Arkansas Administrative Code › Agency 016 - DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES › Division 20 - Division of County Operations › Rule 016.20.95-008 - Proposed Changes to Require the Parents of a Child for Whom Legal Paternity has not Already been Established to Cooperate with the Office of Child Support Enforcement to Establish Paternity Regardless of the Reason for Deprivation

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 6, June, 2024
2247.4
Failure to Cooperate bv Retaining Assigned Child
			 Support
Payments - Procedural
				Guidelines
The County Office will be notified via Form OCSE-1650
				when the local OCSE office discovers that a client has retained support
				payments and has Indicated that he/she does not intend to turn In future
				payments, or after entering into a repayment agreement, continues to retain
				current support payments.
Upon receipt of the OCSE-1650, the Service Representative
				will recompute the grant applying the non-cooperation sanction and send a DCO-1
				to the client, giving a 10 day advance notice of action.
The County Office will return the OCSE-1650 to the OCSE
				Indicating the action taken on the case at the end of the advance notice
				period. The Service Representative may also initiate the sanction if the county
				office discovers that the client has retained support payments and has
				indicated that he/she does not intend to turn in future payments.
The sanction will remain 1n effect until the client turns
				in a current support payment or until it can be substantiated that the absent
				parent 1s no longer making payments directly to the
				client.
2247.5
Failure to Comply in the Repaymen
t of a Child
			 Support
Overpayment - Procedural
				Guidelines
The County Office will be notified via form OCSE-TG when
				a client with a child support overpayment fails to sign the Repayment Agreement
				or, after signing it, misses two consecutive payments.
Upon receipt of the OCSE-TG notifying of the failure to
				comply, the grant will be recomputed applying the non-cooperation sanction and
				a DCO-1 sent giving the client a 10 day advance notice of action. The DCO-1
				will advise the client as to what must be done to comply, i.e., submit the
				signed agreement, or make a current monthly payment, whichever 1s
				applicable.
If the OCSE Collections Unit receives the signed
				agreement or receives a current monthly payment, the county office will be
				notified via Form OCSE-TG. If the client complies within the 10 day advance
				notice period, then the proposed action will not be taken or, if already taken,
				the grant will be reinstated to its previous level and the client added back to
				the case. A new DCO-95 is not necessary. If the client complies after the
				advance notice period has expired, then he/she will be contacted and advised
				that a new application is needed in order to add the client back to the
				grant.
* 2247.6
Establishing Legal Paternity
Legal paternity will be established for a child for whom
				paternity has jjSt been established. This includes a child who is deprived due
				to unemployment ,disability or when a convicted offender is living in the home
				wfriie saving, court imposed sentence.
A determination will be made at application as to whether
				or not legal paternity has been established. If it has not, then the Service
				representative will explain the OCSE cooperation requirement to legally
				establish pafcenvrty and that both parents will be expected to cooperate. It
				will ilso be explained that, as long as both parents live with the child, the
				OCSE will establish paternity only and not attempt to obtain a child support
				order.
Prior to referring the putative father to the OCSE, the
				parents will be Informed of their right to claim good cause. All policies and
				procedures related to a claim of good cause will apply. Refer to FA
				2248.
If either parent does not comply with the OCSE
				requirements to legally establish paternity and good cause does not exist, the
				needs of the parent who is refusing to cooperate will be removed as outlined in
				FA 2247.2. A child will not be denied benefits due to a parent's failure to
				cooperate. Refusal to cooperate with the OCSE after a referral has been made
				will be handled as outlined 1n FA 2247.3.
Notification to OCSE will be system generated by keying
				the appropriate deprivation code (71 or 72 for unemployment, 21 or 22 for
				disability, 91 or 92 for convicted offender) to WAFM and by keying the putative
				father information from the DCO-115 to the WAPU screen.
2248
fopd
Cau.se
for Refuel tP Cooperate
An individual may be determined to have good cause for
				refusing to cooperate with the State In child support enforcement activities
				and thus, be freed from the cooperation requirement. Good cause may be
				determined to exist in certain specified circumstances under which cooperation
				would be against the best Interests of the child. (Refer to FA
				2248.1)
Each AFDC casehead subject to the cooperation requirement
				must be informed in writing via Form DCO-90 of his/her right to claim good
				cause prior to the requiring of cooperation. If the casehead wishes to make a
				claim, he/she will do so by completing Form DCO-105 specifying the circumstance
				under which good cause is believed to exist. The casehead must provide
				corroborative evidence to establish the existence of the good cause
				circumstance and if requested, to provide sufficient information to permit the
				County Office to conduct an investigation (Refer to FA 2248.2.1 and
				2248.2.2).
Evidence and/or Information must be provided within 20
				days from the date the claim was made unless the County Office grants an
				extension (Refer to FA 2248.5).
Upon request, the County Office will advise the casehead
				how to obtain the necessary documents and will make a reasonable effort to
				obtain any specific documents which the casehead is not able to obtain without
				assistance.
AFDC assistance will not be denied, delayed, or
				discontinued pending claim determination if all other eligibility requirements
				have been established (Refer to FA 2248.3, Granting or Continuation of
				Assistance). The OCSE will not undertake activities to establish paternity or
				to secure support when notified that an Individual has claimed good cause
				(Refer to FA 2248.4).
If an application for AFDC is denied due to other
				eligibility factors, and a claim of good cause has been made, all procedures
				relating to the claim may be discontinued at the time the application is
				denied. A narrative entry will be made to explain the discontinuance of good
				cause procedures.
All claims of good cause and circumstances on which
				claims are based will be carefully documented In the record. All claims of good
				cause based on circumstances subject to change will be reviewed at regular
				revaluation, and the record will reflect through narrative entry such review of
				the good cause determination.