General Information What is Child Support Enforcement? Customer Service Role & Responsibilities of CSE Agency N.C. CSE Organization History of CSE program ACTS System What is Child Support Enforcement? Child Support Enforcement (CSE) works to ensure that both parents are responsible for the financial support of their children to the best of their ability. The CSE program provides CSE Services to the custodians of minor children, regardless of income level. CSE agents help locate noncustodial parents, establish the paternity of the child(ren), and petition the court to order child support payments. Once a court order has been established, incoming child support payments are receipted at CSE's Centralized Collections Operation, which manages the collection and disbursement of all ordered child support payments in the state. To enforce child support orders, CSE agents can initiate legal action against the NCP, withhold support payments from the NCP's wages, and intercept their tax refunds. Visit this link for more information about the Federal Child Support Enforcement Program. Back to Top Customer Service Anyone with a child support case can get information on their case using the web or telephone, eChild Support: The North Carolina eChild Support web site was implemented in February 2002 and has been a tremendous success with custodial and noncustodial parents. They use this tool to quickly obtain information about their case and payment information. Registered users are up to 76, 950. About 6,500 people go to the website daily, and send an average of 100 emails requesting such services as case information or address changes. Customer Service at 1-800-992-9457: The state-of-the-art customer service center assists callers 24 hours a day with an automated voice response system as well as personalized assistance between 7:30 am and 7:30 pm. The facility received an average of 140,000 calls a week. Monthly surverys were conducted from January to July of 2003, and found that 94 percent of callers were satisfied with the service received and 96 percents agreed that the customer service representative was courteous and professional. Role & Responsibilities of the CSE Agency CSE agencies: Gather all available information from individuals and other agencies. Evaluate their cases and determine the support activities to be pursued. Contract with attorneys to represent cases in civil court actions. These attorneys represent the CSE agency and not the individual client in a case. Work with all parties in a case, providing information or explanation of case activities when appropriate. Keep the information that they receive confidential. Only information that is public record can be divulged. (N.C. law requires CSE to list the Social Security numbers of all parties who are involved in a child support case on documents that establish paternity and support.) Abide by federal regulations and state laws when handling child support cases. Automation has increased the speed and accuracy of information gathering, taking actions, and disbursing support payments for children. Are required to continue providing the necessary services to all cases after Public Assistance is terminated, unless the client requests that services not be provided and no amounts are due and owed to the state. Back to Top North Carolina CSE Organization The Governor of North Carolina has designated the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) as the CSE Agency. N.C. General Statutes 110-128 through 110-142 authorizes DHHS to supervise the child support program. DHHS has designated the Division of Social Services (DSS) to be responsible for this program. The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Section exists within DSS. Some counties have placed their CSE program under the authority of county DSS, some counties have placed it under Revenue or the County Attorney, and recently some counties have elected to offer services by contracting with private companies. Other counties have decided that they cannot operate a CSE program, so N.C. has set up state-operated CSE offices to serve those counties. Regardless of who operates the local CSE office, the same regulation, laws, and state policies apply. A staff of CSE Consultants and Area Supervisors is responsible for providing consultation and program assistance to the county-operated local programs and supervision of the state-operated local programs in their assigned areas. N.C. General Statute 110-130 requires the county commissioners to designate a local person or agency to administer the program. The county commissioners can assume responsibility for the administration of existing state-administered local CSE programs by making a request to DHHS between July 1 and September 1 of the then current fiscal year. Commissioners could then assume program responsibility on July 1 of the following year. County commissioners cannot relinquish responsibility for the operation of the program. Back to Top Brief History of the CSE Program In 1935, Congress enacted the Social Security Act to ease financial problems that had arisen during the Great Depression. Title IV-A of the Social Security Act established a public assistance program that offered financial assistance to families due to death of the father. In response to increasing numbers of applications for assistance due to parental abandonment, the first actual child support legislation was enacted in 1950. This legislation required welfare agencies to report all applications for assistance due to abandonment by a parent to law enforcement agencies. In 1975, Title IV-D was added to the Social Security Act to establish a nationwide Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, with the purpose of recouping money paid out to welfare recipients when at least one parent existed who could provide support. N.C. General Statutes 110-128 through 110-142 established North Carolina's CSE program. These federal and state laws set forth the requirements for the program. Additional legislation has been enacted over the years to expand the scope of the CSE program. In 1981, amendments to the Omnibus Reconciliation Act established the interception of federal (IRS) tax refunds as a means of collecting overdue child support (also known as "arrearages") and authorized the withholding of unemployment insurance benefits (UIB) to pay child support obligations. In 1984, Child Support Enforcement amendments were added to the Social Security Act. Some of these amendments authorized mandatory income withholding when arrearages accrued, the interception of state tax refunds as a means of collecting child support payments, and the provision of CSE services to families that do not receive Public Assistance. In 1988, the Family Support Act included child support provisions that established mandatory guidelines for determining child support obligation amounts and time frames for providing CSE services. States were also required to develop automated collection and payment tracking systems. In 1994, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) allowed the mother and natural father to voluntarily acknowledge the paternity of a child born outside of marriage while at the birthing hospital. OBRA also required CSE to pursue health insurance coverage for children when establishing a support order. In 1996, a major overhaul was made to the welfare system in the U.S. The Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), commonly referred to as "Welfare Reform", completely changed Public Assistance from an entitlement program to a temporary financial assistance program with opportunities for recipients to become self-supporting. Child support became more crucial to families that could no longer stay on welfare for extended periods of time. Some important components of Welfare Reform included: A requirement that states create a centralized collection operation to process child support payments. A requirement that states create a central repository of employment information for newly hired employees. In North Carolina, this has resulted in the creation of the N.C. New Hire Directory (NHD). This employment information is transmitted to the National Directory of New Hires and is used to aid in the establishment and enforcement of child support orders. States were also required to notify employers within two (2) business days when their new employees were subject to income withholding. An Expanded Federal Parent Locator Service (EFPLS) that provides CSE agencies with location, income, asset, and employment information for noncustodial parents. States were required to maintain a state case registry with records of their child support cases. These records are submitted to the Federal Case Registry, which is a component of EFPLS. The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), which provides for the establishment, registration, and enforcement of child support orders when another state is involved. Multi-state financial institution data match, which allows CSE to secure information from financial institutions to aid in the enforcement of child support orders. The revocation of driver, business/occupational, and recreational licenses as an enforcement remedy when noncustodial parents are delinquent in their child support payments. (North Carolina began using this remedy before Welfare Reform.) Back to Top The ACTS System The N.C. CSE program uses a statewide computer system called ACTS (Automated Collection and Tracking System) to assist in the performance of its duties. This system receives and shares data with more than thirty (30) state, federal, and private agencies. ACTS supports the functions needed to perform CSE activities at the local and state level, including case management, financial management, document and report generation, and supervisory functions. CSE caseworkers use ACTS to add/update cases, enter/modify court order data after a hearing, review payment and collection activities, perform enforcement activities such as income withholding, assets attachment, and tax intercepts, document their activities in the case record online, and interact with CSE agencies in other states. Back to Top