Research & Insurance Products

Child Support Truth™

Child support arrears (a debt) represent the amount of child support that was due to the custodial family but remains unpaid. In 2016, $116 billion is due to custodial families past and present for their children or to repay the government.

Child Support debt is an uncollateralized installment obligation, spanning the minor children’s financially dependent years as defined in each state by statute. The unsecured nature makes collections and enforcements more challenging than a collateralized, long-term installment obligation. As incredulous as it may seem, obligated parents default on their own children to the tune of tens of thousands or millions of dollars and many get away with it. There is no insurance solution nor required collateral in place in the event of partial default, full default or serial default to assist the custodial families with the financial needs of the children in their childhood and educational chapters of life. The larger unpaid debts are trending upward.

Is there a better way? Can insurance play a role and help the custodial families through an insurance product solution? In the 2015 US Census data, released January 2018, on child support, the numbers show that 43.5 percent of custodial parents received full support. This means 56.5 percent of custodial parent’s due child support will receive none or only some of what is due, even with enforcement.  25.8 percent of custodial parents got something and 30.7 percent did not receive payments. This leaves a nation with an national  child support debt aggregated over all years remaining unpaid, of $116 billion.  In 2016 states enforced $34 billion of child support obligations. Those debts which were not paid, become a part of the national child support aggregated debt figure. We can and must do better as a nation and as a society. These debts are as large as many of the nationally insured, natural or man-made catastrophes yet there is no insurance solution with the exception of life insurance for the custodial family. Four out of five custodial families are headed by women. Thus, while not exclusively a women's issue, the collection of these debts for their children's well-being and well-fare, are predominantly a women's issue.

D'Andre Insurance Group's Child Support Research

Commencing in 2017 D'Andre Insurance Group (DIG) has committed to studying the severity of the largest debtors in the non-payment of child support per state in the United States of America, as a step toward designing insurance product solutions. Publicly available data up through September 14, 2017 was presented as averages with no mention of large child support debts per individual case. Multiple measures of the debt data sets are necessary to design an insurance solution and improve the enforcement results.

Thus, through the Freedom of Information Act, DIG requested from the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia's child support enforcement operation provide the following; 1. The number of open cases the operation is enforcing; 2.  The top 100 largest individual cases debts; 3. The composition of the case debt. Requests do not include U.S. tribes and territories. 34 states and the District of Columbia responded in full or in part. The findings show that individual case debts can and do exceed $100 thousand or more. Some debts exceed $1 million per individual debtor. This information is release for the first time ever through D'Andre Insurance Group. A full report will be available at the end of April 2018, and ongoing research findings will be available in the 2018 year.

DIG extends gratitude for all those who worked with us to make these findings possible.

Other public information is available from:

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children & Families, Office of Child Support Enforcement:
  Annual Report to Congress FY 2019
  Annual Report to Congress FY 2018
  OCSE Blog: Who Owes the Child Support Debt?
  OCSE Blog: Trends in Child Support Debt Amounts
• U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau:
  Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Support: 2017
  Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Support: 2015