The Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS) gathered experts in Atlanta at the DHS Child Support Employer Symposium on March 28. Corri Flores, chair of APA’s Government Relations Task Force Subcommittee on Child Support and Other Garnishments, and Bill Dunn, CPP, APA Director of Government Relations, represented APA at the event. Presenters focused on three areas to increase child support collections.
First, child support enforcement agencies (CSEAs) recognize that the gig economy could have a large impact on child support collections, as more and more Americans rely on work as independent contractors rather than as employees. Currently, 75% of all child support is collected from employees through wage withholding.
Second, and closely related to the first, is using new hire reporting to identify workers who owe child support, so that the support can be collected from the income source. This will require expanding new hire reporting to include independent contractors. Currently, 16 states and territories have some provision for reporting independent contractors.
Third, CSEAs want to better identify payments subject to withholding (e.g., lump-sum payments, such as bonuses). APA is working with state CSEAs to identify and improve collections of certain payments within payroll’s control, according to Flores and Dunn. APA and the CSEAs are working on model legislation to establish common rules for employers to notify CSEAs that the employer is about to issue a lump-sum payment and rules for CSEAs to notify employers whether the payments should have child support withheld.
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