Senate and Assembly Move on Bills

Which Credit Child Support Collections in Lien Recovery Process

May 1, 2000

Author: Susan C. Antos

A bill which would amend Social Services Law §104, §104-b, §106, and §131-r to require local social services departments to reduce the value of a lien taken by a local department of social services against the real or personal property of public assistance recipients by the amount of collected child support, sailed through the Social Services Committee of the State Senate on May 9 and is on the agenda of the Social Services Committee of the Assembly for May 16. Local Departments would be prohibited from claiming recovery of public assistance payments if those payments were reimbursed by child support collections.

Social services districts can recover the cost of public assistance paid to families to whom it was provided by imposing liens against their homes, or by recovering from inheritances, personal injury awards, and other windfalls, up to 10 years after the public assistance case is closed. Social Services Law 104, 104-b, 106, and 131-r. Counties are also reimbursed for the cost of providing public assistance by retaining child support collections. Children receiving family assistance have child support collected monthly on their behalf by county support collection units. All but the first $50 is retained by the county to reimburse the appropriate governmental entity for federal, state, and local social services received by the child’s family.

The law does not expressly state that child support collected and used to reimburse a district for services rendered must be deducted when the total lien is calculated. As a result, in many cases this has the unjust result of these families repaying the government twice: first when child support is collected, and again when the lien is imposed. This bill [A. 7518-A (Ramirez) /S.5846-A (Meier)] is a remedy to the silence in the current law regarding the effect of child support collections upon liens and claims asserted under the social services law which has led to double claims against families who can least afford it. It will protect the value of child support collections for the families said payments are intended to benefit.
The memorandum in support of this bill suggests that an accounting will accompany each claim under 104, 104-b, 106, and 131-r, and points out that it is not an administrative burden because counties are already required to perform this accounting to properly calculate the lien. However, the language requiring an accounting does not appear in the bill, which will hopefully be amended to include such language before the bill is finally passed.

When a local department of social services imposes a lien against a former or present welfare recipient to recover public assistance properly paid, the alleged debt can only be verified if the debtor is provided a notice which explains how the lien was calculated and shows the amount of the child support offset. Social services districts already provide similar notices when they make interim assistance calculations. This form notice, LDSS-2425, which is developed and printed by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, could be easily adapted to reflect the calculation of liens. Districts are used to providing such notices, which simply report the calculations that the agency has already made.