14.3 Payments

Overview

In order to ensure the financial aspects of the Wyoming Child Support Program (WCSP) work efficiently and smoothly, the Wyoming State Disbursement Unit (SDU) works closely with the Clerks of District Court, the State CSE Office, and the District WCSP Offices. Once an order is established by the District Court, the next step in the process is the enforcement of the order and receipt of the child support payments.

Policy

Payment Methods

In Wyoming, payments may be received from any one of the following:

• An employer;

• A United States District Court (Federal prosecution);

• A financial institution;

• The military;

• The non-custodial parent;

• Another state;

• Another Wyoming agency;

• A retirement or pension;

• Unemployment;

• Worker’s compensation;

• Wyoming Lottery

• The Social Security Administration (SSA)

• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

• The custodial parent or his/her agent; or

• Other

Effective Dates

As noted in 14.1 Introduction, the SDU will receipt and disburse payments received within federally mandated timeframes. Therefore, it is imperative that the appropriate effective date is used for each collection receipted. The table below provides the effective dates for payments received by the SDU.

Table 14.1 – Payment Effective Dates

Payments to the Family

Any payment required to be made to a family will be made directly to the resident parent, legal guardian, caretaker relative having custody of or responsibility for the child or children, judicially-appointed conservator with a legal and fiduciary duty to the custodial parent and the child, or alternative caretaker designated in a record by the custodial parent. An alternate caretaker is nonrelative caretaker who is designated in a record by the custodial parent to take care of the children for a temporary time period.

Alternate Payee

The “Alternate Payee” Pop-Up feature on POSSE is used by only the SDU to record a permanent or temporary change of payee as authorized by a court order on in the rare circumstances that do not require the creation of another POSSE case. Only the SDU is authorized to enter an Alternate Payee

Payments to Private Collection Agencies

Payments may not be made directly or redirected to a Private Collection Agency (PCA) when a custodial parent has contracted with a PCA to collect his/her child support.

Limited Services Cases – Redirect Payment

When an Initiating State sends a Notice of Redirect of Support Payments, the Central Registry will create a Limited Services Responding Non-IV-D case as described in 11.3.1 Intergovernmental – Responding – Central Registry and will transfer the child from the original Wyoming case to the new case, which will also transfer the support order.

When the Initiating State requests the redirect end, the WCSP District Office or the Clerk of District Court will transfer the child and support order back to the original Wyoming case.

Conversion Payments

Conversion Payment Maintenance on POSSE is used to add, delete, modify, and view child support payments and financial adjustments made prior to the implementation of POSSE, including payments made to Wyoming Clerks of District Court, the former Wyoming State Child Support Enforcement Fiscal Unit. This screen is also used to record payments from other states that are not already reflected in POSSE and to add payments made directly to the custodial parent, both prior to and after the implementation of POSSE.

A case worker will not enter a conversion payment if the child support payment or adjustment was receipted by one of the Clerks of District Court or the SDU after the implementation of POSSE.

• The case worker does not have documentation of the child support payment or financial adjustment, e.g. the Initiating State’s payment record, an order or judgment from the Initiating State, or an affidavit attesting that the child support payment or adjustment was made and that it should be credited towards the case’s financial balances.

• The case worker does not have sufficient details to make an accurate adjustment but is simply trying to reduce the balances in order to close the case. Instead, the case worker will contact the SDU about entering the appropriate financial adjustment(s) to the case to reduce the balance(s).

• The case worker is merely testing the effects of adding a payment or making an adjustment with respect to case balances.

Payment Instructions

The SDU and Clerks of District Court will enter payment instructions into POSSE. Most payment instructions deal with payment split, pro-ration of payments, suspension of payments or issuance of a replacement check. If payment instructions need to be added to a case, the District WCSP office shall contact the SDU requesting the instructions be added. This helps avoid payment instructions that could violate federal distribution.

Stop Payments

If an employer or a non-custodial parent wants to “stop” a payment sent to the SDU, the employer or non-custodial parent shall contact the SDU directly, The SDU will work with the employer or non-custodial parent to process the “stop” payment request and ensure a plan is in place so that a replacement check is labeled as such and not processed as a separate payment.

Return of Funds from Lien or Garnishment

The SDU shall return funds to a non-custodial parent within five business days after learning that the payment was a result of a lien and determining that the noncustodial parent is a recipient of Supplemental Social Security Income (SSI) payments, or concurrent SSI payments and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Social Security (SSR) benefits in the account have been incorrectly garnished.

Replacement Warrant

The SDU handles requests to replace a warrant and will determine if a replacement warrant should be issued based upon the circumstances of the request. If a warrant is replaced by the SDU, the custodial parent will need to complete and notarize a WIN106 Form.

Custodial Parent Overpayment

An overpayment of child support to the custodial parent may occur when:

• The non-custodial parent voluntarily overpays;

• The non-custodial parent receives an abatement credit;

• A wage withholding is not amended in a timely manner;

• The child support obligation is reduced retroactive to the date of the modification petition; or

• The child support balance changes after a fiscal review.

When the SDU completes the distribution process, the SDU may notice that a payment has distributed into the “futures disbursed” category. If the SDU cannot determine the reason for the “futures disbursed” (e.g. a bi-weekly payment or payment instructions indicate the non-custodial parent wants to pay into the future), the SDU will contact the case worker assigned to the case. The SDU will ask the case worker to review the case. Based upon the review, the case worker will provide the SDU guidance. Whether to:

• Refund the payment to the non-custodial parent;

• Add payment instructions to POSSE to allow payments into a futures status and send the payment to the custodial parent; or

• Apply the payment to an arrears balance after a fiscal review.

Cross Reference

Appendix 14.B – Federal Distribution Matrix