AUTHOR: DENNIS PUTZE
Child support arrears represent the amount of child support that was due to the custodial family, but remains unpaid. It is owed either to the custodial family or to the government. Any child support owed while the family received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, commonly called TANF benefits, is owed to the government.
State child support programs routinely send information about child support cases that owe arrears to the Office of Child Support Enforcement’s (OCSE) Federal Offset Program. OCSE uses various enforcement remedies, such as intercepting federal tax refunds, to collect arrears. Any arrears collected are returned to the state child support program to distribute either to the family or to the government.
The OCSE Federal Offset Debtor File lists the amounts of past-due child support each noncustodial parent debtor owes. As of April 2017, 5.5 million delinquent noncustodial parents, or debtors, owed over $114 billion in past-due child support. Approximately 20% of the total arrears is owed to the government. The following data is based on a sample of the debtors in the Federal Offset Debtor File as of April 2017.
Percent of Debtors and Arrears by Amount Owed – April 2017
Source: OCSE Federal Offset Debtor File (based on a sample of debtors)
The graph shows that the majority of debtors owe smaller amounts of child support debt while a minority of debtors owe most of it.
We plan to analyze the child support debt further and report our findings in future blogs. We look forward to hearing your views. Please send comments to DPSAsupport@acf.hhs.gov.