In the 1990s, Professor Daniel Meyer led a team of researchers that evaluated an innovative experimental child support policy, which demonstrated the advantages of allowing all child support paid by noncustodial parents (usually fathers) to go to the family.
In the United Kingdom, a proposed fundamental redesign of their child support system includes a substantially increased pass-through provision. The UK government’s policy proposal includes a reference to the Wisconsin evaluation as evidence for the importance of allowing families to receive more of the child support paid on their behalf.
In 2013, a study carried out by Maria Cancian and Kristen Shook Slack investigated data from Meyer’s research and found that increased child support also reduced the risk of child maltreatment.
