On this 5th day of June 2002 the National Council of Child Support Directors resolves that Congress should:
1. Authorize a state option to distribute to families on TANF any portion of the state-assigned share of current support.
2. Require the federal government to fully participate in the costs of passing through child support to TANF families, by providing that the federal government waive its share of child support collections to the extent that a state chooses to pass through its share of support and disregards such amounts from affecting TANF eligibility or benefits
3. Limit the maximum assignment of support rights by families receiving TANF to the lesser of: (a) unreimbursed public assistance or (b) at the option of the state, the amount owed as child support for the period of time the family receives TANF by eliminating the requirement that families assign pre-assistance arrears.
4. Provide additional financial support for former TANF families by providing a state option that all collections, in excess of the amount of current support, be applied first to the arrears owed to the family. This proposal would direct more arrears to families no longer receiving assistance under the TANF program by giving states the option to eliminate the federal tax offset exception.
5. Provide alternative funding sources to offset the loss of the retained collections, including authorizing states to use TANF funds to pay for (or to count towards TANF maintenance of effort requirements) the child support collections that the state would provide to families to help states replace lost program funding.
NCCSD believes that Congress should act to allow states to provide additional support to families attempting to reach self-sufficiency and to provide relief for states and families from the burdensome complexity of PRWORA distribution rules. While we believe that current child support distribution does not fully promote welfare reform's goal of personal responsibility and independence from public assistance, we recognize that many states rely on public assistance collections to fund programs important to families. For this reason we believe that the changes must be optional. The success of welfare reform has required IV-D programs to focus on supporting families in transition to self-sufficiency, while at the same time child support distribution rules continue to emphasize the recovery of public assistance. Simplification of child support distribution is necessary to meet the needs of families and to clarify the role of IV-D agencies in a post-welfare reform world.
NCCSD strongly supports efforts to include in TANF reauthorization legislation proposals to simplify child support distribution rules and to increase the amount of child support going to families as keys to family self-sufficiency. Research shows that families who receive regular child support payments are more likely to retain employment and less likely to return to welfare than those who do not receive child support. These proposals are sound public policies that build upon the philosophy of parental responsibility and family self-sufficiency embodied in welfare reform.
In providing additional flexibility within distribution, Congress must provide alternative funding sources to ensure that needed child support services will be available to families attempting to attain self-sufficiency, recognize the need for flexibility and afford adequate time to develop and implement the necessary automated system programming changes.
OCSE and Congress should work with state IV-D Directors to identify methods for ensuring that stable and adequate levels of investment in the program by federal, state, and local governments advances the child support program's evolving mission and improves outcomes. This investment should reflect overall trends and future directions in the nation's human services delivery system rather than a point-in-time analysis, and adhere to a set of principles that properly relate funding approaches to program needs, goals and performance.