Evaluation of Child Support Enforcement Cooperation Requirements in SNAP

This study, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, was carried out in response to a Congressional mandate in the 2018 Farm Bill to evaluate the optional State policy requiring families that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to participate in their State’s child support program. The study provides a comprehensive picture of factors related to these requirements, including policy motivation, operational features, costs, and implications for SNAP participants and the SNAP and child support programs that serve them.

Study findings are based on extensive interviews with SNAP and child support leadership and front-line staff, intensive in-depth interviews with SNAP participants, and an outcomes analysis of administrative data. Key topics examined include SNAP participants’ experiences with and reactions to the requirement within the context of their family dynamic and economic circumstances; administrative processes and practices used to carry out the requirement policy, including sanctions and exemptions; policy interaction and alignment across benefit programs with cooperation requirements; and outcomes that could be related to implementation of the cooperation requirement, including the share of SNAP households subject to the requirement, SNAP benefit amount, and the amount of child support received by households.