46-445. Electronic transfer of support payments; warrants; definition

A. The department shall establish a mandatory process to transfer support payments electronically. Under this process, the department or its agent shall disburse support payments electronically to an account designated by the obligee or an alternate account that can be accessed by the obligee through an electronic access card.

B. On establishment of the process prescribed in subsection A, electronic transfer of support payments is mandatory unless a hardship exemption is granted. The department or its agent shall provide a notice to each obligee that includes the following:

1. That the obligee has ten days after the date of the notice to complete an authorization for automatic deposit form and return it to the department and that the department or its agent will issue an electronic access card for receipt of support payments unless the obligee claims a hardship exemption pursuant to subsection C, paragraph 3.

2. That a request for a hardship exemption must be in writing and include documentation that supports the request.

3. Information on the use and restrictions associated with the use of an electronic access card.

C. The department may authorize the generation of a payment by warrant if any of the following conditions applies:

1. Generation of a warrant is necessary to meet federal requirements and electronic transfer is not feasible.

2. The obligee is involved in legal proceedings that require payments to be sent to a trustee or representative payee.

3. The obligee has not requested automatic deposit to a designated account of the obligee and has asserted in writing that the use of an electronic access card will create an undue hardship because of a documented physical or mental disability.

D. The director may adopt rules to implement this section.

E. For the purposes of this section, " electronic access card" means a stored value card that is issued by the department or its agents and in which support payments are deposited electronically in the same manner as automatic or direct deposit.