Brief
In fiscal year 2018, noncustodial parents were obligated to pay nearly $33.6 billion in current child support on behalf of the 15 million children served by the Title IV-D child support program. One-third of that, or $11 billion, was not collected. Unemployment is the leading reason for non-payment of child support by noncustodial parents. This brief will explore the opportunities at the state and federal levels to provide employment services to noncustodial parents and increase child support payments in the process.
Brief
As part of the "Looking Forward" series, which provides policymakers with memos that suggest ways to make progress on critical issues, MDRC presents the topic of balancing welfare support for poor families and children with promoting self-sufficiency through work.
Brief
A large percentage of poor children live with just one parent, usually their mother, and single-parent families are more vulnerable to economic downturns than are two-parent families. Living arrangements also affect the optimal design of policies related to income support and child support. In this paper we briefly review changes in family structure and the relationship between family structure and employment, and then focus on policies that are essential to reducing poverty in the context of the current work-based safety net, in which low-income families with children rely increasingly on…
Brief
This Working Poor Families Project (WPFP) policy brief examines opportunities for states to play a prominent role in the evolving 2 Gen movement. The first section reviews the continuing need to address poverty in America, the history of 2 Gen strategies in America, the evidence suggesting the promise of 2 Gen efforts, and current efforts to bring renewed attention to 2 Gen work. It also elaborates on the WPFP's approach to 2 Gen state policy work. The second section examines the role of states in pursuing 2 Gen strategies, with a particular focus on the state systems and policies that help…
Brief
This inaugural issue of Focus on Policy summarizes recent research on the ways in which the American family has changed over the past half century. Changes include how couples form partnerships, have children, earn a living, and struggle to get by. (Author abstract)
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This fact sheet offers steps that single parents can take to take control of their finances and includes charts that individuals can use to calculate expenses, income, and budget.
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The Fatherhood Research and Practice Network (FRPN) convened a workgroup of experts in the field of fatherhood and father involvement to develop a research agenda that defines the state of the current research in this area, identifies extant gaps in this research, and generates suggestions for future research. The goal is for the workgroup's ideas to inform subsequent funding by the FRPN for evaluation and research projects that seek to enhance our collective understanding of the important role fathers play in the lives of their children and how programs and policies can strengthen this role…
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This handbook offers some keys to successful coparenting relationships. It also offers strategies to raise a child as a team, whether the parents are romantically together or not. This guide will help coparents to learn to communicate, handle differences, manage anger, develop a written partners-in-parenting agreement, handle money wisely, learn what it takes to have a good, long lasting couple relationship or marriage and handle the tough issues that can break couples apart.
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This fact sheet suggests strategies for parents to teach their children about money management and how to be in control of their finances. Tips include modeling smart money decisions and how to guide children to also make smart money decisions. This publication also offers different options for how to teach children to manage their money well.Note: PDF version available.
Brief
This brief contributes to our knowledge of the challenges faced by children with incarcerated fathers by examining the effect of paternal incarceration on child homelessness. Specifically, it explores three mechanisms by which father incarceration may lead to child homelessness, including weakening family finances, limiting children's access to institutional and informal supports, and reducing mothers' capacities and capabilities. It also examines the extent to which this relationship is concentrated among black children and tests concerns of spuriousness, the possibility that both…
