The US Census Bureau issued a publication this month showing mild improvements in the country’s child support program. “Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support” reported that in 1999, the percentage of women receiving full payments of alimony due increased from 37 percent in 1993 to 46 percent. The fraction of custodial-mother households living in poverty decreased from 36.8 percent to 28.7 percent. The improvements are partly attributed to the rising numbers of custodial mothers securing employment during the latter 1990’s, when the fraction of employed mothers rose from 72.4 to 82.0 percent from 1993 to 1999. However, the report does not discuss impacts of the current economic recession, which began in 2000. President of the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support Geraldine Jensen warned, “The problem we are seeing now is that so many people are struggling again,” according to the Associated Press. In 2000, mothers still constituted 85 percent of the nation’s 13.5 million custodial parents. Poor, unmarried, uneducated, and minority mothers are less likely than other women to receive full or partial child support payments.
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