Assessing the New Federalism is a multiyear Urban Institute project designed to analyze the devolution of responsibility for social programs from the federal government to the states, focusing primarily on health care, income security, employment and training programs, and social services. Alan Weil is the project director. Researchers monitor program changes and fiscal developments. In collaboration with Child Trends, the project studies changes in family well-being. The project aims to provide timely, nonpartisan information to inform public debate and to help state and local decisionmakers carry out their new responsibilities more effectively.

Key components of the project include a household survey, studies of policies in 13 states, and a database with information on all states and the District of Columbia, available at the Urban Institute's Web site: http://www.urban.org. This paper is one in a series of discussion papers analyzing information from these and other sources.

The project has received funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the Stuart Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, the Fund for New Jersey, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Rockerfeller Foundation.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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Contents

Introduction

Using NSAF to Examine Nonresident Fathers

Brief Overview of Nonresident Fathers and Their Children

Poor Mothers and Fathers Have Similar Socioeconomic Characteristics

Poor Mothers and Fathers Face Many Employment Barriers

How Do These Fathers and Mothers Support Themselves?

What Efforts Are Taken to Overcome Employment Barriers?

Who Depends on the Income Safety Net?

How Has Government's Response Changed since 1996?

Where Do We Go from Here?

Endnotes

References

About the Authors

Introduction

The popular image of a nonresident father who does not pay child support is that of a "deadbeat," one who is able to pay but shirks his duty for no good reason. This image does not fit the 2.6 million nonresident fathers who are poor themselves and have a limited ability to provide support to their nonresident children. Nonetheless, our society expects poor mothers to work and use their earnings to support their children; certainly poor fathers should do the same. What policies can our society develop to convert poor nonpaying fathers into child support payers?

In this paper, we examine the barriers that poor fathers face in paying child support and how existing government programs assist them. We contrast these barriers to those faced by poor custodial mothers and examine how public policy assists them. We do this using data from the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), one of few surveys to identify nonresident fathers and one of even fewer to provide recent data. We then discuss recent efforts to serve these fathers through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, welfare-to-work grants and demonstration grants. We conclude with some suggestions on where to go from here.

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