Unintended Impacts?: License Suspension and Civil Contempt as Enforcement Tools

• In Event: Enforcement and Beyond: Child Support Policy and Families with Limited Incomes

Abstract

For the 12.7 million children and their families served by the child support program in FY2023, the question of how best to enforce child support orders in order to ensure payments for families is crucial. License suspension and civil contempt have long served as a mainstay for enforcing child support orders, yet concerns from stakeholders about unintended consequences, including fewer resources available for children.  In light of these concerns, policymakers are evaluating use of these tools, yet much remains unknown about their application. In this paper, we explore how often and when these tools are used; associations with obligor characteristics, child support actions, employment, and earnings; and practitioner views on effectiveness. 

 

We used a mixed methods approach, relying on  Wisconsin administrative data for our quantitative analyses and semi-structured interviews with child support agency staff and directors from six Wisconsin counties for our qualitative analyses. We examine the prevalence of enforcement actions for different time periods and different samples of obligors. . We also used logistic regression to examine associations between obligor characteristics and enforcement outcomes; finally, Fwe analyzed associations between enforcement actions and measures of child support and employment. Data from interviews were coded and analyzed thematically to explore how counties use and make decisions about driver’s license suspension and county staff perceptions on effectiveness.  

Obligors experienced contempt-related actions more frequently than license suspension-related actions, and threats of sanctions more often than imposition of sanctions. In 2015-2016, 13.5% of obligors had a contempt hearing, compared to 9.4% in 2020-2021. A smaller proportion of obligors received a notice of intent to suspend a license over the three time periods, ranging from 7.7% to 8.5%. Across periods, 3-4% of obligors had a license suspended.. Analyses suggest differences in use of license suspension and contempt by county and obligor characteristics. We found no associations between use of tools and child support measures and negative associations or no associations for earnings and employment. 

Interviews revealed that staff generally take other steps that may resolve nonpayment before warnings and sanctions occur. Many feel that license suspension should be pursued with caution to avoid creating impediments to work, making payments, and parenting, and emphasized the importance of casework to understand the context surrounding nonpayment.  

 

Findings can inform efforts to explore additional outreach strategies for connecting with obligors behind on payments. Future initiatives to develop and implement early intervention models, and testing the effectiveness of such initiatives, could help assess the efficacy of upstream approaches.  Finally, findings indicate the importance of examining how best to target and design actions. These considerations take on growing importance as the child support program, and family policy generally, contends with how best to support children and families in the face of limited resources. 

Authors

• Lisa Klein Vogel, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Presenting Author

• Molly A Costanzo, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Non-Presenting Co-Author