Child Support Enforcement, FY 2006
Preliminary Report

March 2007

Department of Health and Human Services
Administration for Children and Families
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Table of Contents

Program Highlights

Summary Tables

Nationwide, Regional, and State Box Scores, FY 2006

Program Charts and Graphs, FY 2006

Appendix

Program Highlights

This Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) Preliminary Report, for fiscal year (FY) 2006, highlights financial and statistical program achievements for that year. The information is taken from state-submitted reports on program status sent to OCSE quarterly for financial and annually for statistical data. Data in the report show almost $24 billion in child support payments were collected and distributed, of which about $22 billion went to families and Foster Care; 1.7 million paternities were established and acknowledged; and over 1.2 million child support orders were established.

Caseload. OCSE defines a child support case as a parent (mother, father, or putative father) who is now or eventually may be obligated under law for the support of a child or children receiving services under the child support program, Title IV-D of the Social Security Act. A current assistance case is one in which the children are: (1) recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) under Title IV-A of the Social Securi ty Act or; (2) entitled to Foster Care maintenance payments under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. In addition, the children’s support rights have been assigned by a caretaker to the State and a referral to the State IV-D agency has been made. A former assistance case is a case in which the children were formerly receiving Title IV-A (AFDC or TANF) or Title IV-E (Foster Care) services. A never assistance case is a case in which the children are receiving services under the Title IV-D program, but are not currently eligible for and have not previously received TANF and Foster Care assistance. This includes cases in which the family is receiving child support services as a result of a written application (including cases in which children are receiving State, not Title IV-E, Foster Care services) or a case in which they are Medicaid recipients not receiving additional assistance.

In FY 2006, there were 15.8 million cases in the Child Support Enforcement Program. This represents a slight decrease of less than 1 percent in the caseload from FY 2005. In FY 2006, there were 2.3 million current assistance cases, 7.2 million former assistance cases, and 6.2 million never assistance cases reported (table 2). The decrease in the overall caseload was due in part to a drop in the number of current assistance families from FY 2005.

Paternities Established. Paternity establishment involves the legal establishment of fatherhood for a child. Paternity can be established by a voluntary acknowledgement signed by both parents as part of an in-hospital or other acknowledgement program. States must have procedures that allow paternity to be established or acknowledged at least up to the child’s eighteenth birthday.

In FY 2006, there were over 675,000 paternities established and over 1 million in-hospital and other paternities acknowledged (table 2). Paternity was established or acknowledged for 1.7 million children, a 3.8 percent increase from the previous year.

Orders Established. There were nearly 1.2 million orders for child support established in FY 2006. Current assistance orders comprised of 18.4 percent, former assistance orders accounted for 33.8 percent (table 2), and never assistance orders accounted for 47.9 percent of the support orders established in FY 2006.

Collections. Total distributed child support collections were almost $24 billion in FY 2006 (tables 1 and 3), a 4.0 percent increase over FY 2005. Child support payments are collected through various methods including: income withholding; unemployment compensation interception; and State or Federal income tax refund offsets.

Collections per Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Staff. There were over 60,000 FTE staff working in the States and jurisdictions in the Child Support Enforcement Program in FY 2006 (table 2). Nationally, the amount of child support collected per FTE was over $396,000, in FY 2006, compared to the $385,500 per FTE in FY 2005.

Expenditures. Total administrative expenditures were $5.6 billion in FY 2006, a 3.9 percent increase from FY 2005 (table 1). The Federal share of expenditures was $3.7 billion and the State share was $1.9 billion. The Federal government reimburses States and territories for 66 percent of allowable administrative expenditures and 90 percent for laboratory paternity costs.[1]

Collections Due and Distributed. In FY 2006, the total amount of current support due was over $29 billion (table 5). About $18.0 billion, or 60 percent of that amount was collected and distributed (table 5). The total amount of arrearages reported for all previous fiscal years was over $105 billion (table 5) and over $7 billion was collected and distributed (table 5). During the 1975 to 2006 period, more than $286 billion in child support payments was collected and distributed to families.

There were 11.1 million cases with arrears due and 6.7 million of these cases had collections in FY 2006 (table 6). Hence, 60 percent of obligors owing arrears made some payment toward their arrears in FY 2006. Also, $1.4 billion in interstate collections was forwarded to other States in FY 2006 (table 7).

Other Statistics. Also in FY 2006, program increases were noted for total cases in which a collection was made. At 8.5 million cases, this is a 2.7 percent increase over the number of paying cases from FY 2005 (tables 2 and 4).

The total cases with an order established in FY 2006 was over 12 million, a 1.8 percent increase over the number of cases with orders reported in the previous fiscal year (table 2).

The total number of children in the Child Support Enforcement cases totaled almost 17.3 million in fiscal year 2006, a 0.5 percent increase from the 17.2 million children reported for FY 2005 (table 2).

Cost-effectiveness represents the amount of child support collected for every $1.00 expended on the program. The cost-effectiveness ratio was $4.58[2] for FY 2006, unchanged from FY 2005 (tables 1 and 12).

The Tribal Child Support Enforcement Program distributed $12.9 million in total collections in FY 2006 (table 16). There were over 13,000 paternity establishments (table 14); the number of cases was 24,954 (table 13); and support orders established was 9,128 in FY 2006 (table 15)[3].

The attached charts and tables provide further details on collections, expenditures, caseload, paternities, orders established, and other program statistics, including Tribal child support tables for FY 2006. In some cases, current achievements are compared with those of previous fiscal years.

Summary Tables

Table 1 - Financial Overview, FY 2005 and FY 2006

Table 2 - Statistical Overview, FY 2005 and FY 2006

Table 3 - Total Distributed Collections, FY 2006

Table 4 - Statistical Program Status, FY 2006

Table 5 - Current and Arrears Collections Due and Distributed, FY 2006

Table 6 - Cases with Arrears Due and Cases Paying Towards Arrears, FY 2006

Table 7 - Collections and Expenditures, FY 2006

Table 8 - Paternity Establishment, FY 2006

Table 9 - Net Undistributed Collections (UDC), FY 2006

Table 10 - Medical Support and Arrears-Only Cases with Orders Established, FY 2006

Table 11 - Health Insurance Provided as Ordered for FY 2006

Table 12 - Unaudited Incentive Performance Scores, FY 2006

Table 13 - Tribal Program Caseload for Four Consecutive Fiscal Years

Table 14 - Tribal Program Paternities Established for Four Consecutive Fiscal Years

Table 15 - Tribal Program Support Orders Established for Four Consecutive Fiscal Years

Table 16 - Tribal Program Total Distributed Collections for Four Consecutive Fiscal Years

Table 17 - Tribal Program Expenditures for Four Consecutive Fiscal Years

Table 18 - Tribal Program Total Collections Forwarded to States for Four Consecutive Fiscal Years

Nationwide, Regional, and State Box Scores, FY 2006

Program Charts and Graphs, FY 2006

Cases
Figure 1 Total Caseload for Five Fiscal Years
Figure 2 IV-D Cases With and Without Orders Established for Five Consecutive Fiscal Years
Figure 3 Number of IV-D Cases for Which a Collection Was Made for Five Consecutive Fiscal Years

Paternities Acknowledged
Figure 4 IV-D and Statewide Paternities Established or Acknowledged for Five Consecutive Fiscal Years

Collections
Figure 5 Total Distributed Collections by Current, Former, Never, and Medicaid Cases, FY 2006
Figure 6 Total Collections Received by Method of Collections, FY 2006
Figure 7 Total Distributed Collections by TANF/Foster Care and Non-TANF Collections for Five Consecutive Fiscal Years
Figure 8 Undistributed Collections (UDC) by Category and Age, FY 2006
Figure 9 Interstate Collections for Five Consecutive Fiscal Years

Interstate
Figure 10 Interstate Cases: Cases Sent to and Received from Another State for Five Consecutive Fiscal Years

Expenditures
Figure 11 Total Expenditures for Five Consecutive Fiscal Years
Figure 12 Total ADP Expenditures for Five Consecutive Fiscal Years

Number of Children
Figure 13 Number of Children in the IV-D Program for Five Consecutive Fiscal Years

Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS)
Figure 14 Number of Unique Persons Matched and Number of Persons in the FCR by Participant Type for Five Consecutive Fiscal Years
Figure 15 Federal Offset Collections for Six Processing Years

Appendix

How an Incentive Payment is Determined

Because of the complexity of the incentives formula set forth in section 458 of the Social Security Act, we have included an example of how the system would work in a particular year for State A. Let's make the following assumptions regarding State A (See table A):

• State A's paternity performance level is 93 percent, making its applicable percent 100 percent (see table C)
• State A's order establishment performance level is 74 percent, making its applicable percent 88 percent (see table C)
• State A's current support collections performance level is 59 percent, making its applicable percent 69 percent (see table D)
• State A's arrearage support collections performance level is 60 percent, making its applicable percent 70 percent (see table D)
• State A's cost-effectiveness ratio is $4.40, making its applicable percent 80 percent (see table E)
• State A's collections base is $50 million (determined by 2 times the collections for Current Assistance, Former Assistance, and Medicaid Never Assistance plus Never Assistance collections and fees retained by other states)

• The maximum incentive for State A is:

  • $50 million collections base for paternity ($50 mil. times 1.00), plus
  • $44 million collections base for orders ($50 mil. times 0.88), plus
  • $34.5 million collections base for current collections ($50 mil. times 0.69), plus
  • $26.25 million collections base for arrearage collections ($50 mil. times 0.75⁴ times 0.70) plus
  • $30.0 million collections base for cost-effectiveness ($50 million times 0.75⁵ times 0.80) equals
  • Resulting in a maximum incentive base amount of $184.75 million for State A.

Table A

• We must now make some assumptions regarding the other States. Let's assume that there are only two other States in our country--and the maximum incentive base amount is $84 million for State B and $50 million for State C, making the total maximum incentive base amount $318.75 million for all three States (See table B).
• We must now determine what is State A's share of the $318.75 million. It is 58 percent ($184.75 divided by $318.75).

Table B

• Let us assume it is FY 2003, so the incentive payment pool for the FY is $461 million (see table F).
• Since State A's share is 0.58, this state has earned 58 percent of the $461 million incentive payment pool that Congress is allowing, or $267.2 million ($461 mil. x 0.58) incentive payment for this particular fiscal year.

Table C⁶

If the Paternity Establishment or Support Order Performance Level Is:

Table D⁷

If the Current Collections or Arrearage Collections Performance Level Is:

Table E⁸

If the Cost-Effectiveness Performance Level Is:

Table F
Mandated Incentive Pool Payment, FY 2000-2008

The incentive payment pool is:

• $422,000,000 for fiscal year 2000
• $429,000,000 for fiscal year 2001
• $450,000,000 for fiscal year 2002
• $461,000,000 for fiscal year 2003
• $454,000,000 for fiscal year 2004
• $446,000,000 for fiscal year 2005
• $458,000,000 for fiscal year 2006
• $471,000,000 for fiscal year 2007
• $483,000,000 for fiscal year 2008

For each fiscal year following fiscal year 2008, the incentive payment pool will be multiplied by the percentage increase in the CPI between the two preceding years. For example, for fiscal year 2009, if the CPI increases by one percent between fiscal years 2007 and 2008, then the incentive pool for fiscal year 2009 would be a one percent increase over the $483,000,000 incentive payment pool for fiscal year 2008, or $487,830,000.

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