hild support policies aim to ensure separated parents continue to pay
for the upkeep of their children until they reach adulthood. This is a
laudable aim, often related to alleviating poverty in single parent
families following relationship breakdown. There is a long policy
history of this in most Western countries, but the institutional and
operational challenges are considerable as policies try to keep pace
with changes in family relationships, household structures, and gendered
patterns of employment and childcare. Tracking changes in parents’
earning and caring responsibilities therefore matter in determining
child support liabilities. The question is, how well are child support
systems doing in adapting to social changes and norms of gender
equality? To answer that, this chapter presents an analysis of the
latest data from a comparative study of 15 countries using national
informants’ accounts of the key policy principles and operational
features of their child support systems.