Child Support: An Important but Often Overlooked Issue for Low-Income Clients


 

Publication Date: November 2002

Publisher: Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law

Author(s): Paula Roberts

Research Area: Social conditions

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Many legal services programs assist neither custodial nor noncustodial parents in basic child support matters. Since the many local child support enforcement agencies that are left with this work struggle to provide adequate and timely service, a good argument can be made for more legal services program involvement in this area.

This article, published in the Poverty Law Manual for the New Lawyer, describes the child support enforcement system and highlights two public-benefit-related topics: child support assignment and cooperation requirements for families receiving public assistance and distribution of collected support.