Resolving Communication Issues in Order to Improve Child Support Collections

Date of Award

1997

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Carolyn Scott

Second Advisor

Tom Dehner

Third Advisor

Tamara Tyson

Abstract

During the last 45 years, the United States has experienced many sociological changes which have caused the creation of millions of single-parent families. The composition of American families has been drastically altered by social problems such as divorces and out-of-wedlock births. In response to these social problems, legislators started offering public assistance to millions of financially needy single-parent families through the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program. Once legislators realized that the government could not afford to provide public aid to millions of families for indefinite periods of time, they began to enact many different child support laws.

By creating laws that require noncustodial parents to provide regular support to their children, legislators hoped to shift the burden of supporting millions of single-parent families away from the government. Unfortunately, none of the child support enforcement programs have grown as quickly as the number of single-parent families that they serve. Since most child support investigators are given huge caseloads to manage, many workers do not have enough time to pursue all of the cases that they have been assigned. Statistical data from the Child Support Enforcement Nineteenth Annual Report to Congress show that only about half of the child support payments that come due are currently being collected.

As the number of single-parent families continues to increase every year, Missouri's child support agencies will need to find ways to collect more support. Before they will be able to significantly increase the amount of support they collect, Missouri's child support agencies will need to resolve their customer service problems. Missouri's child support collections are not likely to improve until they resolve these problems by working to build better lines of communication between child support investigators and all of the people with whom they interact.

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