5.5 Annual Fee (Deficit Reduction Act of 2005)

Overview

The Federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 requires the IV-D child support program in each state to assess a non-refundable annual fee of $35 for child support services if the state collects over $550 for the custodial parent in one year.  States have three options for the payment of the fee.  

The Wyoming legislature decided the fee is to be paid by the custodial parent and collected from a subsequent child support payment. This occurs once per federal fiscal year. If fees were not paid for previous fiscal years, multiple DRA fees may be taken during the course of the year.  An exception would be if a court orders the non-custodial parent to pay the fee.

Policy

The Wyoming CSP shall assess the $35 annual fee to the custodial parent when the following criteria are met:

1. The non-public assistant custodial parent receives child support services, meaning the case is a IV-D case open through an application as described in 5.2 Application Fee; 

2. The case is a “never assistance” case, meaning the children associated with the case have never received AFDC, TANF/POWER, or federal/state foster care payments; and

3. At least $550 is collected and disbursed to the family during the federal fiscal year (October 1 – September 30).

Note:  The custodial parent does not pay the fee directly to the Wyoming CSP.  Rather, POSSE automatically withholds the $35 fee from the next collection over $550 within the federal fiscal year.

Cross Reference

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