Survey of Maintenance Enforcement Programs (SMEP)

Number of child beneficiaries of maintenance enforcement case, category

Number of child beneficiaries refers to the number of children in all cases and includes all children involved in the same case. For example, for a case with three children, all three children would be counted under the "three or more children" category.

Maintenance enforcement case refers to a case that is registered involving one payer and one recipient and the financial obligations that are being monitored/enforced by the program (MEP). The program processes payments, monitors and enforces cases in order to ensure that recipients receive their payments of child and spousal support.

The data for this variable are reported using the following classifications and/or lists:

• Number of children in cases