A 12-year educational effort by a UI professor of family economics paid off earlier this summer when a bill containing new guidelines for child support in Illinois was signed into law. The law increases the percentage a non-custodial parent pays for support of the second child in a two-child family.
“For low and moderate-income families, this change will make a big difference,” said Andrea H. Beller, an expert on child support issues and a faculty member in the department of agricultural and consumer economics. “This is sort of a textbook example for university outreach. You do the research, get involved in the policy process, share your research with others who take care of the political aspects and provide evidence to promote positive change.
“I’ve been doing research in this area for a number of years, but this is the first time I’ve seen the actual implementation of the reforms called for by the evidence.”
At issue was the guideline that determined what percentage of income the non-custodial parent paid for the second child in a two-child household. The situation dates back to the late 1980s when the guidelines were put in place. Under the old system, the non-custodial parent paid 20 percent of his income for the first child, 5 percent more for the second child, and 12 percent more for the third child than the first child.
Federal law requires the evaluation of the guidelines every four years. It was this process that brought Beller into the process in 1991. Along with Barbara J. Phipps, then Beller’s colleague at the UI, and Sheila Fitzgerald Krein, a visiting professor at the university, Beller began studying the Illinois guidelines.
“It was a comprehensive, thorough study that looked at what other states were doing and the underlying economic theory of the guidelines,” she said.
The researchers uncovered a glaring hole in the Illinois guidelines.
“The USDA produces a report on the costs of raising children,” Beller said. “That report shows that it costs about 50 percent more to raise the second child in a two-child family and another 25 percent for the third. But the Illinois guidelines did not reflect this. There was too small an increment between the first and second child.
“Illinois actually fell among the bottom-level of states in terms of providing the necessary support for the second child in these families.”
The first attempt at legislative remedy failed in 1991 and then the attention of policymakers turned to other areas. While Beller continued to conduct research and publish findings on child support issues, there seemed little interest in the second-child issue. However, in 1998 Beller was appointed to the Illinois Department of Public Aid’s Child Support Advisory Committee and then to that group’s subcommittee on guidelines.
“Both the subcommittee and the full committee began to talk about the issue again and, finally, in the past year there was renewed focus on the problem and recommendations made,” Beller said.
Again, the initial effort stalled but the idea did not go away. Earlier this year, it was once more taken up by policymakers with key assistance from Frank Kopecky, a professor at UI’s Springfield campus.
“The bill moved quietly and easily through the legislature,” said Beller. “This was the worst problem in terms of the child support guidelines in Illinois and now it’s fixed.”
The new guidelines call for 20 percent of the non-custodial parent’s income for the first child and another eight percent, for a total of 28 percent, for the second child. Beller said the 28 percent figure is to cover two children. “It does not imply that only 8 percent of income covers expenses of the second child, while 20 percent of income covers expenses of the first child,” she said.
“This will make a big difference for many single-parent families,” said Beller. “In many of these families, child support can account for up to 10 percent of the income. The extra money can pay for a lot of things. The adequacy of child support is especially important in light of welfare reform, which places time limits on the receipt of welfare.”
Beller, who came to UI in 1979, continues to work on child support issues. Federal funds as well an award from the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research (C-FAR) have supported this work through the years.
“These problems are relevant to agricultural and consumer economics and the university’s mission,” she said.
