Child Support Policy across High-Income Countries: Similar Problems, Different Approaches

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162221119959
• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Date: 01 July 2022
• Subject Matter: Support from Nonresident Fathers

ANNALS, AAPSS, 702, July 2022 97

DOI: 10.1177/00027162221119959

Child Support

Policy across

High-Income

Countries:

Similar

Problems,

Different

Approaches

By

MIA HAKOVIRTA,

LAURA CUESTA,

MARI HAAPANEN,

and

DANIEL R. MEYER

1119959ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYCHILD SUPPORT POLICY ACROSS HIGH-INCOME COUNTRIES

research-article2022

We provide an overview of child support policy in high-

income countries, highlighting differences in institu-

tional arrangements, the amount of child support due,

and the amount of child support received. We show that

the United States expects high levels of child support

from nonresident parents when compared to other

countries, that noncompliance is a problem across coun-

tries, and that most European countries deal with non-

payment of child support by providing guarantees of

public support for children and resident parents. The

guarantee schemes vary in terms of eligibility and gener-

osity. Throughout, we find that child support policy

approaches differ across countries. A key policy implica-

tion from this review is that the United States may be

expecting too much child support from nonresident

parents and that it could consider guaranteeing a modest

amount of public support to single-parent households.

Keywords: child support; guaranteed child support;

advanced maintenance; single mother;

comparative policy; child poverty

The proportion of all families with children

headed by a single mother has been increas-

ing in many countries (e.g., Nieuwenhuis and

Maldonado 2018). Single mothers are among

the most vulnerable groups in many societies,

and they face a triple bind of inadequate

resources, employment challenges, and policies

that do not adequately support the well-being of

single mothers and their children (Nieuwenhuis

and Maldonado 2018). One policy that may

Mia Hakovirta is a senior research fellow at the Invest

Flagship, Department of Social Research, University of

Turku, Finland.

Laura Cuesta is an Assistant Professor of social work at

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Mari Haapanen is a doctoral student at the Invest doc-

toral program, Department of Social Research,

University of Turku.

Daniel R. Meyer is a Professor of social work at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Correspondence: miahak@utu.fi

98 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

improve the economic well-being of single mothers and their children is child sup-

port (child maintenance): a financial transfer between separated parents1 in which

one parent is obligated to transfer resources (money and/or in-kind resources) to

the other parent to share the costs of raising their children.

All high-income countries have child support policies, and a legal duty to pro-

vide for children is enshrined within the United Nations Convention on the

Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Article 27 contains not only a legal expectation for

parents to fulfil financial responsibilities to their children but also for countries

to ensure that children receive financial support from their separated parents.

Yet countries can do this in very different ways.

While the UNCRC implies that the goal of child support policy is ensuring

parental responsibility, countries can have other goals (e.g., addressing poverty,

recovering public expenditures in other social programs) that may lead to differ-

ences in policy approaches. Having multiple goals, which can sometimes be

conflicting, may also lead to variation in policy. For example, countries may want

both to limit public expenditures on single mothers and to encourage a father’s

relationship with his nonresident children. If the former is prioritized, child sup-

port orders may be high and public policy focused on enforcing obligations; while

if the latter is prioritized, child support orders may be an amount that parents

negotiate, which may be low, and public policy may focus on providing media-

tion, conflict resolution, and relationship building.2 Other factors associated with

policy choices include the level of economic development, gender roles in work

and caring, and the overall social policy structure (e.g., Chung and Kim 2019;

Cuesta and Meyer 2012; Hakovirta, Meyer, and Skinner 2021). Cultural values

such as individualistic or collectivistic beliefs on family responsibility may also be

relevant for understanding discrepancies in child support policy (Kang et al.

2022). Although there is a variety of research that describes child support policy

within a country, less research examines such policies across multiple countries.

We analyze child support policy across a variety of high-income countries,

exploring areas of similarity (particularly the central policy challenges that are

common across countries) and the ways in which countries’ approaches can be

different. The countries we include differ somewhat between sections of this arti-

cle, depending on available data, but they are mostly in Europe and also include

Australia, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, the United States, and Uruguay. For

countries that have different policies in different jurisdictions, we select one unit

per country (Wisconsin for the United States, Ontario for Canada, and Catalonia

for Spain). When possible, based on the expertise of the national informants, we

generalize from the unit to the country. Because child support policy affects

repartnered parents as well as single parents, we sometimes refer to the broader

group of “custodial-parent” families. Although societal change toward more gen-

der neutrality in parenting roles has occurred, the vast majority of single-parent

households are still headed by women. For this reason, our focus in this article is

primarily on single-mother families and the nonresident fathers of their children.

NOTE: All authors conduct cross-national research on family and child support policy with a

focus on separated families and their economic well-being. Their work has been published in

leading academic journals on social policies and family change.