Child Support

This report presents the findings of a research project designed to capture single mothers’ experiences with the DHS-CS (previously the Child Support Agency).  We interviewed 37 separated mothers about their experiences with the DHS-CS.  Women who found the DHS-CS useful described its value as a buffer between parents and the technical advice and moral support offered by some workers. However, many women felt let down by the calculation of child support, DHS-CS compliance processes, the financial and emotional impacts of unreliable child support, unsupportive DHS-CS workers and poor DHS-CS communication. The women we spoke to recommended changes to the formula, compliance processes, information sharing between government branches, supports for clients, professional development or DHS-CS workers, and communication processes.

The disintegration of families is quite common in the modern world. The family as a social institution is going through difficult times. The United Nations indicates that the United States ranks third in the world in the number of divorces: 4.34 cases per 1,000 people, about 40 percent of first marriages and 60 percent of remarriages break up [H. F. Lewis. 9/10/2019]. Statistics in Russia is no better. In 2017, according to the Federal State Statistics Service (FSSS), there were 4.2 divorces per 1,000 people, and the first half of 2019 it was 4.0. Meantime, it should be noted that the number of marriages in Russia is falling. According to the FSSS, the number of marriages decreased from 1,049,735 in 2017 to 893,039 in 2018. [Data of the Federal State Statistics Service]. Indeed, the complex economic, political and social processes taking place in the world do not contribute to the strengthening of marriage. Modern realities require the creation of a comprehensive system to protect the interests of the most vulnerable from the negative consequences of the breakdown of a family - children, including the creation of a detailed mechanism of child support obligations. As the United States Children's Support Council (CSEC) pointed out, a growing number of parents who deliberately avoid fulfilling their responsibilities to their children has become a national problem. Today, more than 106 billion dollars for child benefits remain disbursed. [GAO Report; 2019]
The study analyzes the laws of the United States and the Russian Federation to determine the critical points of protecting the interests of minor children during the divorce of their parents. This study is of interest not only from the theoretical point of view but also practical. Numerous marriages between the citizens of Russia and the USA and, as a consequence, many divorces require a specific synchronization of the legal and social systems for the protection of minor children.
The purpose of this study is a comparative study of theoretical and practical problems, gaps in legal regulation, doctrinal definition, and practical implementation of child duty of supports in Russia and the United States.
In conducting the study, the authors used a set of philosophical, general scientific, specific scientific methods of understanding of theoretical and empirical material. The implication of the dialectical materialist method allows to analyze the norms of the family, civil, and procedural law in their interconnection, interdependence, and contradiction. Using the method of comparative legal research, the authors studied the system of measures to protect the interests of children during a divorce, taking into account the need to preserve the level of well-being of children in the new conditions of interaction between parents in their upbringing and maintenance, the dynamics of changing approaches to determining the amount of child support obligations. The authors also applied general scientific (analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, systemic) and specific scientific (historical, comparative-legal, formal-legal, technically legal, social modeling of research) methods of cognition which allowed to ensure a comprehensive study of existing methods in maintaining the well-being of minors.
The study analyzes the laws of the USA and Russia to determine the critical points of protecting the interests of minor children during the divorce of their parents. This study is of interest both from the theoretical and practical points of view. Numerous marriages between the citizens of Russia and the USA and, later many divorces require a specific synchronization of the legal and social systems for the protection of minor children.
The purpose of this study is a comparative study of theoretical and practical problems, gaps in legal regulation, doctrinal definition, and practical implementation of child duty of supports in Russia and the United States.
The authors used a set of philosophical, general scientific, specific scientific methods of understanding of theoretical and empirical material. Using the method of comparative legal research, the authors studied the system of measures to protect the interests of children during a divorce.