Bill > S65

This bill, titled "To bring child support home," aims to ensure that child support payments collected by the state are directly passed on to families who are recipients of certain public assistance programs, rather than being retained by the state to offset its costs. Specifically, it amends Chapter 118 and Chapter 119A of the General Laws. For families receiving benefits under Chapter 118, child support collections will be paid to them to the extent that the federal government does not claim a share, as per federal law (42 U.S.C. section 657), and these amounts will not affect their current assistance levels. For former recipients of assistance, the IV-D agency, which is the state agency responsible for child support enforcement under Title IV, Part D of the Social Security Act, will be required to pay all collected support payments to the family, including overdue payments that were previously assigned to the state and money recovered through federal tax refund offsets. These changes are set to take effect on July 1, 2016.