La. Admin. Code tit. 67 § III-2514

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 11, November 20, 2024

Section III-2514 - Distribution of Child Support Collections

A. Effective October 2, 1998 the agency will distribute child support collections in the following manner.

1. In cases in which the applicant/recipient (AR) currently receives Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program (FITAP) benefits, collections received in a month will be retained by the state to reimburse previous and current assistance amounts. If the collection amount exceeds the amount of unreimbursed grant, the excess will be refunded to the AR up to the current arrearage amount.

2. In cases in which the AR previously received AFDC or FITAP, and there are amounts owed to the state, collections received through any means other than IRS intercepts will be distributed as follows:

a. the AR shall receive an amount equal to the court-ordered monthly obligation and any arrears owed to the AR that accrued in a non-assistance period;

b. amounts owed to the state;

c. any arrears that accrued during assistance that exceed the unreimbursed grant will be paid to the AR.

3. In cases in which the AR never received assistance, or the AR previously received AFDC or FITAP and no amount is owed to the state, all collections will be refunded to the AR.

4. In IV-E Foster Care cases, all amounts collected are sent to the IV-E Agency for appropriate distribution.

5. In cases in which the AR previously received AFDC or FITAP, and there are amounts owed to the state, collections received through IRS intercepts will be distributed as follows:

a. amounts owed to the state; and

b. amounts owed to the AR.

6. Effective April 25, 2005, the state may delay distribution of federal offsets for child support arrears until the state has been notified by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury that the other person filing the joint return has received his or her proper share of the offset. The delay may not exceed six months.

B. Any collections received through income assignments are subject to refund to the noncustodial parent based on federal and state laws and regulations.

C. For any refund payment issued to a noncustodial parent, DCFS, CSE will make at least one attempt to issue the money to the NCP. If the attempt is unsuccessful, CSE will take action to ensure the amount of the payment will be distributed to any other child support debt or recovery debt owed by the noncustodial parent in accordance with distribution rules in Subsection A of this Section or forward the payment to the Unclaimed Property Division of the Louisiana Department of the Treasury.

D. A check distributed by DCFS, CSE will be considered stale dated when the check has not been cashed or negotiated after 180 days of issuance. An electronic funds transfer transaction that is rejected within 3-5 days by the receiving financial institution will be considered eligible to be applied to other LASES/member debts owed, once diligent efforts to distribute the payment to the noncustodial parent fails and the payment has been held in suspense for more than 180 days from issuance. Stale dated checks issued to the noncustodial parent will be placed in suspense and distributed to other LASES/member debts owed by the NCP in accordance with the distribution rules in this Section or held in suspense for one year from the date the payment was received by DCFS, CSE. The refund payments issued to the NCP which were not applied to other LASES/member debts will be forwarded to the Unclaimed Property Division of the Louisiana Department of the Treasury after 457 days has expired.

E. Effective April 25, 2005, when child support is collected in the form of a foreign currency, the state shall send the child support payment to the custodial parent within two business days of receipt of the converted U.S. dollar payment.

F. CSE may exercise authority granted by the law to distribute child support payments to other cases as deemed necessary to fulfill other IV-D functions as outlined in R.S. 46:236.1.2.

La. Admin. Code tit. 67, § III-2514

Promulgated by the Department of Social Services, Office of Family Support, LR 23:304 (March 1997, amended LR 24:703 (April 1998), LR 25:320 (February 1999), LR 31:2266 (September 2005), Amended by the Department of Children and Family Services, Division of Family Support, Child Support Enforcement Section, LR 4424 (1/1/2018), effective 2/1/2018.

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with P.L. 104-193, P.L. 105-33, OCSE-AT-98-24, 42 USC 664(a)(3)(B), and 42 USC 654b(c).