After a divorce or splitting from your ex, it’s not uncommon to struggle financially. Your income may be lower, and you may need to apply for a little help. There’s no shame in applying for welfare programming, even if it’s just you. But when there’s children involved, it’s incredibly important that you get them access to things like healthcare and groceries regardless of your budget.
Unfortunately, when you apply for certain welfare benefits, the state can take some of your child support through a process called ‘cost recovery’. It’s an outdated way of doing things, to be sure.
“The idea behind the requirements is that parents have a legal duty to support their children to the best of their ability,” says Vicki Turetsky, who served as federal child support commissioner for the duration of the Obama administration.
“Under this way of thinking – which was a feature of Victorian poor relief laws – taxpayers should be reimbursed by parents for stepping in to support children with taxpayer dollars when parents do not support their children. This way of thinking, however, is outdated and largely discarded by policy makers, including child support administrators.”
Just because opinions have changed doesn’t mean all of the rules have, though. Here’s what you need to know about welfare programming and child support.
What Are The Rules?
There are two major rules when it comes to child support cost recovery: assignment and benefit reimbursement.
Assignment
When you boil it down, assignment simply means that the responsibility of paying child support is formally assigned to the non-custodial parent.
While some people have great relationships with their exes, the mere prospect of assignment can be intimidating if you have fragile relationship dynamics – especially if you don’t already have a formal child support agreement in place. Initiating the request could cause drama.
It’s good to know that there are some circumstances where you aren’t necessarily subject to this first requirement. If any of the following apply to your relationship with the parent of your child, you can ask for a “good cause” exemption:
- Rape.
- Incest.
- Any other type of domestic violence.
- Adoption.
Turetsky notes that some states have modified procedures when it comes to handling these cases for domestic violence survivors in particular. In an interview with Penny Calling Penny, the Administration for Children & Families (ACF) acknowledged how dangerous pursuing child support can be in these circumstances, and encouraged those with safety concerns to utilize this guide before applying for benefits, whether they have a current protection order or not.
If you don’t fall firmly into one of these categories, but you’re still scared to initiate a process that would result in a request for court-ordered child support because of your relationship dynamics, talk to your caseworker. Different states can be more or less strict with their good cause exemptions, and explaining your situation may get you some extra latitude depending on where you live.
Benefit Reimbursement
Once child support is assigned, the next rule is benefit reimbursement. This rule varies across programs, but it means that when the non-custodial parent pays child support, a portion of it will be withheld by the state. This is the part that’s particularly frustrating, even if you do have a good relationship with your child’s parents.
“Most noncustodial parents with child support program cases themselves have low and moderate incomes,” notes Turetsky.
That means that you’re both probably struggling financially, but because you don’t live together and have at least one child together, the government is going to make you repay a portion of the benefits, further reducing household resources.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply. Even if a little child support is withheld, the value of the benefits for some of these programs can outweigh the costs. We’ll get into some of the numbers in a minute.
But it is okay to be frustrated with the process. Many lawmakers are, too, and there have been several attempts to change the legislation. Hopefully one of those attempts will make it through to law in the future.
How Do The Rules Apply To Different Programs?
While these rules are federally mandated, states do have a bit of leeway in how they’re applied depending on the program. Today, we’ll look at the three programs you’re most likely to run into as the custodial parent.
Medicaid
Technically, both assignment and benefit reimbursement are required when you apply for Medicaid. If you don’t comply with the assignment portion, you as the parent will not be eligible for Medicaid. Your child still will be eligible, though.
On the benefit reimbursement side, there is some slight protection. When a judge issues a child support ruling, a portion of it is for medical costs. Say, for example, that you receive $600 total in child support per month. Five hundred of that may be for general child support, and $100 may be designated for healthcare costs by the court order. Your state’s Medicaid program can only withhold the $100 – the other $500 would still go to you as the custodial parent.
When the ACA became law, a lot of Americans became newly eligible for Medicaid. In 2014, Turetsky herself penned guidance with CMS to give states a little more leeway in determining whose child support cases would be referred for assignment in the first place. States can implement this guidance in a variety of ways, but it’s structured so they can not refer you if:
- Your application doesn’t have sufficient information to identify the non-custodial parent.
- You’re a victim of domestic violence – whether or not you’ve had the easiest time claiming “good cause” for other programs.
- There’s other circumstances that make it a bad referral, like it may cost the state more to administer the benefit reimbursement than they’d actually be getting in the long run.
“Although an exact amount is not published by the federal Office of Child Support Services, states keep less than one or two percent of collections to reimburse Medicaid,” says Turketsky. “Most medical support collected is paid to families to pay for insurance or out-of-pocket medical costs for the child.”
Access to medical care is important. Pursue it for your child. Pursue it for yourself. Especially because any concerns you may have about child support are more likely to find leniency compared to other programs like TANF, and the amount of money you’ll save by having public health insurance often outweighs any child support that the state would actually withhold.
SNAP (Food Stamps)
Only nine states require child support assignments to qualify for SNAP benefits. As of 2024, those states are:
However, the state isn’t allowed to withhold any of the child support paid – you’ll still get 100% of it. The biggest downside of this requirement – aside from family drama – is that if you’re not already getting court-ordered child support, the additional income could lower the amount of SNAP benefits you qualify for each month.
TANF (Cash Benefits)
TANF and foster care have some of the strictest rules around assignment and benefit reimbursement. We’ll just cover TANF today, as foster care bills open up a whole other set of societal and familial issues.
TANF is notoriously difficult to receive even if you’re not dealing with child support issues. Your income generally needs to be incredibly low, and there are often work or job search requirements involved. That said, if you do qualify as a single parent, you’ll also have to deal with assignment and benefit reimbursement.
Child Support Assignment Under TANF
This is the program where you’re really going to have to provide paternity (or maternity) information. It can go so far as state-mandated genetic testing. There are good cause exemptions, but they’re stricter than Medicaid and some states can get particularly prickly about issuing them.
For example, Jim Fleming, former President of the National Council of Child Support Directors and current Director of Child Support in North Dakota, notes that even if you file for good cause, you’ll still have to list the non-custodial parent. Assignment may not be pursued when all is said and done, but you’ll still have to cooperate with the naming.
Child Support Benefit Reimbursement Under TANF
On the benefit reimbursement side, Turetsky says no state can keep 100% of the child support payments per federal regulation. But how much the state keeps varies widely depending on where you live. She says about half of states have taken advantage of changes included in the 2006 Deficit Reduction Act, which allows states to make a judgment call about passing through child support payments to the custodial parent even if they’re on TANF.
Some states do this particularly well. Illinois passes through 100% of child support payments, Colorado does the same in most all circumstances, and Wyoming and California pass through the lion’s share of the child support to the custodial parent. But there are still around 50% of states that have not taken advantage of this allowance.
After you get off TANF, the state can continue collecting on the child support. They won’t do this through the monthly payment you receive, but they will collect it from your federal tax refund. Almost 20% of states don’t do this, but the remaining states do.
What If I Just Don’t Go Through The State For Child Support?
Maybe you and your ex have a decent enough relationship that you can set up child support without necessarily using the court system. In theory, if you did things this way, the state would not be able to withhold any of the money from that private agreement. But it’s not going to get you out of the assignment and benefit reimbursement requirements at the end of the day.
“Technically, [private arrangements are] not prohibited by child support laws and regulations,” says Fleming, “but the existence of such an agreement will not change the referral and establishment of a legal obligation when the family applies for TANF.”
So even if you have those private arrangements, applying for programming will trigger a process that requires you to make it official with the court. And once that happens, the reimbursement will be fair game according to your state’s enforcement policies.
Conclusion
It’s unfortunate that the U.S. still implements Victorian-era restrictions on welfare and child support payments, but the landscape is changing. There’s more pathways to leniency than there used to be, especially with Medicaid, and hopefully these requirements are removed altogether in the future. Remember, if initiating formal child support would put you in a dangerous situation, talk to your social worker about a good cause exemption before you apply – regardless of the program you’re considering.
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