2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 25 - Special Child Support Act (§§ 501 — 530) › § 508 - Economic assistance; eligibility; assignment of right

(1) As a condition for eligibility to receive temporary financial assistance, the petitioner or person who receives financial assistance under the category of Temporary Assistance Program of the Department shall assign to the Administration any right to support it might have in its own benefit or in the benefit of any other member of the family on behalf of whom, or for whom, the request for assistance is made.
(a) Notwithstanding the provisions set forth in the Puerto Rico Civil Code, it shall be understood that the request or receipt of financial assistance payments is in itself an assignment of the right to support for the total amount of the financial assistance received. The assignment of the right to support shall be effective as current support payments and overdue support payments to the extent allowed by federal legislation and from the moment that eligibility to receive economic assistance is determined. This assignment shall terminate, with respect to current support payments, at the time the eligibility of the beneficiary terminates. With regard to support payments that become overdue during the periods in which the minor or his/her guardian has received financial assistance, said assignment shall terminate at the moment that the Administration has recovered the total amount paid for said assistance.
(b) The assignment of the right to support shall be exclusively for the purpose of initiating the corresponding legal actions for the State to recover the amount advanced for the minor or the petitioner from the person legally obliged, from the time the support right becomes requireable, pursuant to the Puerto Rico Civil Code.
(c) The petitioner and whoever receives economic assistance shall be obliged to hand over to the Department [sic] any direct payments received for support, once the assignment of the right to support is effectively ceded, and up to the time the Administration has recovered the total sum paid for financial assistance.
(2) Any person who requests or receives financial assistance subject to notice of the right to claim just cause for failure to cooperate shall be bound to:
(a) Continually offer his/her cooperation to the Administration to identify and locate the father or mother of the minor for whom financial assistance or support payment is being requested, to determine the paternity of the minors who have not been recognized and to compel support or any other benefit to which the minor is entitled;
(b) place at the Administration’s disposal all the information and evidence he/she may have in his/her power or can reasonably obtain, and
(c) testify in any proceeding to attain compliance with the legal obligation to provide child support.
The refusal to cooperate shall be notified to the Temporary Assistance Program, but shall not impair the minors’ right to receive the financial assistance due to them under the provisions of law and regulations; nevertheless, the person who refuses to cooperate unless just cause is determined, shall not receive benefits for him/herself. The Administrator, after taking into consideration the best interests of the obligee and the circumstances of the case, can exempt the petitioner or the person who receives financial assistance from the obligation of offering the required cooperation. The burden of proof to establish just cause to refuse to cooperate shall fall upon the obligee, and shall be corroborated and based upon demonstrative evidence that it may be reasonably expected that such cooperation may result in physical or emotional harm, or that the minor was conceived as a result of an incestuous relationship or rape, or has an adoption procedure pending, or by means of any other evidence required by the Administration.
History —Dec. 30, 1986, No. 5, p. 887, art. IV, § 9; Aug. 17, 1994, No. 86, § 17; Dec. 18, 1997, No. 169, § 9; Aug. 1, 2003, No. 178, § 10.