Arkansas Administrative Code

9 CAR § 3-302. Cooperation by custodial parties who apply for services. If a custodial party who applied for services does not cooperate with the Office of Child Support Enforcement and that cooperation is essential for the next step in providing IV-D services, the office may ini…

9 CAR § 3-303. Cooperation by parties who are recipients of certain services. (a) Custodial parties who are recipients of TEA, certain Medicaid, and/or SNAP, are required to cooperate to avoid a possible reduction of benefits. (b) Noncustodial parents who are recipients of SNAP a…

9 CAR § 3-304. Custodial parties ordered to provide medical support. (a) When the custodial party is ordered to be responsible for providing medical support, and if insurance is available through the custodial party’s employer but is not being provided, the Office of Child Suppor…

9 CAR § 3-305. Mandatory information updates. Upon the entry of an order, the noncustodial parent and custodial party must keep the Office of Child Support Enforcement updated with their current residential and mailing address, Social Security number, telephone number, driver’s l…

9 CAR § 3-401. Initiation. Within twenty (20) calendar days of receiving an application or the referral of a case, the local office must establish a case record and assess the information provided to determine the next appropriate action, which may include any of the following: (…

9 CAR § 3-402. Locate. (a) “Locate” means obtaining information concerning the physical whereabouts and verifying information regarding the address, employment, and/or financial ability of a parent to provide support. (b)(1) Any IV-D child support agency may request information r…

9 CAR § 4-101. Generally. (a) If the parents are not married when a child is born, paternity must be established before a child and medical support obligation can be established. (b) The Office of Child Support Enforcement is not required to attempt to establish paternity in any …

9 CAR § 4-102. Establishing paternity when a parent is deceased. (a) If the putative father is deceased, the Office of Child Support Enforcement will not accept referrals or an application to establish paternity. (b)(1) State law authorizes genetic testing to establish paternity …

9 CAR § 4-103. Establishing paternity when a parent is incarcerated. (a) The Office of Child Support Enforcement will not initiate court action to establish paternity while a putative father is incarcerated. (b) The caseworker will contact the putative father and provide an oppor…

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9 CAR § 4-105. Establishing paternity by voluntary acknowledgment of paternity. (a) The Office of Child Support Enforcement will offer both parents the opportunity to establish paternity by completing the acknowledgment of paternity (AOP). (b) If both parties complete the AOP, pa…

9 CAR § 4-106. Paternity testing. (a) Putative father requests testing. (1) If the person named to be the putative father of a child disputes that he is the biological father, he may request genetic testing. (2) The Office of Child Support Enforcement will schedule testing throug…

9 CAR § 4-201. Overview. (a) The Office of Child Support Enforcement will: (1) Initiate actions to establish paternity, when necessary; and (2) Support in the appropriate circuit court on behalf of customers of the office with an open enforcement case. (b) When the custodial part…

9 CAR § 4-202. Proof of income. The Office of Child Support Enforcement will include in all petitions for an order for child support that the: (1) Custodial party be entitled to request proof of income annually, in writing by certified mail to the noncustodial parent; and (2) Non…

9 CAR § 4-301. Establishing medical support — Overview. (a) Every court order must address the medical support needs of the children. (b) If a new case is opened for enforcement with an existing court order that does not address medical support, the: (1) Child support will be enf…

9 CAR § 4-302. Authorized inquiries. (a) Federal law protects the individual’s right to privacy with regard to his or her medical histories and medical insurance coverage. (b) For the purposes of preparing for court, the Office of Child Support Enforcement has the authority to re…

9 CAR § 4-303. Expedited process for establishment cases. (a)(1) Federal regulations and state law require that action to establish child support obligations be taken within certain timeframes. (2) The Office of Child Support Enforcement must, within ninety (90) calendar days of …

9 CAR § 5-1001. Overview. (a) The Office of Child Support Enforcement will continue collection after the emancipation of a child until: (1) A written request is made by the custodial party to stop enforcing the case; (2) All arrears are paid; (3) There is an administrative determ…

9 CAR § 5-1002. Recovery of child support in intergovernmental cases. (a) In cases in which the order was entered in another state, the statute of limitations of the state that issued the order or the Arkansas statute of limitations, whichever is longer, will apply and control ho…

9 CAR § 5-101. Overview. (a)(1) The Office of Child Support Enforcement will: (A) Pursue collection of child and medical support obligations; and (B) Utilize all appropriate administrative and judicial remedies available under state law. (2) Once an order is established, the nonc…

9 CAR § 5-102. Administrative remedies. (a) Caseworkers must use all appropriate administrative methods as described in this part to enforce orders as the remedy of first choice. (b) If administrative remedies have failed or are inappropriate, court action to enforce orders shoul…

9 CAR § 5-103. Past due support. (a)(1) Past due child support, also known as arrears: (A) Constitutes a judgment by operation of law; and (B) Is subject to garnishment even in the absence of a court-ordered judgment on arrears. (2) State law allows for the garnishment of wages u…

9 CAR § 5-1101. Overview. (a) A custodial party may redirect payments to an alternate caretaker (a nonrelative caretaker) by designating in a record that the alternate caretaker will have the child for a temporary time period. (b)(1) Arkansas law authorizes redirection of court-o…

9 CAR § 5-1201. Overview. (a) Unless the court orders otherwise, a noncustodial parent’s duty to pay child support for a child shall automatically terminate by operation of law: (1) When the child reaches eighteen (18) years of age, unless the child is still attending high school…

9 CAR § 5-1202. Noncustodial parent may initiate termination of support. (a)(1) If there are no child support arrearages, the noncustodial parent may terminate income withholding for child support without petitioning the court by giving written notice, in person or by certified m…

9 CAR § 5-201. Overview. (a) Income withholding is used as an initial enforcement effort if the noncustodial parent is employed or if there is another source of periodic income subject to withholding. (b)(1) Every court order should contain an order for the immediate withholding …

9 CAR § 5-202. Initiated income withholding. (a) In the case of court orders which do not address income withholding, Arkansas law provides for payment of child support obligations by mandatory initiated income withholding. (b) Initiated income withholding must take effect: (1) W…

9 CAR § 5-203. Withholding of lump-sum payments. (a) Arkansas law requires that orders for payment of money for the support and care of any children include a provision for the withholding of the full amount of past due support owed by the noncustodial parent not to exceed fifty …

9 CAR § 5-204. Withholding from Social Security Disability. (a) Income withholding can be used to offset payments from Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits. (b) If there is a lump-sum disability payment made to the noncustodial parent, the Office of Child Support Enforcement…

9 CAR § 5-205. Withholding from unemployment insurance benefits. (a)(1) State law provides for an information exchange with the Division of Workforce Services and the withholding of unemployment insurance benefits (UIB) to apply against a court-ordered child support obligation. (…

9 CAR § 5-206. Workers’ compensation withholding. (a)(1) State law authorizes the withholding of workers’ compensation benefits for child support. (2) Up to twenty-five percent (25%) of periodic payments or up to fifty percent (50%) of lump-sum payments may be withheld. (b) State…

9 CAR § 5-207. Computing amount for withholding. (a) The Consumer Credit Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq., and state law limits the amount of wages that are subject to withholding for support. (b) The maximum amounts are expressed in percentages and depend on two (2) vari…

9 CAR § 5-208. Contested withholding. (a)(1) The only grounds available to an obligor to contest wage withholding are that the: (A) Person who received the notice was not the person obligated to pay the support; (B) Arrears are incorrect; or (C) Current support amount is incorrec…

9 CAR § 5-301. Overview. (a) The Federal Offset Program helps states collect delinquent child support debts owed to the custodial party and/or the state by the following remedies: (1) Federal Income Tax Refund Offset Program; (2) Administrative Offset Program; and (3) Passport De…

9 CAR § 5-302. Federal Income Tax Refund Offset Program. (a) Child support payments received by the Federal Tax Offset Program can only apply to child or spousal support arrears. (b) Moneys from the Federal Tax Offset Program received by the Office of Child Support Enforcement in…

9 CAR § 5-303. Administrative Offset Program. (a) Administrative offset allows for the interception of certain federal payments in order to collect past due child support. (b) These payments can be recurring or one-time payments. (c) The type of payments that can be intercepted i…

9 CAR § 5-304. Debt Check Program. (a)(1) The Debt Check Program is operated by Financial Management Service (FMS). (2) It is a debt management program for use by federal agencies and outside lenders who issue federal loans, loan insurance, and loan guarantees. (3) The program al…

9 CAR § 5-305. Passport Denial Program. (a)(1) When a noncustodial parent’s arrears from all of his or her cases meets or exceeds two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), the United States Office of Child Support Enforcement submits the name to the United States Department of …

9 CAR § 5-401. Overview. (a) State law authorizes collection of current support and past due child and medical support, as well as fees, costs, and other debts as defined by state law, through the interception of state income tax refunds. (b)(1) A listing of delinquent obligors a…

9 CAR § 5-402. Eligibility for offset. (a) In addition to the legislative requirements, the Office of Child Support Enforcement has established the following criteria for submissions for state intercept: (1) There must be a court order for support; (2)(A) Arrearage must be at lea…

9 CAR § 5-403. State tax pre-offset notices. The individual who is being certified to the Revenue Division will be given written notice in advance of the agency’s intent to intercept his or her tax refund.

9 CAR § 5-404. State tax offset informal complaint resolution. (a) The local Office of Child Support Enforcement will attempt to resolve complaints or questions regarding state tax offset informally. (b) The customer should be informed that they must submit a written request in o…

9 CAR § 5-501. Administrative suspension of licenses. (a)(1) State law authorizes and establishes procedures for the suspension of specified state-issued licenses, including commercial driver's and regular driver's licenses, including motorcycles; permanent license plates; recrea…

9 CAR § 5-502. Notice of intent to suspend license. (a)(1) If either Condition 1 or Condition 2 noted above in 9 CAR § 5-501(b) exists and none of the five (5) exceptions apply, a Notice of Intent to Suspend License will be mailed to the noncustodial parent. (2) Notices should be…

9 CAR § 5-503. License suspension informal complaint resolution. (a)(1) Following issuance of the Notice of Intent to Suspend License, the noncustodial parent may avoid license suspension by: (A) Contacting the local Office of Child Support Enforcement office; and (B) Entering in…

9 CAR § 5-504. License suspension and reinstatement. (a)(1) If the sixty (60) days has expired and no appeal is pending, the license will be suspended. (2) The noncustodial parent must enter into an installment agreement before the license will be reinstated. (3) Additionally, th…

9 CAR § 5-505. Referrals and injunctions for suspended license. (a) Whenever the Office of Child Support Enforcement determines that the noncustodial parent has engaged in an activity despite suspension of the license, a referral should be made to the licensing authority and/or t…

9 CAR § 5-506. Law license review. Noncustodial parents who are licensed attorneys and who meet one (1) of the conditions and none of the exceptions listed previously may be referred to the Clerk of the Supreme Court for review of their law license.

9 CAR § 5-601. Overview. (a) In cases in which there is overdue child support, and in an effort to secure assets to satisfy any current support obligation and any arrearage, the Office of Child Support Enforcement is authorized to take any of the following actions: (1) Intercept …

9 CAR § 5-602. Liens on assets held by financial entities. (a)(1) The Office of Child Support Enforcement may impose a lien, seize assets, or freeze an account based on verification of an account held by an individual at any time information becomes available to the caseworker. (…