§ 3902. Assignment of support rights by public assistance recipients; proceedings to establish support obligation

(a) As a condition of eligibility for public assistance, each applicant or recipient shall assign to the Department any right to support from a responsible parent which has accrued at the time of the assignment and which the applicant may have in the applicant's own behalf or on behalf of any other family member for whom the applicant is applying or receiving assistance.

(b) An assignment in effect under this section shall be subject to the provisions of section 4106 of this title.

(c) Whenever a support obligation is in effect against a responsible parent for the benefit of a dependent child or a custodial parent, payments required thereunder shall be sent to the Office of Child Support upon notice to the responsible parent, without further order of the Court. When an assignment is in effect pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, any amounts accrued under the support obligation as of the date of assignment, and any amount accruing while the assignment is in effect, shall be owing to and payable to the Department for Children and Families without further order of the Court.

(d) An order of the Court shall be effective on behalf of the assignee while any assignment is in effect, and on behalf of the dependent child and the custodial parent at all other times. The Office of Child Support shall, unless otherwise requested by the parent, act as agent for the parent and child to collect any amounts due from the responsible parent pursuant to the order after the assignment terminates and may, if required by the Social Security Act, deduct any costs incurred in collection.

(e) If a support order has been entered and the legal custodian and obligee relinquishes physical responsibility of the child to a caretaker without modifying the physical rights and responsibilities order, the Office of Child Support may change the payee of support upon the caretaker's receipt of Reach Up family assistance from the Department for Children and Families. The obligor's obligation under the support order to pay child support and medical support continues but shall be payable to the Office of Child Support upon the caretaker's receipt of Reach Up family assistance and shall continue so long as the assignment is in effect. The Office of Child Support shall notify the obligor and obligee under the support order, by first class mail at last known address, of the change of payee. (Added 1977, No. 212 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; amended 1985, No. 63 § 17; 1989, No. 221 (Adj. Sess.), § 17, eff. Oct. 1, 1990; 1999, No. 147 (Adj. Sess.), § 4; 2003, No. 159 (Adj. Sess.), § 10; 2005, No. 174 (Adj. Sess.), § 115; 2007, No. 185 (Adj. Sess.), § 8, eff. Jan. 1, 2009.)