REFORMING
19 96
Child Support at the intersections of RACE, POVERTY, & MARITAL STATUS
WHY WE SHOULD REFORM 1996
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) was signed into law by President Bill Clinton and fulfilled his campaign promise to “end welfare as we have come to know it.” However, research suggests that PRWORA has harsh implications for poor, unmarried families.
PRWORA requires employers to report new employees so that they could be matched against child support orders to enforce automatic wage garnishes.[1] PRWORA also requires TANF recipients to cooperate with child support establishment and enforcement efforts.[2] In other words, when a custodial parent applies for TANF, they are mandated to sue the noncustodial parent for child support. If they do not, they are denied assistance. Further, when states collect child support on behalf of TANF recipients, states are permitted to retain payments and reimburse themselves for distributing benefits. Most unfortunate, noncustodial parents who cannot afford their child support payments can be incarcerated for their inability to pay.[3]
[1] 42 U.S.C. § 653a(b), (e). (“The state agency must enter the information received from employers into the State Directory within five business days of receipt.)
[2] 42 U.S.C. § 666(a) (2000)
[3] 18 U.S.C. § 228(a)(1), (3)
PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDE
This Research Guide is meant to be an online guide showcasing resources available to Attorneys and Advocates interested in, or practicing in child support or public welfare reform. Special focus has been placed on South Carolina law, though there are also resources applicable to parents across the U.S. This Research Guide is not meant to be an exhaustive, all-encompassing, list of resources. (In other words, I'm sure there are plenty of great resources not mentioned.) I look forward to updating this Guide with more resources in the future!
DISCLAIMER
This student-authored guide was created as part of an assignment for Professor Lori Corso’s Advanced Legal Research course and is for educational purposes only. The content is the sole responsibility of the student author and does not represent the views of Villanova University. This guide is meant to simply highlight resources that may be used to conduct research in this area of law and information presented in this guide should be independently reviewed and verified by the reader; no representations are made as to the content’s currency, accuracy, or applicability to a particular legal situation. The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. Readers of this website should contact their attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter.
Meet the Author
Shaped by her own experiences growing up in South Carolina, Antionna has a clear passion for working with low-income, unmarried parents. Antionna sees how the public welfare and child support systems pit parents against each other to the detriment of their children. She wishes to educate the community on the ways in which these policies particularly harm Black families and how they derive from this country's history of slavery. After law school, she hopes to receive an Equal Justice Works fellowship where she designed her own project committed to these issues. Antionna seeks to promote economic and racial justice, and be a voice for single mothers, “dead-broke” dads, and their impacted children suffering as a result.
Esther 8:6: For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?
