Full Child Support Pass-Through and Disregard

Families eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are required to assign their rights to child support to the state in order to receive TANF benefits. States may retain child support payments collected on behalf of TANF families to offset the cost of welfare payments or may pass some or all collected funds to the custodial parent. States may also disregard some or all of a pass-through amount when determining TANF participants’ benefits so that portion of the child support is not considered in benefit calculations. Full pass-through policies allow the custodial parent, usually the mother, to receive all child support paid; no portion is retained by the state.

Expected Beneficial Outcomes: Increased child support receipt; Increased paternity establishment. Other Potential Beneficial Outcomes: Reduced child maltreatment.

Evidence of Effectiveness: Full pass-through may also reduce the risk of child maltreatment and reduce cohabitation rates between mothers and men who are not the fathers of their children. Full pass-through does not appear to reduce custodial mothers’ participation in the workforce. Overall, more generous pass-through and disregard policies are associated with higher levels of child support receipt and paternity establishment than less generous or partial pass-through policies. However, partial pass-through policies, including the $50 pass-through policy in many states before 1996 and the current $150 policy in Washington DC, have been shown to increase rates and amount of child support receipt. When pass-through and disregard amounts are reduced there may be an increase in informal support from the non-custodial parent. Generous pass-through and disregard policies generally decrease government outlays on some safety net services such as child care and food stamps but can increase other government costs. An assessment of Wisconsin’s full pass-through and disregard suggests little additional cost to government. Modeling suggests that costs are likely to be higher for state governments than federal governments.
Impact on Disparities: Likely to decrease disparities.