Child Support and Protecting Victims of Domestic Violence

Experts have long suspected that fear of domestic abuse is a key factor in child support noncooperation. With stricter requirements under TANF to encourage recipients of cash assistance to pursue child support payments, there are heightened concerns about victims' safety. For the majority of domestic violence victims who want to pursue child support, efforts to protect their safety throughout the collection process become extremely important. Mathematica has examined what local communities in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, and Oregon have done to improve the coordination of this response system. Our report focuses on the strategies that child support and public assistance agencies have taken to improve the interagency coordination of information and services for victims of domestic violence during the child support collection process.

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