Arkansas

Family Law

Section 9-14-208 – Office of Child Support Enforcement – Powers to obtain information on noncustodial parent – Penalty – Immunity

(a) As used in this section:

(1) “Business” means any corporation, partnership, cable television company, association, individual, utility company that is organized privately, as a cooperative, or as a quasi-public entity, and labor or other organization maintaining an office, doing business, or having a registered agent in the State of Arkansas;

(2) “Financial entity” means any bank, trust company, savings and loan association, credit union, insurance company, or any corporation, association, partnership, or individual receiving or accepting money or its equivalent on deposit as a business in the State of Arkansas;

(3) “Information” means, but is not necessarily limited to, the following:

(A) The full name of the noncustodial parent;

(B) The Social Security number of the noncustodial parent;

(C) The date of birth of the noncustodial parent;

(D) The last known mailing and residential address of the noncustodial parent;

(E) The amount of wages, salaries, earnings, or commissions earned by or paid to the noncustodial parent;

(F) The number of dependents declared by the noncustodial parent on state and federal tax information and reporting forms;

(G) The name of the company, policy numbers, and dependent coverage for any medical insurance carried by and on behalf of the noncustodial parent;

(H) The name of the company, policy numbers, and the cash values, if any, of any life insurance policies or annuity contracts that are carried by or on behalf of or owned by the noncustodial parent; and

(I) Any retirement benefits, pension plans, or stock purchase plans maintained on behalf of or owned by the noncustodial parent and the values thereof, employee contributions thereto, and the extent to which each benefit or plan is vested;

(4) “Noncustodial parent” means a natural or adoptive parent, including a putative father, who does not reside with his or her dependent child and against whom the Office of Child Support Enforcement of the Revenue Division of the Department of Finance and Administration is enforcing or seeking to enforce a support obligation pursuant to a plan described in Title IV-D of the Social Security Act;

(5) “Office of Child Support Enforcement” means the Office of Child Support Enforcement of the Revenue Division of the Department of Finance and Administration or a local child support enforcement unit contracting under § 9-14-207 to establish and enforce support obligations; and

(6) “State or local government agency” means any department, board, bureau, commission, office, or other agency of this state or any local unit of government of this state.

(b)

(1) For the purpose of locating and determining resources of noncustodial parents, the Office of Child Support Enforcement may request and receive information from the Federal Parent Locator Service, from available records in other states, territories, and the District of Columbia, from the records of all state agencies, and from businesses and financial entities.

(2) The Administrator of the Office of Child Support Enforcement of the Revenue Division of the Department of Finance and Administration may enter into cooperative agreements with other state agencies, businesses, or financial entities to provide direct online access to data information terminals, computers, or other electronic information systems.

(3) State and local government agencies, businesses, and financial entities shall provide information, if known or chronicled in their business records, notwithstanding any other provision of law making the information confidential.

(4) In addition, the Office of Child Support Enforcement, pursuant to an agreement with the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, or his or her designee, may request and receive from the Federal Parent Locator Service information authorized under 42 U.S.C. § 653, for the purpose of determining the whereabouts of any parent or child. This information may be requested and received when it is to be used to locate the parent or child for the purpose of enforcing any state or federal law with respect to the unlawful taking or restraining of a child or for the purpose of making or enforcing a child custody determination.

(c) Any business or financial entity that has received a request as provided by subsection (b) of this section from the Office of Child Support Enforcement or from a child support enforcement program administered by any other state under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act shall further cooperate with the Office of Child Support Enforcement or a requesting state in discovering, retrieving, and transmitting information contained in the business records that would be useful in locating absent parents or in establishing or enforcing child support orders on absent parents, and shall provide the requested information, or a statement that any or all of the requested information is not known or available to the business or financial entity. This shall be done within thirty (30) days of receipt of the request or the business or financial entity shall be liable for civil penalties of up to one hundred dollars ($100) for each day after the thirty-day period in which it fails to provide the information so requested.

(d) Any business or financial entity, or any officer, agent, or employee of such an entity, participating in good faith and providing information requested under this section, shall be immune from liability and suit for damages that might otherwise result from the release of the information to the Office of Child Support Enforcement or to a child support enforcement program administered by a requesting state.

(e)

(1) Each financial entity, as defined herein, shall cooperate with the Office of Child Support Enforcement to develop, implement, and operate an electronic automated data match system, using automated data exchanges to the maximum extent feasible, in which each financial entity shall provide to the Office of Child Support Enforcement per calendar quarter the name, record address, Social Security number or other taxpayer identification number, and other identifying information for each noncustodial parent who maintains an account at the financial entity and who owes past-due child support, as identified by the Office of Child Support Enforcement by name and Social Security number or other taxpayer identification number.

(2) For purposes of this subsection, the term “account” means a demand deposit account, checking or negotiable withdrawal order account, savings account, time deposit account, or money market mutual fund account.

(3) The Office of Child Support Enforcement is authorized to pay a reasonable fee to a financial entity for conducting an automated data match, not to exceed the actual costs incurred by the financial entity.

(f) Pursuant to subsection (e) of this section, each financial entity, in response to a notice of lien or levy, shall encumber or surrender assets held by the financial entity on behalf of any noncustodial parent who is subject to a child support lien pursuant to judgment or by operation of law.

(g) In cases in which there is overdue child support and in an effort to seize assets to satisfy any current support obligation and the arrearage, the Office of Child Support Enforcement is authorized to:

(1) Intercept or seize periodic or lump-sum payments from:

(A) A state or local agency, including unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation, or other benefits; and

(B) Judgments, settlements, prizes, and lotteries;

(2) Attach and seize assets of the obligated parent held in financial institutions;

(3) Attach public and private retirement funds, including any union retirement fund and railroad retirement; and

(4) Impose liens in accordance with subsection (f) of this section and, in appropriate cases, to force sale of property and distribution of proceeds.

(h)

(1) Such withholdings, intercepts, and seizures as set out in subsection (g) of this section may be initiated by the Office of Child Support Enforcement without obtaining a prior order from any court but must be carried out in full compliance with published administrative procedures, including due process safeguards, promulgated by the Office of Child Support Enforcement.

(2)

(A) The rules shall require written notice to each parent and noncustodial parent to whom this section applies:

(i) That the withholding, intercept, or seizure has commenced; and

(ii) Of the right to an administrative hearing and the procedures to follow if the parent or noncustodial parent desires to contest the withholding, intercept, or seizure on the grounds that the withholding, intercept, or seizure is improper due to a mistake of fact.

(B) The notice to the parent and noncustodial parent pursuant to subdivision (h)(2)(A) of this section shall include the information provided to the employer, agency, or financial entity under subsection (e) of this section.

(i) Any financial entity, or any officer, agent, or employee of such entity, participating in good faith and providing information requested pursuant to subsection (e) of this section or encumbering or surrendering assets pursuant to subsection (f) or subsection (g) of this section, shall be immune from liability and suit for damages that might otherwise result from the release of the information or the encumbering or surrendering of the assets to the Office of Child Support Enforcement.

(j) Any information obtained under the provisions of this section shall become a business record of the Office of Child Support Enforcement, subject to the privacy safeguards set out in § 9-14-210(g) -(l).

Ark. Code § 9-14-208

Amended by Act 2019, No. 315,§ 714, eff. 7/24/2019.

Acts 1985, No. 989, § 25; A.S.A. 1947, § 34-1243; Acts 1991, No. 542, § 3; 1993, No. 928, § 1; 1993, No. 964, § 1; 1995, No. 1184, § 8; 1997, No. 1296, § 21; 1999, No. 1514, § 9; 2001, No. 1248, §§ 6, 7; 2009, No. 551, § 4

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