Different policies apply in terms of how child
support collections are handled and if an annual collections fee applies, among other
things. For example, because Maryland presently does not ‘pass through’ any child
support in TANF cases,
support payments made by noncustodial parents in current-
TANF cases are retained by the state to offset the cost of TANF assistance provided to
the family. If the amount of support collected is large enough to make the family
ineligible for TANF, of course, the family receives the support and their welfare case is
closed. In contrast, support collections that are received by the agency on behalf of
never-TANF cases are paid directly to the family
People & Payments: A Baseline Profile of Maryland’s Child Support Caseload
In 1950, when only a small minority of children were in female-headed families,
the Federal Government took its first steps into the child support arena.
Congress amended the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) law by requiring State welfare agencies to notify law enforcement officials when benefits were being furnished to a child who had been abandoned by one of her parents. Presumably, local officials would then undertake to locate nonresident parents and make them pay child support. From 1950 to 1975,
the Federal Government confined its child support efforts to these welfare children. With this exception, most Americans thought that child support establishment and collection was a domestic relations issue that should be dealt with at the State level by the courts.
The 1975 legislation (Public Law 93-647) added a new
part D to title IV of the Social Security Act. This statute, as amended, authorizes Federal matching funds to be used for enforcing support obligations by locating nonresident parents, establishing paternity, establishing child support awards, and collecting child support payments. Since 1981, child support agencies have also been permitted to collect spousal support on behalf of custodial parents, and in 1984 they were required to petition for medical support as part of most child support orders.
Basic responsibility for administering the program is left to States,
but the Federal Government plays a major role in: dictating the major design features of State programs; funding, monitoring and evaluating State programs; providing technical assistance; and giving assistance to States in locating absent parents and obtaining support payments
In 1996, Public Law 104-193, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, abolished AFDC and related programs and replaced them with a block grant program of TANF. Under the new law, each
State must operate a CSE Program meeting Federal requirements in order to be eligible for TANF funds. In addition to abolishing AFDC, Public Law 104-193 made about 50 changes to the CSE Program, many of them major. These changes include requiring States to increase the percentage of fathers identified, establishing an integrated, automated network linking all States to information about the location and assets of parents,
requiring States to implement more enforcement techniques, and revising the rules governing the distribution of past due (arrearage) child support payments to former recipients of public assistance.
The Social Security Act requires every State operating a TANF Program to conduct a Child Support Enforcement Program.
Federal law requires applicants for, and recipients of, TANF to assign their support rights to the State in order to receive benefits. In addition,
each applicant or recipient must cooperate with the State to establish the paternity of a child born outside marriage and to obtain child support payments.
if the relative with whom a child is living still refuses to cooperate, then the State must reduce the family's TANF benefit by at least 25 percent and may remove the family from the TANF Program. (
Federal law also stipulates that no TANF funds may be used for a family that includes a person who has not assigned child support rights to the State.)
States are required to use several enforcement tools. They must use the IRS tax refund offset procedure for welfare and nonwelfare families, and they must also determine periodically whether any individuals receiving unemployment compensation owe child support. The State Employment Security Agency (part of the Federal-State Unemployment Insurance System), is required to withhold unemployment benefits, and to pay the child support agency any outstanding child support obligations established by an agreement with the individual or through legal processes.
Other enforcement techniques States must use include:
1. Imposing liens against real and personal property for amounts of overdue support;
2. Withholding State tax refunds payable to a parent who is delinquent in support payments;
3. Reporting the amount of overdue support to a consumer credit bureau upon request;
4. Requiring individuals who have demonstrated a pattern of delinquent payments to post a bond or give some other guarantee to secure payment of overdue support;
5. Establishing expedited processes within the State judicial system or under administrative processes for obtaining and enforcing child support orders and determining paternity.
These expedited procedures include giving States authority to secure assets to satisfy payment of past-due support by seizing or attaching unemployment compensation, workers' compensation, judgments, settlements, lotteries, asset held in financial institutions, and public and private retirement funds;
6. Withholding, suspending, or restricting the use of driver's licenses, professional and occupational licenses, and recreational and sporting licenses of noncustodial parents who owe past-due support;
7. Denying passports to persons owing more than $5,000 in past-due support;
8.
Requiring unemployed noncustodial parents who owe child support to a child receiving TANF benefits to participate in appropriate work activities;
9. Performing quarterly data matches with financial institutions; and
10. Voiding of fraudulent transfers of assets to avoid payment of child support.
Foster care agencies are required to take steps, where appropriate, to secure an assignment to the State of any rights to support on behalf of a child receiving foster care maintenance payments under
title IV-E of the Social Security Act.
State child support agencies are also required to petition to include medical support as part of any child support order whenever health care coverage is available to the noncustodial parent at a reasonable cost. And, if a family loses TANF eligibility as the result of increased collection of support payments, the State must continue to provide Medicaid benefits for 4 calendar months beginning with the month of ineligibility.
In addition, States must provide services to families covered by Medicaid who are referred to the State IV-D agency from the State Medicaid agency.
States also have the option of charging a late payment fee equal to between 3 and 6 percent of the amount of overdue support. Late payment fees may be charged to noncustodial parents and are to be collected only after the full amount of the support has been paid to the child.
Finally,
each State must comply with any other requirements and standards that the Secretary determines to be necessary to the establishment of an effective child support program.