2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 25 - Special Child Support Act (§§ 501 — 530) › § 520 - Child support order—State collections unit

(a) The Administration shall establish a state collections unit which shall be responsible for the collection and distribution of all the support payments made in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
All orders making dispositions on support shall indicate that the obligor shall pay said support to the Administrator or the court at the location designated by same. The Secretary shall establish by regulation the manner in which the obligor shall pay the child support, at the designated locations, including, but without being understood as a limitation, electronic transfers, and credit and debit cards. As of July 1, 1995, any order disposing on a support order shall indicate that the obligor shall pay said support to the Administrator at the location designated by same.
To comply with the purposes of this chapter, even if there is a support order that requires payments to be deposited with the clerk of the court, or to be remitted to the obligee, the Administrator may order the obligor to remit the payments to the Administration at the location designated by same.
(b) The collection unit shall:
(1) Supply information to the parties regarding the current status of the support payments;
(2) distribute the support payment amounts collected from the employers or other sources of periodic income within two (2) workdays from their receipt, as long as there is sufficient information to identify the beneficiary and with respect to payments in arrears, that no appeals are pending regarding the arrears;
(3) remit income withholding notices pursuant to the provisions set forth by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources of the United States, to employers or other sources of income within two (2) workdays from the receipt of the notice that the withholding shall be made, and the notice on the location of the source of income in which same shall be withheld; or as provided in § 509 of this title;
(4) give follow-up to the payments to promptly identify the failure to make payments quickly, and
(5) use automatic procedures to enforce support obligations in those cases in which the payments have not been made on time.
(c) Notwithstanding the dispositions set forth in this section, the court shall have discretion to consider agreements to the effect that the support payments shall be made through direct payments, as long as:
(1) The parties have been instructed by their respective legal representation regarding the benefits of payments through the Administration. If one of the parties does not have legal representation, the court shall issue the necessary warnings, after which the party shall ratify or withdraw its decision;
(2) the parties accept that this is a free and voluntary decision;
(3) the parties voluntarily agree to waive the benefits of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, as amended, provided through the IV-D Agency;
(4) the support order has never been subject to an income withholding order or that the income withholding should not be granted according to the provisions in § 523 of this title;
(5) the minor obligee is not in a Department of the Family substitute care home;
(6) no domestic violence history exists;
(7) the payment history is positive and the relationship between the parties is good, and
(8) not issuing an income withholding order to the employer of the obligor shall result in the best interest of the minor.
When the court favorably considers the agreement for direct payment of the support it shall establish in the order the terms under which the payment shall be made. In the case of noncompliance or arrears, the court, of its own accord or at the request of a party, shall leave the direct payment agreement without effect and immediately shall order that the payment be made through the Administration.
Participants or ex-participants of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program shall not receipt payment by the direct method unless they demonstrate that the child support payments have been met and the benefits of the program have ended.
To receipt [sic] payment by the child support direct payment plan it shall be necessary to comply with all the aforementioned requirements.
History —Dec. 30, 1986, No. 5, p. 887, art. VI, § 21; July 31, 1991, No. 40, § 3; Aug. 17, 1994, No. 86, § 28; Dec. 18, 1997, No. 169, § 16; Aug. 17, 2002, No. 181, § 1; Aug. 1, 2003, No. 178, § 23.