The Payback Problem: Why Child Support Does Not Go Where It’s Needed Most

When millions of low-income parents make child support payments, the majority of their payments do not go to their children. Instead, most of their payments go to reimburse the government for the cost of public assistance for the mother and child. In California, 70% of outstanding child support debt is owed to the government, not children. The majority of public assistance payback debt in California is owed by parents earning under $10,000. California also charges 10% interest on public assistance payback debt. Requiring parents to pay back public assistance takes money from low-income children, sets low-income parents up to fail, and saddles families with growing debt that they cannot pay. The event will feature a panel discussion moderated by Anne Stuhldreher, Director of the San Francisco Financial Justice Project and Aspen Financial Security Program Senior Fellow. Anne is a coauthor of The Payback Problem: How Taking Parents’ Child Support Payments to Pay Back the Cost of Public Assistance Harms California Low-Income Children & Families and recently authored an op-ed about The Payback Problem in The Los Angeles Times.