Single Parents and Child Support Systems: An International Comparison

Taking a novel approach to child support policy analysis, Single Parents and Child Support Systems locates the transfer of payments between separated parents within a wider social policy ecosystem and compares the political, institutional and administrative dimensions of child support policy enactment across the globe.

Featuring contributions from an interdisciplinary collective of researchers in social policy, social work, sociology, economics and law, the book assesses how child support policies align conceptually with other social policies. Single Parents and Child Support Systems begins by setting out how children’s and single parents’ economic welfare is conceived across countries in relation to the triple burden of financial, caring and administrative responsibilities faced by single mothers. Chapters map how post-separation child support policy reinforces or breaks from the gender and family logics that underpin welfare and family policies in 10 different countries spanning corporatist, liberal and Nordic welfare regimes.

Offering extensive coverage of a diverse range of international legal provisions and social policies, this stimulating book will be an essential resource for academics and researchers of social policy, social work, family law and gender studies. Its practical insights and suggested avenues for reform will also benefit policy makers, child support administrators and legal professionals.

Edited by Kay Cook, Professor of Sociology, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, Thomas Meysen, Managing Director, SOCLES International Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Germany and Adrienne Byrt, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Transformative Media Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia