The new law includes strict work requirements for custodial parents receiving public assistance and stepped up efforts to locate absent parents who are not supporting their children. The agency selected to receive this information in Illinois is the Illinois Department of Employment Security. States will match New Hire Reports against their child support records to locate parents, establish a support order or enforce an existing order. Nearly one-third of child support cases involve parents who do not live in the same state as their children. Quicker notification is needed to enable child support officials to locate individuals and enforce child support orders.
Quarterly data is often out of date before the child support office receives the information.
There can be as much as a six month lag between the time the data is submitted and when it is available to child support officials. All employers, including private firms, unions, nonprofit and religious organizations, and government agencies, must report all new employees. The rule of thumb is that all new employees who are required to fill out federal W-4 wage withholding forms must be reported. The employer must submit a report if an employee is reinstated after any lapse of pay of 180 days or more. However, if the employee remains on the payroll while away from the job, the employer need not submit a report when the employee returns to work.