The Story Behind the Numbers

This fact sheet examines why most poor custodial parents do not have a child support order. It is based on micro data from the 2014 Current Population SurveyChild Support Supplement (CPS-CSS), a nationally representative survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. This supplement is co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE). While the child support program (also known as the IV-D program) has detailed information on its caseload, there is no national source of information for total (IV-D and non-IV-D) child support recipients and total amount of child support received. We rely on nationally representative surveys such as this one to provide information on the total child support population. It is important to note that this survey includes IV-D and non-IV-D families, but does not include households where children are living with a grandparent or someone other than their biological parent. How many poor custodial parents have a child support order?