The Federal Government has been pushing them to simplify the bureaucratic and legal tangles that hinder child-support collection.

Their plan would transfer responsibility for all child-support collection from states to the Internal Revenue Service.

Under the proposal, a broad spectrum of society would be enlisted to help in child-support collection, including hospitals, insurers, employers and state licensing agencies.

This system is now responsible for more than half of all child-support collections in Massachusetts.

So do calls for tax credits for the working poor and better child-support collection.

The bill spelled out how work programs would run (and bolstered child-support collection) but let the states decide what if anything to do to influence family structure.

State regulations require women on welfare to provide information about children's fathers so that officials can pursue child-support collection.

Mr. Hogan said California, which has issued warnings to 22,889 drivers, had seen its child-support collections increase by $10 million.

They must cooperate with child-support collection or forfeit their benefits.

We have increased child-support collections by 40 percent.