18A:71C-20 Deductions of overdue payments from State lottery winnings.

18A:71C-20. Deductions of Overdue Payments from State Lottery Winnings.

a. The Director of the Division of State Lottery in the Department of the Treasury and the executive director shall initiate an ongoing data exchange in the Office of Telecommunications and Information Systems in the Department of the Treasury before a payment is made of a State lottery prize in excess of $1,000.

b. The executive director shall periodically supply the Office of Telecommunications and Information Systems with a list of those individuals with delinquent or defaulted student loan repayments to the authority.

c. The Director of the Division of State Lottery shall promptly provide the Office of Telecommunications and Information Systems with a prize winners list, which shall include the prize claimant's name, address and Social Security number and the amount of the pending payment.

d. The Office of Telecommunications and Information Systems shall cross check the lottery list with the data supplied by the executive director for a Social Security number match. If a match is made, the Office of Telecommunications and Information Systems shall notify the authority.

e. If a lottery prize claimant is on the list of individual delinquents or in default of a student loan, the authority shall promptly notify the Department of the Treasury and the Division of the State Lottery of the claimant's name, address, Social Security number and the outstanding amount of the student loan. The Department of the Treasury shall, after withholding any appropriate amount for income tax or such other withholdings as may be required under federal or State law, withhold this amount from the pending lottery payment and transmit this amount to the authority. If the amount of the student loan outstanding is greater than the amount available from the lottery payment, the entire amount available shall be transmitted to the authority.

f. Any of the claimant's lottery prize funds remaining after withholding pursuant to subsection e. of this section shall be paid to the claimant in accordance with lottery procedures.

g. The State Treasurer in consultation with the authority shall promulgate, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c. 410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), such rules and regulations as may be necessary to effectuate the purpose of this section including, but not limited to, regulations providing for prompt notice to any prize winner from whose award the Department of the Treasury seeks to withhold funds of the amount to be withheld and the reason therefor and providing the prize winner with the opportunity for a hearing upon request prior to the disposition of any funds. The State Treasurer shall also provide, by regulation, safeguards against the disclosure or inappropriate use of any personally identifiable information regarding any person obtained pursuant to this section. For purposes of this section, "prompt notice" shall mean within 14 days or less.

L.1999,c.46,s.1.