother if any of the following conditions is met:

• The mother reports receiving child support.
• At least one of the mother's children (who is not herself a custodial mother) reports receiving child support. (TRIM3 assumes that the child is reporting child support paid on his or her own behalf).
• At least one of the mother's children is covered by the (unallocated) health insurance of someone from outside the household.

The Child Support module uses imputation procedures to select additional single mothers to be custodial mothers. If a single mother is selected to be a custodial mother, then all of her never-married children who are under the age of 21 are considered to be custodial children.

For information about the procedures used to impute custodial mother status to single mothers, click here.

2. Imputation of Amount Due for Custodial Mothers

The Child Support module imputes the amount of child support due to custodial mothers with reported child support, and also imputes whether a custodial mother without child support is due support (and, if so, the amount of support that is due). The results of these imputations can be aligned to targets, although this is not currently done as part of the standard baseline process (because the amount due is not required as input to any baseline simulation). However, if the amount due is aligned to target, then certain types of alternative child support simulations can be performed.

"Reported child support" includes child support reported on the custodial mother's record, as well as child support reported by any children who appear to be reporting child support received on their own behalf.

All custodial mothers with reported child support are assumed to be due child support under a child support order or other formal arrangement. Initially, the child support module was designed to identify some custodial mothers with child support as having received the child support informally. However, comparisons of the CPS with the CPS-CSS (which distinguishes formal from informal child support) show that the total child support reported on the CPS is most similar to the amount of total formal child support reported on the CPS-CSS. Therefore, the child support module was modified to reflect the assumption that all child support reported on the CPS is formal child support.

The imputed amount due is stored in the result variable AmountDue. For details concerning the imputation of amount due, click here. For details concerning alternative simulations made possible by the imputation of amount due, click here.

3. Assignment of Child Support to Children

The CPS collects income data for each person in the household aged 15 or older. As a result, child support income received on behalf of children under the age of 15 will be reported as the income of the custodial parent or guardian who is caring for the child. If the family considers income received on behalf of a child aged 15 or older to be the income of that child, the child support may be reported on the child's record. In most cases, however, the child support is reported as income of the custodial parent or guardian.

In order to accurately simulate eligibility and benefits under the transfer programs, TRIM3 must know how much child support was received on behalf of each child. This is especially true for SSI and TANF. SSI treats child support as income of the child, and TANF does not count child support received on behalf of children outside the TANF assistance unit (for example, an SSI child).

Prior to the 2000 TRIM3 baseline simulations, the child support variable used as input to the baseline transfer program simulations was the CPS child support variable converted to a monthly variable by the TRIM3 conversion procedures. Child support was treated as income of the adult, except in those cases where teenagers reported child support paid on their own behalf.

Beginning with the 2000 baseline, the transfer program simulations use two monthly input variables created by the child support module: MonthlyCSIncomeOfChild, a child-level variable indicating the amount of child support received on behalf of each child; and MonthlyCSInHhsWithoutKids, indicating the amount of child support received by adults in households without children. MonthlyCSIncomeOfChild is the child support variable used in the baseline simulations. MonthlyCSInHhsWithoutKids most likely represents child support payments or child support arrearages received on behalf of children no longer in the household, and may also include some misreported income. Rather than ignore this income entirely in the baseline simulations, MonthlyCSInHhsWithoutKids is treated as other unearned income.

Beginning with the 2001 baseline, simulations that come after TANF in the baseline line-up use ChildCS_Final instead of MonthlyCSIncomeOfChild to represent the child's child support. ChildCS_Final is produced by the TANF module. For children who do not receive TANF, ChildCS_Final is equal to MonthlyCSIncomeOfChild. For children who participate in TANF, ChildCS_Final represents the amount of child support transferred to the child under the rules of the state's TANF program.

For details about the creation of MonthlyCSIncomeOfChild and MonthlyCSInHhsWithoutKids, click here.

4. Correction for Underreporting

TANF recipients tend to underreport their child support income in survey data because much of the child support income collected on their behalf is retained by the government as reimbursement for their welfare benefits. The Child Support module's correction for underreporting methodology increases the number of TANF families with a child support collection, and increases child support in families who appear to be reporting only the amount of child support that is transferred to them under the rules of their state's TANF program. The TANF module then simulates what portion of a family's child support collection is transferred to the family (if any) and how child support is counted in determining eligibility and benefits for TANF. Click here for further information about correction for underreporting.

5. Behavioral Response by TANF Families to a More Generous TANF Pass-Through and Disregard Policy

The purpose of a "behavioral response" simulation is to simulate an expansion in child support collections made on behalf of TANF families (as might occur in response to an increased child support pass-through and disregard policy in the TANF program). The simulated monthly TANF benefit is supplied to the Child Support module by the MonthlySimulatedTANFBenefits program rule. The module does not estimate the level of behavioral response to a particular policy, but instead allows a user to assign child support collections to additional TANF families and align results to targets selected by the user. Click here for further information about behavioral response simulations.

6. Imputation of Whether A Non-TANF Family Without Child Support is Due Child Support

ImputeIfDue indicates whether the Child Support Module should impute whether a family that does not receive TANF and does not receive child support is due to receive formal child support. This is a "stand alone" imputation in the Child Support Module that was created to supply a variable required for the imputation of child support IV-D status (performed in the Cost Avoidance module). The results of the imputation are stored in the variable NonTANFNonRecipDueCS and do not affect other variables produced by the child support module. NonTANFNonRecipDueCS is not necessarily consistent with the imputation of amount due for custodial mothers (described in section 2). Unlike the imputation of amount due for custodial mothers, NonTANFNonRecipDueCS is imputed for single fathers as well as custodial mothers, and is only imputed for families that do not receive TANF. Click here for further information about the imputation of NonTANFNonRecipDueCS.