12.D Case Closure with Futures Disbursed and Assigned Arrears Balances

Appendix 12.D – Closing Cases with Futures Disbursed and Assigned Arrears Balances

Purpose:

When a non-custodial parent pays his or her child support, the payments are credited against the current support order or the arrears.  In some instances, the payments are sent to the custodial parent when in fact the payments should have been retained by the State of Wyoming.  In those instances, a “futures disbursed” balance is created on POSSE.  When the futures disbursed balance exceeds or equals the assigned arrears balance, case closure may be appropriate.  

Procedures:

Closing Child Support Cases with a Futures Disbursed and Assigned Arrears Balance

1. Child support cases currently exist on POSSE with an assigned arrearage balance, a futures disbursed balance as reflected on the Financial Pop-up on Case Maintenance equal to or greater than the assigned arrearage balance, and no current support order.  These cases may be eligible for case closure.  POSSE does not provide for case closure on cases with futures disbursed balances. 

2. Assigned arrears are child support arrears that accrued during the time period(s) the custodial parent received POWER and/or Medicaid benefits from the State of Wyoming.  During this time period(s), child support is assigned to the State of Wyoming to offset the public assistance grant and/or Medicaid benefit amount provided to the family.

3. A futures disbursed balance is established when a child support payment was paid by the non-custodial parent and received by the custodial parent rather than being retained by the State of Wyoming for distribution to assigned arrears.  Since the non-custodial parent paid the support obligation, this debt is owed by the custodial parent. 

4. The Wyoming CSP does not enforce debts owed to the State by the custodial parent.  

5. A child support case cannot be closed if the custodial parent is currently receiving POWER and/or Medicaid.  The POSSE Case Class must show NON-AFDC.

Cases eligible for closure under these procedures shall  meet the following criteria:

1. Case must be arrears only and not tied to a case with a current support obligation;

2. Case must have a futures disbursed balance equal to, less than, or greater than of the assigned arrears balance.

3. Cases with an assigned balance must have approval from the IV-D Director prior to closure;

4. Multiple cases tied to one obligation that meet the above criteria must follow the closure procedures as stated below.

The following procedures shall be used by the case worker when making a determination for an appropriate case action for a futures disbursed scenario described above.  

1. The case worker shall enter a “9999” Judgment and Stipulation for an amount equal to the assigned balance minus the futures disbursed on the Non-AFDC, IV-D case containing the futures disbursed and assigned arrears.  The date entered in the “Judgment Thru” date field shall be the last day of the previous month that you are working in.  If futures disbursed is greater or equal to the assigned balance, the case worker shall enter a "9999" Judgement for $0.00;  

2. The case worker shall enter a detailed case activity log on the Non-AFDC explaining why the “9999” Judgment and Stipulation was entered and the amount of the assigned arrears and futures disbursed before tthe "9999" Judgment and Stipulation was entered.

3.  The case worker shall enter the appropriate closure reason on the Non-AFDC, IV-D case (e.g. Arrears < $500);

4,  The case worker’s shall request and run a CSE282P2 - Case Assessment – One Case on the Non-AFDC IV-D case set for closure;

5.  The case worker shall click on the Case Info Pop-up on the Case Maintenance screen and verify that a date exists in the “Date IV-D Closure Scheduled” field. The date should be 60 days from the current date; and

6.  The case worker shall generate the “Notice of Intent to Close” letter as a result of an action required alert and send it to the custodial parent.