Child support international comparisons
Researchers: Jonathan Bradshaw, Anne Corden, Jacqueline Davidson, Dan Meyer, Christine Skinner and Jun Rong Chen
Funder: Department for Work and Pensions
Duration: June 2006 to September 2006
Background
The UK child support system is in difficulties. Due to management and/or IT problems none of the targets for the new scheme, which began in 2003, have been met. This summer it is being reviewed by Sir David Henshaw with a view to a complete redesign of the system. It is hoped that the evidence from this project will feed into the redesign of the child support system following the Henshaw review.
Aims
The main objectives of the study are:
- To provide an overview of the child support systems in those countries and to compare their systems with the UK , including:
- rates of lone parenthood, family dissolution and formation
- costs of the system,
- the administrative structures,
- assessment of maintenance,
- child maintenance in the context of social security benefits and tax credits,
- enforcement and collection methods,
- public attitudes to child support,
- efficiency and effectiveness – i.e. unit costs, outputs and outcomes.
- To provide information on the development of child support policy in the relevant countries including any changes currently under consideration.
Methodology
The organisation of child support systems in 13 other countries will be examined. The countries to be studied are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA . National informants will be recruited in each country to fill in a structured questionnaire about the way their countries regimes are run, how effective they are and any changes that are planned in the future.
There will be a small element of secondary data analysis of the Luxembourg Income Study. This will derive lone parent rates, their employment rates, and rates of receipt of child support, amounts of child support and the impact on child poverty – on a comparable basis.
A report will be written bringing this material together to replicate the comparative study funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and undertaken by Anne Corden here in SPRU in 1999 - Corden, A. (1999) Making Child Maintenance Regimes Work, London : Family Policy Studies Centre. This study was republished with the addition of the USA in Corden, A. and Meyer, D. (2000) ‘Child Support regimes in the United States and, United Kingdom , and other countries: Similar issues, different approaches’, Focus, 21, 1 Spring, 72-79.
Publications and presentations
2010
Child maintenance obligations, complex families and equity for children
Meyer, D., Skinner, C. and Davidson, J., Social Policy and the Global Crisis: Consequences and Responses, European Network for Social Policy Analysis Conference, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary, 2-4 September 2010.
2009
Recent trends in child maintenance schemes in 14 countries, 2009
Skinner, C. and Davidson, J., International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 23, 1, 25-52.
2008
Child Support Policy: An international perspective (Chapter 1), 2008
Skinner, C., Bradshaw, J. and Davidson, J., Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper, No. 478.
2007
Child Support Policy: An international perspective, 2007
Skinner, C., Bradshaw, J. and Davidson, J., Department for Work and Pensions Research Report, vol. 405.
National questionnaires
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If you require further information about the project, please contact
Jonathan Bradshaw 
