To determine proper balances for all custodial persons (CPs) and obligations, an arrearage computation (AC) is necessary. The following steps will help the worker complete an accurate AC:
- Prepare arrearage computations for each CP using:
- All child support orders
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grant history (to help determine custody timeframes for the children)
- Receipt and payment history
- Note the dates each child was included in each TANF grant along with the payee that received the grant.If a CP never had the children for the FGN on TANF (for example, in the case of a grandmother: she may have had her own children on TANF, but never her grandchildren), then you know immediately that if there are TANF balances, they will belong to a different custodial parent.
- The AC will calculate the support that came due for all time frames. Some time frames may not be assigned, some permanently assigned and some conditionally assigned.Remember:
Prior to 10/1998: Payee (CP) had to permanently assign all Non-PA arrears (Z).
10/1998-09/2009: Payee (CP) had to conditionally assign all Non-PA arrears (D).
10/2009-Present: Payee (CP) does not assign arrears at all.
When multiple CPs share one obligation, a CP’s URA could have been reduced by payments that should have applied to another CP’s URA, even to the point of creating an erroneous URA credit.
- Adjust each CP’s balances based on the ACs for each CP.If a receipt was applied to an incorrect balance, this could mean adjusting the balances at the district office level (e.g. P current support to P arrears), or sending a Finance Action Request if necessary.
- If a receipt was applied to an incorrect CP, the worker will send a Finance Action Request to move the receipt to the correct obligation/CP sequence.This could result in a bad debt for a CP, or in the case of a retained TANF receipt, the receipt adjustment would also adjust the URA balance for each affected CP.
For information on when to send an action request, see the manual: Distributed Adjustment Manual on the Center for Finance & Budget (CFB) page of the Infonet.