Income Available for Child Support: Fact and Fiction in State Child Support Guidelines

The proposed OCSE rule change that requires the use of “actual income” has the potential to increase the use of income information from automated sources when determining support awards. This should reduce the incidence of income imputation, as well as increase the percentage of child support actually paid. The impact of the proposed change, however, may be limited by the percentage of nonresidential parents who actually have income information from automated sources. States should give careful consideration to any revisions to their income imputation provisions such that they address the issues of “turnips”, “deadbroke” dads, and low-income parents, as well as nonresidential parents who are paid in cash, are self-employed, or refuse to work. Time and time again, child support agencies have learned that some, but not all, parents appearing to have no income actually have income or the means to pay child support.