Child Support Enforcement

Greater federal leadership coupled with equally intensive state efforts could help the national child support enforcement program to better serve the families that depend on it. The dramatically rising number of children needing support--the child support enforcement caseload soared 180 percent between 1980 and 1992--has focused attention on federal and state efforts to force parents to support their children. However, these efforts have been stymied by management weaknesses that keep the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OSCE) from (1) effectively leading the program and the states, (2) judging how well the program is working, and (3) setting effective policies. Although the federal role is substantial--most program funding is federal--child support enforcement is very much a state activity. Today, states face common problems, such as increasing workloads that outpace resources, inadequate computer systems, and fragmented authority and unstandardized procedures among others. In response, states have developed a number of strategies, including augmenting their staffs with volunteers and contracting with private collection agencies, improving automation, and using innovative enforcement techniques. Many welfare reform proposals would further expand child support enforcement. Unless OSCE strengthens its management of its current program, it may have difficulty implementing any new responsibilities.

GAO found that: (1) the federal CSE program lacks a well-articulated mission, programwide planning and goal-setting, and accurate program performance data to guide program management; (2) as a GPRA pilot agency, OCSE has initiated management improvements to better serve the states and families by including stakeholders, establishing long-term goals, and focusing on program results; (3) OCSE has almost eliminated the technical support and training it provides to state programs because of declining resources; (4) various organizational and staff changes have created problems in communications between federal and state CSE officials; (5) OCSE audit and data collection efforts are insufficient to provide needed information on program results; (6) some states have set up their own audit procedures and monitoring systems; (7) common barriers hampering state enforcement efforts include increasing workloads, inadequate resources and computer systems, lack of control over local units, state legislatures' failure to support state program initiatives, inadequate client information, and nonstandardized procedures; (8) to overcome program impediments, some states have augmented their staffs with volunteers, introduced administrative procedures in place of judicial procedures, contracted with private collection agencies, improved automation, and used innovative enforcement techniques; and (9) many welfare reform proposals would expand child support enforcement missions and restructure program funding, but OCSE may have trouble implementing changes unless it strengthens its leadership and program management.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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