What does your office do to help get support payments?
Question
All your answers just refer people somewhere else. What does the federal government do for people who need help to find someone or enforce the orders?
Answer
The Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) provides services to the states. For example, we operate the Federal Parent Locator Service, the National New Hire Directory and the Federal Case Registry. We forward state certifications of overdue child support to the Secretary of the Treasury for collection by Federal Income Tax Offset and to the Secretary of State for denial of passports.
We also give people general information about the program and try to suggest who will be able to provide state-specific or case-specific information.
The federal government does require states to have a number of laws: wage-withholding, license revocation, credit bureau reporting, voluntary paternity acknowledgement to name a few, but even with these federal requirements, state programs vary.
The CSE program itself is run by state and county CSE offices. If local CSE agencies are unable to collect support for some reason, we recommend first that people ask the state CSE agency to review the case to see if there are other actions to take.
If someone believes that their case is not being worked, or that there is a problem with the state program, a letter to the federal regional office that works with the state may help.
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