42-358.02. Delinquent child support payments, spousal support payments, and medical support payments; interest; rate; report; Title IV-D Division; duties.

(1) All delinquent child support payments, spousal support payments, and medical support payments shall draw interest at the rate specified in section 45-103 in effect on the date of the most recent order or decree. Such interest shall be computed as simple interest.

(2) All child support payments, spousal support payments, and medical support payments shall become delinquent the day after they are due and owing, except that no obligor whose support payments are automatically withheld from his or her paycheck shall be regarded or reported as being delinquent or in arrears if (a) any delinquency or arrearage is solely caused by a disparity between the schedule of the obligor's regular pay dates and the scheduled date the support payment is due, (b) the total amount of support payments to be withheld from the paychecks of the obligor and the amount ordered by the support order are the same on an annual basis, and (c) the automatic deductions for support payments are continuous and occurring. Interest shall not accrue until thirty days after such payments are delinquent.

(3) The court shall order the determination of the amount of interest due, and such interest shall be payable in the same manner as the support payments upon which the interest accrues subject to subsection (2) of this section or unless it is waived by agreement of the parties. The Title IV-D Division of the Department of Health and Human Services shall compute interest and identify delinquencies pursuant to this section on the payments received by the State Disbursement Unit pursuant to section 42-369. The Title IV-D Division shall provide the case information in electronic format, and upon request in print format, to the judge presiding over domestic relations cases and to the county attorney or authorized attorney.

(4) Support order payments shall be credited in the following manner:

(a) First, to the payments due for the current month in the following order: Child support payments, then spousal support payments, and lastly medical support payments;

(b) Second, toward any payment arrearage owing, in the following order: Child support payment arrearage, then spousal support payment arrearage, and lastly medical support payment arrearage; and

(c) Third, toward the interest on any payment arrearage, in the following order: Child support payment arrearage interest, then spousal support payment arrearage interest, and lastly medical support payment arrearage interest.

(5) Interest which may have accrued prior to September 6, 1991, shall not be affected or altered by changes to this section which take effect on such date. All delinquent support order payments and all decrees entered prior to such date shall draw interest at the effective rate as prescribed by this section commencing as of such date.

Source

Annotations

The district court erred, as a matter of law, in failing to account for the effective date of the amended statute as triggering a change in the applicable interest rate. Prior to September 6, 1991, interest on delinquent child support payments accrues at a rate determined by section 45-104.01, and as of September 6, 1991, interest on delinquent child support payments accrues at a rate determined by section 45-103. Welch v. Welch, 246 Neb. 435, 519 N.W.2d 262 (1994).