GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1989

S	1 

SENATE BILL 777

Short Title:  Repeal Cost Recovery/Child Support.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senator Marvin.
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Referred to:  Children and Youth.
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April 5, 1989

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM BY REPEALING THE COST RECOVERY PROVISIONS REGARDING CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. G.S. 110-130.1 reads as rewritten:
"§ 110-130.1. Non-AFDC services.
(a)	All child support collection and paternity determination services provided under this Article to recipients of public assistance shall be made available to any individual not receiving public assistance in accordance with federal law and as contractually authorized by the nonrecipient, upon proper application and payment of an appropriate nonrefundable application fee. For applicants whose gross household income is equal to or less than two hundred percent (200%) of the then currently established poverty level applicable to the applicant's household size, the application fee shall be five dollars ($5.00). For applicants whose gross household income exceeds such poverty level, the application fee shall be twenty-five dollars ($25.00).
For purposes of this section, ‘household income' means the sum of the gross amount of periodically recurring income which accrues to the members of a collective group of individuals living in one residence consisting of a natural or adoptive parent who has custody of a dependent child or children whose other natural or adoptive parent is absent from the residence, the custodial parent's current spouse, and all other dependent children. ‘Household size' means the sum of the persons specified as living in the residence as described above.
						(c)	Actions or proceedings to establish or enforce a duty of support initiated under this Article shall be brought in the name of the county or State agency on behalf of the public assistance recipient or nonrecipient client. Collateral disputes between a custodial parent and noncustodial parent, involving visitation, custody and similar issues, shall be considered only in separate proceedings from actions initiated under this Article. The attorney representing the designated representative of programs under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act shall be deemed attorney of record only for proceedings under this Article, and not for such separate proceedings.
(d)	Any fee imposed by the North Carolina Department of Revenue or the Secretary of the Treasury to cover their costs of withholding for non-AFDC arrearages certified for the collection of past due support from State or federal income tax refunds shall be borne by the client by deducting the fee from the amount collected.
Any income tax refund offset amounts which are subsequently determined to have been incorrectly withheld and distributed to a client, and which must be refunded by the State to a responsible parent or the nondebtor spouse, shall constitute a debt to the State owed by the client."
Sec. 2. This act is effective upon ratification.