Nancy Thoennes, Ph.D.

Lanae Davis

1720 Emerson Street

Denver, Colorado 80218

303/837-1555

DEBT AND RETROACTIVE SUPPORT INTERVENTION

INTRODUCTIONOne of the last interventions of the Model Office Project is the Debt and Retroactive Support Intervention. This intervention deals with ways of promoting the payment of current child support. Specifically, it explores the feasibility and impact of dropping debt/retroactive support obligations to promote the payment of current child support orders.

Colorado law defines debt as:

[B]ased on the amount of current child support due, or which would be due if the obligor were an absent parent, under the current child support enforcement guidelines. These guideline calculations of debt will be effective on the date of the stipulation, default order, or hearing to establish the child support debt times the number of months the family received public assistance. The total amount of debt can not exceed the total amount paid for public assistance.

Retroactive support differs from debt in that it is the amount of support due if the case is pursued through Administrative Process or Juvenile Court action, or if the case is being pursued under an existing divorce action. Retroactive support was made law in 1994 and is intended to allow equitable case processing of public assistance and non-public assistance cases. Debt is pursued only in public assistance cases. However, since many child support enforcement cases are continued services cases that involve public assistance and non-public assistance, both debt and retroactive support can be calculated for one case.

It is not uncommon for low-income, non-custodial parents to have child support arrearages of several thousand dollars. These sums serve to alienate noncustodial fathers from the child support enforcement system. Potentially, parents fail to pay current child support because they are overwhelmed by the size of their child support debt. This intervention explores whether the establishment of child support debt and retroactive support are barriers to payment of current support.

METHODS

Random samples of non-treatment and treatment cases were generated in two Colorado counties: Mesa and Jefferson. In the non-treatment group, cases receive the usual calculation and notification with respect to debt and retroactive support. In the treatment group, debt and retroactive support are waived. The payment behavior for each of these two groups is measured over a one-year period to determine if the elimination of debt and retroactive support improves payment of current support. The project is limited to those IV-A cases with assigned, unreimbursed public assistance (debt) and to both IV-A and non IV-A cases with retroactive support.

We will compare the reactions of noncustodial parents to the suspension of debt and retroactive support obligations. Specifically, we are interested in seeing whether waivers of debt and retroactive support affect the following outcomes: the rate at which obligors appear at NFR hearings; their child support payment patterns; and their attitudes toward the child support enforcement agency. We will also explore worker reactions to the suspension of debt and retroactive support obligations as well as workload impacts. This would include savings in time (if any) as a result of not having to calculate debt and/or retroactive support amounts.

This intervention will help to determine whether the elimination of debt or retroactive support improves payment behavior and increases the noncustodial parent's cooperation with the Child Support Enforcement Unit.

Currently, data forms and parent surveys are being collected and entered for analysis. A full report is forthcoming.