Paternity Establishment and Child Support Orders among W-2 Participants

In an era of time-limited public assistance, policymakers and politicians frequently express the hope that a stronger private child support system can replace income that has, in the past, been provided to low-income single parents through the public welfare system. At the same time, some critics fault the welfare system for not allowing parents to combine public assistance with private child support. Under Wisconsin’s welfare replacement program, known as Wisconsin Works, or W-2, this is no longer the case. In addition to any assistance received from W-2, participants are also allowed to keep all child support paid on their behalf. Child support should, therefore, be a more important supplemental income source for families receiving public assistance in Wisconsin than in other states, where most child support paid on behalf of families receiving public assistance is retained by the state to offset welfare payments.