Some States Make Strides to Direct More Child Support to Families, While Others Still Keep All Collections as Revenue

All families should receive the child support payments intended for them, which help cover essentials for children, such as housing costs, diapers, and school supplies. But when a family receives cash assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, child support paid by a noncustodial parent is often kept by state and federal governments instead of reaching the child. Children would benefit more if the resources designed to support them actually reached their families.

Although some states have been adopting policies that redirect or “pass through” these payments to families, other states continue to keep all collections intended for some of the families with the lowest incomes in the country as revenue. Federal law requires custodial parents to cooperate in the child support program when they apply for TANF cash assistance (which entails working with the state to locate the noncustodial parent) and sign over their rights to child support. States then intercept and split the child support dollars with the federal government instead of sending the money to custodial parents who need it to pay for the food, housing, clothing, diapers, school supplies, and other expenses of raising children. This policy is called “TANF cost recovery.”

While the elimination of child support cooperation and TANF cost recovery would require federal statutory change, states can elect to pay families all or a portion of child support instead of keeping it as state revenue. This is called a “pass-through policy.” Under federal law, the federal government waives its share of collections if a state passes through up to $100 in child support per month to the custodial parent for one child and up to $200 for two or more children.

Child support pass-through policies bolster families’ economic security and recognize the contributions of noncustodial parents. When child support is passed through to their children, more noncustodial parents pay support, and they also pay more.

Research underscores the meaningful benefits for families when they receive all the child support intended for them. Child support payments can promote financial stability by providing families with a long-term stream of consistent cash payments. In addition, receiving child support payments can lower child welfare involvement because the payments help parents meet their children’s needs and reduce the likelihood of child maltreatment or neglect.

Recently, a handful of states and the District of Columbia have made policy changes to their child support programs. California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming now, or soon will, send more child support to families. Notably, Illinois now passes through all child support, including monthly support and arrears, to current and former TANF families. And in 2025, Maryland became the second state to enact legislation that will pass through all support, using a phased-in approach. A few other states, including Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Massachusetts, have introduced but not yet passed pass-through, or enhanced pass-through, legislation.

The positive result of these states’ actions is already apparent. Child support collections passed through to families more than doubled nationally from 2022 to 2025. Over $219 million was sent to families in 2025, up from $99.6 million in 2022. However, these passed-through dollars are only a fraction of the total amount intercepted by states and the federal government.

Twenty-one states and territories have no pass-through policies, so families receiving TANF in these states often do not receive a single dime of child support intended for their children. Another 11 states pass through less than the federally waived maximum amount. Many of these states allow only $50 per month to pass through, a paltry amount given the significant costs of raising children, especially as the Administration’s recent actions are taking away health coverage and food assistance from millions of people. However, passing through $100, $200, or ideally the entire child support payment, can make a meaningful difference for families with tight budgets.

In 2025, states and the federal government kept 77 percent of all assigned child support collections from current and past TANF participants. States intercepted more than $726 million in child support collections that year; states kept $320 million and sent $406 million to the federal government. The cost share ratio for each state is the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rate, which is the federal match rate for Medicaid, Child Support, and other programs. It is based on each state’s average per capita income, and the rate is higher for states with lower average per capita incomes. In the case of child support collections, this means that lower-income states that currently withhold all child support from families receiving TANF share a higher percentage of their collections with the federal government. States that do not pass through any support to families have an average FMAP of 64 percent, which means they are keeping only around 36 percent of the collections.

More states should pass through all child support to current and former TANF families. Child support is more valuable when in the pockets of families who spend it in the local economy for the benefit of their children, rather than when states and the federal government keep it as revenue.

Rachel Freitas is an independent consultant for CBPP on child support policy.