Child-Support Payments Key To Welfare Plan Clinton Proposal Rewards States For Amount Actually Collected

Federal money would be targeted to states that do the best job collecting child support payments, under a Clinton administration proposal submitted to Congress on Thursday.

Unlike the current system, the new formula would consider what percentage of money owed is actually collected by states and rewards states that improve their collections. It reflects the various aspects of the child support enforcement process, including determining paternity, getting court orders for support and actual collections.

In last year’s welfare overhaul law, Congress directed the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a system that ties federal payments to states’ performance.

“If approved by Congress, this plan will provide real incentives for the states to improve the child support system and help families achieve self-sufficiency,” department Secretary Donna Shalala said in a statement.

Many women who collect welfare benefits receive little or no financial help from the fathers of their children. Policy-makers reason that more child support will help them move off welfare, supplement their payments or replace money that would have come from the government.

Currently, the federal government uses a crude system to subsidize states’ child support programs. It pays states a percentage of the money they collect and it gives them bonuses if they are cost-effective, collecting more child support with less administrative money.

The new system still rewards cost-effectiveness, but adds four other factors to the formula: establishment of paternity, establishment of court orders, amount collected (compared with previous years and compared with how much is owed), and collection of past due child support.