Direct Support & the State Disbursement Unit Overview

CalWORKs — Direct Child/Medical/Spousal Support

(EAS 82-518, 82-520, MPP 12-425)

Informing

The EW must advise the applicant/recipient of the requirement to:

Send any child/medical/spousal support payments received directly to the SDU at PO Box 989067, W. Sacramento, CA 95798

Take the payment to the DCSS at 888 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95131.

The EW must also advise the applicant/recipient of the penalty for failing to turn in any support payments. The AU will be penalized a 25% reduction in the computed grant amount, if the directly received child/medical/spousal support payments are kept and are not turned into SDU or the DCSS. Clients are not required to turn in the child/medical/spousal support in the month of application; however, the retained child/medical/spousal support will be used in determining the averaged income for the quarter.

The EW must notify DCSS when the client receives direct support payments, including situations in which the NCP is paying the client's expenses directly to the provider. The EW must manually check the box in Section A of the CW 371 indicating the recipient is receiving direct support payments and action is needed to immediately transfer payments to SDU. A copy of the CW 371 must be scanned into Imaging. A “Social Services Agency/Department of Child Support Services” SC 1603 may be submitted in place of the CW 371 when a referral has already been made.

Reminder: If the NCP is paying all or a portion of the recipient’s expenses directly to the provider, there is nothing for the recipient to turn in to Social Services; therefore, the 25% penalty would not apply in this situation, unless the client failed to cooperate with the DCSS.

Treatment of Directly Received Support

The recipient must turn in the WHOLE amount of child/medical/spousal support. The disregard is issued by SDU in the following month.

Do not advise the recipient to keep the disregard portion of the direct child/medical/spousal support payment. This results in errors in which two (2) disregards may be allowed, as SDU will have no record of the one the recipient kept. It also affects the federal funding to the state DCSS, which is based on the total amount of child/medical/spousal support collected.
The direct child/medical/spousal support must be turned in during the month received in order to receive the disregard. The exception to this would be if the support were received on the last day of the month and it is a weekend or holiday.
Explain that there may be a time lapse before the first disregard check is issued.
Any child/medical/spousal support received directly by the recipient and kept is considered income in the month it is received. When this occurs the recipient is allowed the disregard. There are no disregard sanctions. If the recipient keeps the child/medical/spousal support, the disregard is given.
- Reminder: The 25% penalty must be applied for CalWORKs, if the client fails or refuses to turn in direct support after the month of application. Refer to “CalWORKs —Sanction/Penalty Procedures,” page 31-20 for CalWORKs sanction procedures. (EAS 82-510)
Child/medical/spousal support received directly by the client and sent in to the SDU or DCSS in the same month is not considered income available to the client and is not used in the budgeting process; however, it must be considered in determining the Income Eligibility Tests.
It is considered a mid-quarter change report when a client who was previously keeping child support begins to turn it in. The EW must recompute the averaged income for the quarter and revise the budget, if applicable.

Procedure for Turning in Support Payments

The Social Services staff must not accept any support payments brought into the District Office. If a recipient comes into a District Office to turn in the child/medical/spousal support payment, instruct them to mail the payment directly to the:

State Disbursement Unit
P. O. Box 989067
West Sacramento, CA 95798

Take their payment directly to:

Department of Child Support Services (DCSS)
880 Ridder Park Drive
San Jose, CA 95131

Budgeting

If a recipient is to be penalized for failing to turn in the direct child/medical/spousal support received:

The amount of child/medical/spousal support received is counted as unearned income, and
The AU's eligibility for the disregard must be explored.

The fact that a recipient does not turn in the direct support does not mean that the AU does not receive the disregard.

Example 1Example 1 A mother has been receiving and keeping the $300 received each month directly from the absent parent. The EW has properly notified her and the 25% penalty will be applied.

Example 2Example 2 If there is more than one absent parent, the AU may only receive one disregard. Therefore, in the above example, if there were a second parent paying SDU directly, the disregard would be allowed through the SDU distribution process.

Refusal

All applicants/recipients of CalWORKs are required to cooperate by turning over direct child/medical/spousal support payments from the NCP. When a client refuses/fails to turn over direct support and has not claimed Good Cause, there is no need to contact DCSS before applying the penalty. The applicant/recipient is penalized with a 25% reduction in the computed grant amount for failure to cooperate.

For intake, the penalty is applied prospectively.
For continuing, the penalty is applied for the future month, providing a timely (10-day) and adequate NOA to the AU.

Note: A CW 371 is to be sent to DCSS notifying them that the client is receiving direct child support and is refusing/failing to turn it in and requesting the child support payments be transferred to SDU. A copy of the completed CW 371 must also be scanned into Imaging. A “Social Services Agency/Department of Child Support Services” referral form SC 1603 may be used when a referral has already been sent.

Effect of Refusal on Medi-Cal Status

When an applicant or recipient parent or caretaker relative of a child for whom aid is sought refuses or fails to cooperate with the DCSS in paternity establishment or child/medical support enforcement, this individual remains a member of the AU. The AU cash grant is reduced by 25%, and Medi-Cal will continue for the individual until a determination can be made whether the applicant/recipient is willing to cooperate with the Medi-Cal Support requirements. The client must be given another opportunity to cooperate. Discontinue Medi-Cal benefits with a 10-day NOA if the client still refuses or fails to cooperate.