Multiple barriers to obtaining child support : experiences of women leaving violent partners

This article reports on a study which explores how policies and practices shape the experiences of single parents when seeking and using child support from violent ex-partners. The findings of this and similar research studies on violence, child support and poverty indicate that the receipt of child support is a multi-step process plagued with multiple barriers.

Domestic violence and the exemption from seeking child support : providing safety or legitimizing ongoing poverty and fear

This article examines the experience of low-income women on welfare in Australia and the process of seeking child support from a violent ex-partner, contrasting this with research from the United States and the United Kingdom. Women in Australia who fear ongoing or renewed abuse as a result of seeking child support are eligible for an exemption. However, the exemption policy does not necessarily provide the intended protection of women and children from ongoing abuse and poverty. The exemption policy route also produces an unintended outcome whereby the perpetrators of violence are financially rewarded as they do not have to pay child support. These outcomes are shaped by a complex interaction of personal, cultural and structural forces that make the process of seeking child support for women who have experienced violence extremely problematic. The article demonstrates how in Australia, as in the US and UK policy contexts, the needs of women and their children are compromised by the details of policy specification and the way policies are implemented within the different systems.

Discrepancy between expected and actual child support payments : predicting the health and health-related quality of life of children living in low-income, single-parent families

Objective Although the amount and frequency of child support payments received by single parents are often erratic and fluctuate, no study to date has quantitatively explored how the discrepancy between expected and actual payments relates to child health. This study aims to examine whether the discrepancy between expected and actual child support payments predicts a range of child health outcomes, including global health, health-related quality of life, involvement in activities and parental psychological distress.

Methods This study used results from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, which included a sample of parents of children aged 4–5 years (n = 4983). The questionnaire was completed by the parent who spent the most time with the child and knew the child best. From the 4983 families, 332 low-income single parents reliant on welfare with a formal or informal child support order in place were identified.

Results After controlling for income, the discrepancy between expected and actual child support predicted school functioning, conduct problems, total mental health problems and involvement in activities. Discrepancy between expected and actual child support payments did not predict the remaining health-related quality of life domains, mental health domains, global child health or parental psychosocial distress.

Conclusion This was the first study to examine how the discrepancy between expected and actual child support payments relates to child health, providing important data on the effectiveness of the child support system for children's well-being. These findings highlight the potential impact of the discrepancy on school functioning, conduct problems, total mental health problems and involvement in activities.

The influence of child support and welfare on single parent families

Many single parent families in Australia are on low-incomes and many depend on Centrelink Parenting Payments as their main source of income which is comparatively low to meet their basic living costs. The impact of low income on child health and social inclusion is discussed.

Child support research in Australia : a critical review

The Australian Child Support Scheme impacts on the lives of many Australian families. Yet the Australian evidence base informing child support policy development is relatively sparse and lacks coherence. In this article, we employ an equity framework to consolidate the published Australian empirical child support research in order to identify gaps in current knowledge and assess the various layers of competing interest inherent therein. While researchers have begun to examine the financial outcomes of the new Australian Child Support Scheme, work is urgently needed to understand the effects that the new scheme has on children, payees and payers, and how these effects operate. We conclude by proposing an agenda for future Australian child support research that focuses on the aims of the scheme and the four equity principles we employ, namely, horizontal, vertical, gender, and intergenerational equity.

Accepting the unacceptable : patriarchal hegemony and child support arrangements

This research explored how low-income single mothers' child support decisions were based on the 'best interests of the child'. While mothers desired joint financial responsibility for children, poor payment outcomes made mothers financially dependent on the state and resulted in single mothers' coerced acceptance of unacceptable child support arrangements.

Mothers' experiences of child support: qualitative research and opportunities for policy insight

Child support is one of the defining and under-studied elements of single mothering in contemporary Australia. However, the Australian Child Support Scheme is marked by high levels of debt and unreliable, partial and non-payment, which exacerbate mothers' financial insecurity. Most Australian child support research has focused on the amounts and outcomes of payments. Little is known about how and why mothers and fathers make the child support decisions they do. In this paper, we synthesise data from three interview studies with mothers who were due to receive child support to assess whether they experienced the system as intended. We compare the experience of child support policy 'on the books' with its experience by mothers 'on the ground'. A qualitative approach to mothers' experiences of child support highlights the social meaning of that money and the importance of understanding its transfer and use as embedded in social relations.

Institutional processes and the production of gender inequalities: the case of Australian child support research and administration

This article analyses the administrative and research capture of child support data as a case study of how institutional data collection processes are performative in perpetuating gendered inequalities. We compare interviews with 19 low-income single mothers and their longitudinal survey responses from the same research to reveal how low-income women strategically or inadvertently ‘smoothed’ their experiences when responding to data collection processes. This directly resulted in material and symbolic costs in the form of reduced welfare benefits and limited evidence with which to lobby for policy reform. These processes in turn provided benefits to fathers and the state in the form of reduced child support liabilities and enforcement action, and welfare outlays, respectively. We conclude that current administrative and research data collection practices provide a limited and gendered evidence base for administrative justice and policy reform.

‘It should be a big responsibility’: Separated low-income mothers’ evaluation of child support arrangements and the conduct of fathers

The Australian Child Support Scheme was established as a means of ensuring adequate financial support for children of separated parents. However, within the financial transfer of child support exist notions of ‘trust’ and ‘fairness’ based on parents navigating their changed relationship post-separation. Previous research has explored the assessment and outcomes of child support for both payee and payer parents, however little attention has been given to how women evaluate the assessment and outcomes of child support. As such, this research aimed to explore payee mothers’ evaluation of their child support experiences based on the value of their child support assessment and the extent to which these payments were received. Following the methods of constructivist grounded theory, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 low-income single mothers. Analysis revealed that payee mothers evaluated child support based on the moral assumptions and the rationalities they perceived were underlying payer fathers’ child support compliance. While payee mothers desired arrangements that reflected joint parental financial responsibility, in reality many experienced problematic child support payments, which may ultimately undermine payee parents’ confidence in the Child Support Scheme.

Child Support Enforcement Program [microform] : hearings before the Subcommittee on Public Assistance and Unemployment Compensation of the Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, second session, February 23, 25; and March 2, 1988.

"Serial 100-56."

Child support report /

Title from caption.

Annual report : Child Support Enforcement Program /

Chiefly statistics.

Child support enforcement program.

"DPA 1759 (R-9-94)"--P. [31]

Child support enforcement ... annual report.

Description based on: fy 89; title from cover.