Steps to Reaching Federal Agency Employers
The Federal Government plays an important role in the Child Support Enforcement Program as the nation's largest employer comprised of approximately 150 separate agencies with 4 million employees.
To facilitate communication with Federal agencies, click on the following topics for basic information:
A more detailed resource publication is Working with Federal Agencies as Employers, which provides child support staff with policy and procedural guidance that is unique to working with Federal agencies in the following areas:
- Issuing income-withholding orders to Federal agencies;
- Directing child support payments from Federal agencies to State Disbursement Units (SDUs);
- Interpreting codes on U.S. Treasury checks to identify information linking payment to state child support cases; and
- Moving from paper checks to electronic check processing through electronic funds transfer/electronic data interchange (EFT/EDI).
Another helpful publication is the Quick Guide to Working with the Military, also available online.
Top of Page
Federal Payroll Agencies
Most Federal agencies do not process their own payroll. There are designated payroll agencies (similar to payroll service providers in the private sector) that perform these tasks for other agencies. The Federal payroll agency responsible for processing a particular agency's payroll is assigned primarily according to which branch of Federal government (executive--by far the largest branch--, legislative or judicial) the employer-agency belongs. Larger agencies are usually designated as the payroll agency for smaller Federal agencies.
E-payroll Initiative
The executive branch of the Federal government is currently undergoing a payroll consolidation project that will take place in several phases. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has initiated a Federal payroll consolidation effort that will consolidate 22 Executive branch payroll-processing agencies into four. The four selected Federal payroll processors are:
- Department of Agriculture's National Finance Center (NFC),
- General Services Administration (GSA),
- Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), and
- Department of the Interior's National Business Center (NBC)
.
The legislative and judicial branches of the Federal government are not included in the payroll consolidation effort now underway for the executive branch. There are very few child support cases being processed by the legislative and judicial branches.
The Federal agencies that distribute retirement annuities and benefits are not part of the payroll consolidation effort since they are benefits agencies and not payroll agencies. The benefits agencies include: Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM civil service retirees), Social Security Administration (for Title II benefits) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). An effort is underway to work with them to encourage EFT/EDI implementation.
Top of Page
Federal New Hire Reporting
All Federal agencies report their new hires and quarterly wages directly to the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH), rather than to a State Directory of New Hires as private sector employers do. Federal agencies are required to submit only six basic data elements for new hire reporting (employee name, Social Security number, employee address, Federal agency name, Federal agency FEIN, and Federal agency address) to the NDNH.
Top of Page
Payment Processing/Income Withholding for Federal Employees
There are thousands of Federal employees living and working in every state in the U.S. When a Federal employee becomes a noncustodial parent, child support offices need to know how to contact the appropriate Federal agency in order to locate the employee, establish paternity, and establish and enforce a child support order.
Federal Agency Addresses for Income Withholding
If the state knows where an NCP works or has received a locate response from the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS), then it can send an income-withholding order to the Federal agency. Each Federal agency is required to designate an agent to receive orders and accept service of process in matters relating to child support.
Contact information (title or position, mailing address, and telephone number) of the designated Federal agents is published annually in the Federal Register; click here to see the current listing of Federal agency addresses for income-withholding purposes.
Federal Agency Addresses for National Medical Support Notices
Click here to see the current listing of Federal agency addresses to which National Medical Support Notices should be sent.
Withholding Child Support from Special Populations
For more detailed information on income withholding from distinctive groups of Federal employees, click on the desired link below.
Withholding Child Support from Social Security Administration Employees
The income earned by employees of the Social Security Administration (SSA) can be withheld for child support. Income-withholding orders for SSA employees should be sent to:
Chief, Payroll Operations Division
Attn: D-2640
National Business Center
P.O. Box 272030
Denver, CO 80227-9030
SSA-Title II Benfeficiaries
In addition, Title II disability benefits paid out by SSA to noncustodial parents may be withheld for child support. Income-withholding orders for the garnishment of benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act must be sent to a local SSA office, and may be sent to any local SSA District or Branch Office in accordance with Section 459 of the Social Security Act.
The addresses and telephone numbers of Social Security District and Branch Offices may be found in the local telephone directory, or click here for a listing of local SSA field office addresses. Garnishments may be sent to the closest SSA office, regardless of the zip code or address of the garnishee.
Dependents of Title II beneficiaries are entitled to receive monthly Social Security benefits, in addition to child support garnishments, until they reach the age of eighteen. CSEAs may wish to refer custodial parents to SSA to apply for these benefits on behalf of the children. Click here to link to SSA's website for the disability benefits application.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit payments (Title XVI benefits that go to those who are disabled, aged, and blind) are not subject to income withholding.
Refer to Social Security benefits for more information.
Deciphering U.S. Treasury Checks
For detailed explanations of the information provided on the face of U.S. Treasury checks, click here.
For information to help you understand what is on the face of a Department of Defense check (issued by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service), click here.
Removal of SSN from U.S. Treasury Checks
The Department of Treasury removed Social Security numbers (SSNs) from paper checks as of January 1, 2004 in compliance with Public Law 106-433, the Social Security Number Confidentiality Act of 2000. Given the difficulty states have in processing U.S. Treasury checks and their reliance on the SSN as an identifier, OCSE worked with the Department of Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS) to find a way to keep SSNs on the child support Treasury checks until Federal agencies convert to electronic payments for child support.
FMS agreed to keep the SSN on child support Treasury checks until the end of 2004. The SSN removal from U.S. Treasury checks occurred on December 30, 2004. At that time, FMS offered temporary waivers to:
- Those agencies scheduled to migrate to payroll processors as well as benefits agencies that made progress toward, but had not completed, EFT/EDI implementation by December 2004.
- A handful of small Federal agencies that have a very low volume of payments for which EFT/EDI is not cost effective.
Paper checks from these agencies will include the SSN on a line that is out of view of the envelope window, the solution offered by FMS.
The largest volume of remaining paper Treasury checks is attributed to Social Security Title II benefits (approximately 100,000 orders). FMS reports that the Social Security Administration will request a long-term waiver from the SSN removal, given its work underway to develop a centralized child support garnishment database. Payments for new cases added to the database, which is underway, will automatically be sent electronically. Existing garnishments will be converted in 2006.
Top of Page
Medical Support and Federal Employees
For information on medical support for Federal employees who are not members of the military, click here.
Medical Support and the Military
For members of the military, enrollment in medical coverage is an entitlement rather than a benefit. Medical coverage is provided for active duty and retired service members and their family members. These service members and their dependents are eligible for medical coverage, called TRICARE. Once a military service member and his or her family members have been enrolled in the Defense Enrollment and Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS), the medical entitlement is established for the member and his or her family.
DEERS is a computerized database of military sponsors, families and others worldwide who are entitled under the law to TRICARE benefits. DEERS registration is required for TRICARE eligibility. Active duty and retired service members are automatically registered in DEERS, but they must take action to register their family members and ensure they are correctly entered into the DEERS database.
The child seeking medical support from a service member must first be determined to be a military dependent in order to enroll in DEERS. The documentation needed for enrollment in DEERS includes a court- or administratively-ordered paternity determination (if the child's parents were not married), birth certificate, and a court order for child support or other means of providing support such as a proof of allotment shown by a pay stub. Each branch of the service may have slightly different enrollment procedures. The custodial party must go to the nearest RAPIDS (Real-Time Automated Personnel Identification System) Center and present the appropriate documents to the verifying officer to initiate the enrollment process. RAPIDS is the military program through which some personnel changes are made and ID cards are issued.
A custodial party wishing to enroll a child by mail should contact any military installation with a RAPIDS Center. The location of the nearest enrollment site or military installation may be obtained by visiting http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/rsl/ or by contacting the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) Support Office at (800)-538-9552 between 6:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.
Before the DEERS enrollment can be completed, an attempt will be made to have the sponsor (usually the parent) sign the paperwork. The amount of time for this process varies depending on the location and the assignment of the military member. If the sponsor is unwilling to sign, the verifying official may sign on behalf of the sponsor after all failed efforts to obtain the sponsor's signature have been documented.
For active duty and retired military, the National Medical Support Notice (NMSN) should be sent to the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) at the address below:
DMDC Support Office
Attn: CA99
400 Giggling Road
Seaside, CA 93955-6771
A letter will be sent to the child support enforcement agency describing the child(ren)'s status with respect to the DEERS/TRICARE system. If the child is not enrolled, but may be eligible for medical benefits, use the procedures outlined above.
The Department of Defense (DoD) is working with the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement to perform a match between the DEERS database and the Federal Case Registry that will provide states with information on current enrollment in DEERS. States can then focus on the cases where the children are not enrolled.
 
