When the economy is bad, supporting a family can be extremely difficult for a single-parent household. It becomes more difficult when a noncustodial parent stops paying the court-ordered child support the family relies on. One would think that a government-funded program that purports to provide the same variety of services to welfare recipients and non-welfare recipients would be beneficial by retaining the support of the nonresident parent. However, this is not true in all child support cases. Single-family households who do not receive their child support payments live in poverty because child support specialists are overwhelmed with welfare cases that they consider to be priorities. In the case of the child support specialist, it's all about return on investment for the government. Due to the growing percentage of welfare cases, understaffed child support specialists must focus primarily on collecting money for the federal government, which in many cases leaves non- welfare recipients without assistance. Single-family households are suffering in a world of poverty due to overworked child support specialists who focus primarily on their welfare cases due to increasing child support policies, high divorce rates, poor economic conditions and teenage pregnancies. Policies change frequently. , it can be difficult for child support specialists to stay informed of the laws and procedures required of them to perform their duties. Additionally, with so many responsibilities, it is difficult for specialists to complete their tasks within the limited time allocated per case. With so many changes in federal and state policies, I wonder if child support specialists are staying informed... middle of document ...... effective programs to reduce the number of enforcement cases child support. Journal of Political Studies 35.3 (2007): 546-547. Full text of social sciences. Internet. February 25, 2012. Cornanor, William. Law and Economics of Child Support Payments. Np: Elgar Publishing, 2004. ABC-CLIO e-book collection. Internet. December 9, 2011. “Divorce Rate.” Divorce rate. Np, and Web. April 5, 2012. Laakso, Janice H. “Child Support Policy: Some Critical Issues and Implications for Social Work.” » Social Work 45.4 (2000): 367-370. Preparing the ProQuest Research Library. Internet. February 25, 2012. Lamb, Michael. Role of the father in the development of the child. 4th ed. Np: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2004. ABC-CLIO eBook Collection. Internet. December 2, 2011. United States. Enforcement of child support. Child Support Enforcement Handbook. Washing DC: np, 2008. US Department of Health and Human Services. Internet. April 5. 2012.