The One Hundred Billion Dollar Man: The Annual Public Costs of Father Absence

This study, which was done through the National Fatherhood Initiative, provides an estimate of the taxpayer costs of father absence. Fatherhood absence has increased from 8 percent of children in single-mother households in 1960 to 34 percent in 2008. Researchers estimate the cost of father absence to the federal government to support father-absent homes equated to around $99.8 billion dollars in Fiscal Year 2006. One of the largest fatherhood absence expenses is TANF at around $15 billion.