Voices on child support
Vicki Turetsky
Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
The exact words were found in the primary source linked below (testimony, book page, report or article), at the page given.
"Yet child support rules that emphasize welfare cost recovery discourage low-income fathers from paying child support and staying connected to their children."
Source
Testimony of Vicki Turetsky before the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, 2002-05-16, p. 4 (PDF page 4 of 12) (testimony). Checked 2026-10-13.
Context
Testimony supporting child support distribution provisions sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe during TANF reauthorization (paying more collected support to families). Turetsky also testified that regular child support is linked to improved child outcomes. She later served as OCSE Commissioner (2009-2017).
The passage it comes from
Yet child support rules that emphasize welfare cost recovery discourage low-income fathers from paying child support and staying connected to their children. Low-income mothers and fathers both know that unless they earn enough money to keep their children completely off of TANF, child support payments will be kept by the state as recovered welfare costs, and will not directly benefit their children. In a number of studies, mothers and fathers of children receiving TANF assistance say that the child support distribution rules undercut their ability to work together in the best interests of their children, and often drive fathers underground.8
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