Behavioral Insights for Child Support: Lessons from the BIAS Project

Publication Date: November 16, 2017
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  • Published: 2017

Introduction

The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency project conducted randomized controlled trials of behavioral interventions at four child support agencies—in Texas, Washington, and two Ohio counties. This brief provides an overview of the interventions the BIAS team designed in partnership with these sites, which targeted two primary problems:

  1. Many noncustodial parents do not apply for a modification of their child support order even when eligible.
  2. Some noncustodial parents who owe child support do not make their monthly payments, incurring debt for themselves and decreasing the financial support that the child and the custodial parent receive.

One-page site summaries in this brief detail the problem or problems of interest at each agency, the behavioral intervention(s) implemented to address each of those problems, and the findings from the tests of the interventions.

Key Findings and Highlights

Each child support site saw a statistically significant improvement on at least one primary outcome of interest, with impacts ranging from 2.4 percentage points to 31.9 percentage points.