GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1989 SESSION

CHAPTER 490
SENATE BILL 777

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 a nonrefundable application fee of ten dollars ($10.00). 
					In cases in which a public assistance debt which accrued pursuant to G.S. 110-135 remains unrecovered, support payments shall be transmitted to the Department of Human Resources for appropriate distribution. When services are terminated and all costs and any public assistance debts have been satisfied, the support payment shall be redirected to the client.
(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.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 28th day of June, 1989.