Executive
New York State Division of Child Support Enforcement
The New York State Division of Child Support Enforcement, a division of the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, is an agency which assists parents with collecting child support payments, establishing paternity and locating absent parents. Also known as the Child Support Enforcement Unit (CSEU), its legislative authority is granted under New York State Social Services Law, Article 3, Titles 6-A and 6-B.
You can locate this section of the Social Services Law in hardcopy version either in McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York published by Thomson West, or the Consolidated Law Service published by Lexis/Nexis. If the internet is your preference, the Social Services Law can be located at the New York State Consolidated Laws. To navigate to the website, type http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?COMMONQUERY=LAWS in your address bar and click go, or you can click on the link here. On the main page, scroll down to "SOS Social Services" in the list. Then click on "Title 6-A" or "Title 6-B."
Services Offered
The CSEU’s website contains extremely helpful information from what to bring with you to Court for a child support hearing to executing an Income Execution for collection of the ordered child support. To find what you are looking for at the Division’s website type go to https://newyorkchildsupport.com/home.html and click on the “Site Map” in the upper right hand corner. There you will find a complete listing of all the functions and programs of the Division. Within each link there are Windows Media Videos and other information available to make it easier to obtain and collect child support for your child.
The CSEU has 58 local district Child Support Collection Units (CSCU) throughout the State of New York that handle the collection and disbursement of child support between the parents. While some parents agree that the non-custodial parent will pay the custodial parent directly, using your local SCU can has its advantages. For a nominal service fee of $25.00 per year, the CSCU will keep track of payments made and received in the event there is a dispute between the parents. The CSCU will also calculate arrears due to non-payment. If the non-custodial parent's employer is known, the CSCU will serve an Income Execution upon the employer to automatically have payments deducted from the non-custodial parent's paycheck. Finally, the CSCU will compute and adjust the amount of support through a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).
What is a Cost of Living Adjustment? Every two years the CSCU automatically reviews each child support order to determine cost of living increases. If the cost of living has increased by more than ten percent since the order was made or since the last review, the child support order amount will increase by the amount of the change in the cost of living. The most convenient part of this increase is that cost of living adjustments done by the CSCU can be made without going to court.
For a complete listing of all the child support services offered by CSEU, you can go to the website located at https://newyorkchildsupport.com/child_support_services.html or click on the link here.
