According to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau, child support is paid in less that half of all cases where it is owed.

In a difficult economy with more and more people having financial problems, the issue of child support comes to the forefront, as single parents work hard to stay afloat.

Some noncustodial parents in tough financial straits are seeking reductions in child support as a means of relief, and others simply don’t make payments, all while many single parents below the poverty line depend on child support for nearly half of their income.

Highlighting the crucial role that child support plays in the lives of separated parents, the U.S. Census Bureau recently released a report detailing the findings of a survey conducted in 2008 that focused on child support and child custody issues among parents.

According to the report, in 2008 there were 13.7 million parents in the United States who had custody of 21.8 million children under 21, while the other parent lived somewhere else. Of those 13.7 million parents, 7.4 million had a child support agreement or court order in place to receive monetary help from the noncustodial parent who lived somewhere else.

Mothers with child custody historically have a higher percentage of formal child support terms in place than fathers with custody, and the data from 2008 supports that trend.

The custodial parent with primary care-giving duties was most often the mother rather than the father, at a rate of about 83 percent.

The age of custodial mothers has increased since the last survey in 1994, as has the level of education of mothers on the whole. Custodial mothers were also more likely to be caring for more than one child than fathers who had primary custody.

About one quarter of custodial parents were below the poverty level in 2008. This represents an improvement over figures collected in 1993, but there has not been improvement in the percentage since 2001.

Employment rates among custodial parents have been rising as well, and rates of public assistance have been falling.

Of those parents who were under the poverty level, payments from child support represented almost half of that parent’s average income, which indicates that for the most needy, child support was of crucial financial importance.

In 2008, a total of $34.1 billion in child support was due as per formal agreements and court-ordered terms. Of that amount, only about 63 percent of it was reported as received by the custodial parent, averaging out to about $3,350 per parent who was owed support.

In 2007, about three-quarters of custodial parents who were owed support received some payment, while a little less than half of those owed received the full amount that they were due. The remaining 30 percent received some of the total amount due to them.

Monetary payments are not the only type of child support that was provided for custodial parents. Over half of custodial parents received support from the non-custodial parent in the form of noncash support, like groceries, diapers, birthday and holiday gifts, medical expenses, and child care.

Among mothers, according to the report, one third of those who had custody of their children were never married. Almost half of those mothers were currently divorced or separated. 1.7 percent of the mothers were widowed.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Divorce News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.