Legal Authority:
- 42 U.S.C. § 654 (6)(B)
- 42 U.S.C. § 657
- 45 C.F.R. § 302.33
- 56 O.S. § 237
- OAC 340:25-5-351
Child Support Services (CSS) assesses an annual $35 fee on custodial persons (CPs) on certain child support cases.
For information on which OSIS screens to update for the $35 DRA fee, please review the CSQuest article Deficit Reduction Act Fee OSIS Screens.
How the DRA $35 Fee Is Assessed
CP household types eligible for the $35 fee are:
- Child Care Subsidy
- Foster Care
- Never Assistance Food Stamps
- Non‐TANF Medicaid
- Private
CP household types ineligible for the $35 fee are:
- Incoming International
- Incoming Interstate
- OJA
- TANF (Current and Former)
- Tribal
Each Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) the fee is assessed once per CP. If a Family Group Number (FGN) has more than one CP associated with it, then a $35 fee will apply to each CP for that FGN if they are eligible, as shown above. Ineligible CPs will not be assessed the $35 fee, even if they are on the same FGN with eligible CPs who are assessed the $35 fee.
Once $550 has been collected and disbursed to an eligible CP for the current FFY, the $35 fee is assessed and will be retained by the state from future collections for that CP. If the fee is not collected from the CP by the end of the current FFY, CSS will pay the $35 fee to the federal government. The $35 fee will then be placed into recovery to be collected from the CP the following FFY.
Examples
- An eligible CP may be assessed the $35 fee more than once per calendar year (January-December) because the start date for the FFY (October-September) is different.
- Because the $35 fee is assessed once per FFY, which begins on October 1st, it is possible for a CP to pay the fee twice in one calendar year. If $550 is disbursed to an eligible CP in August, and the $35 fee is retained from their September disbursement, and $550 more is disbursed to that CP in October, then another $35 fee will be assessed to be retained from their November or later disbursement since it is now a new FFY and they have met the $550 threshold for the new fiscal year.
- An eligible CP may be assessed the $35 fee more than once per calendar year because of fee recovery from a previous FFY.
- If an eligible CP does not meet the $550 threshold until their September disbursement, then CSS will pay their $35 fee at the end of the FFY at the end of September and place their $35 fee into recovery. If the CP then receives no further disbursements until a $1000 disbursement in January, then two $35 fees will be retained by the state. One being recovered from the previous FFY and one being recovered for the current FFY since the next $550 threshold was met.
- An eligible CP might not pay the $35 fee over the course of a year.
- If an eligible CP meets the $550 threshold of disbursement and is assessed the $35 fee but receives no further disbursements for the next year, the fee in placed into recovery as there were no disbursements to the CP from which the $35 fee could be retained.
You may also want to review the DRA Fee Q&A and Deficit Reduction Act Fee OSIS Screens