Child Support Enforcement Law Summaries
Kentucky, Child Support Enforcement Law Summaries
Kentucky's child support law is part of the wage garnishment statutes and is located in the Kentucky Revised Statutes Annotated at Title XVII, Chapter 205; Title XXXV, Chapters 405 and 407; and Title XXXIX, Chapter 427.
DEFINITIONS
“Earnings” means compensation paid or payable for personal services whether as wages, salary, commission, bonus, or otherwise, and notwithstanding any other provision of law exempting such payments from garnishment, attachment or other process to satisfy support obligations and specifically includes periodic payments from pension and retirement programs and insurance policies of any kind. “Earnings” includes all gain derived from capital, from labor, or both, including profit gained through sale or conversion of capital assets and unemployment compensation benefits, or any other form of monetary gain. “Disposable earnings” means that part of earnings remaining after deductions of any amounts required by law to be withheld (Sec. 205.710, as amended by H. 161, L. 1998, effective July 15, 1998).
“Income” means but is not limited to any of the following: commissions, bonuses, workers' compensation awards attributable to lost wages, retirement and pensions, interest and disability, earnings, salaries, wages, and other income due or to be due in the future from a person's employer and successor employers; any payment due or to be due in the future from a profit-sharing plan, pension plan, insurance contract, annuity, social security, proceeds derived from state lottery winnings, unemployment compensation, supplemental unemployment benefits, and workers' compensation; and any amount that is due the employee under a support order as a debt of any other individual, partnership, association, or private or public corporation, the United States or any federal agency, this state or any political subdivision of this state, any other state or a political subdivision of another state, or any other legal entity indebted to the individual (Sec. 205.710, as amended by H. 161, L. 1998, effective July 15, 1998).
COVERAGE
Interstate support requirements.- The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act is in effect in Kentucky.
An income withholding order issued in another state may be sent to the employer of the person owing support under the income withholding law of Kentucky without first filing a petition or comparable pleading or registering the order with a Kentucky tribunal (Sec. 407.5501, as amended by H. 159, L. 1998, effective March 23, 1998).
Upon receipt of an income withholding order, an employer must immediately provide a copy of an order to the affected employee (Sec. 407.5502(1), as added by H. 159, L. 1998, effective March 23, 1998).
An employer must treat an income withholding order that has been issued in another state and that appears regular on its face as if it had been issued by a Kentucky tribunal (Sec. 407.5502(2), as added by H. 159, L. 1998, effective March 23, 1998).
Except as otherwise provided below, an employer must withhold and distribute the funds as directed in the withholding order by complying with terms of the order that specify (Sec. 407.5502(3), as added by H. 159, L. 1998, effective March 23, 1998):
the duration and amount of periodic payments of current child support, stated as a sum certain;
the person or agency designated to receive payments and the address to which the payments are to be forwarded;
medical support, whether in the form of periodic cash payment, stated as a sum certain or ordering the employee to provide health insurance coverage for the child under a policy available through employment;
the amount of periodic payments of fees and costs for a support enforcement agency, the issuing tribunal and the other parent's attorney, stated as sums certain; and
the amount of periodic payments or arrearages and interest on arrearages, stated as sums certain.
An employer must comply with the law of the state of the employee's principal place of employment for withholding from income with respect to (Sec. 407.5502(4), as added by H. 159, L. 1998, effective March 23, 1998):
the employer's fee for processing an income withholding order;
the maximum amount permitted to be withheld from the employee's income; and
the times within which the employer must implement the withholding order and forward the child support payment.
Multiple orders.- If an employer receives multiple income withholding orders with respect to the earnings of the same employee, the employer satisfies the terms of the multiple orders if it complies with the law of the state of the employee's principal place of employment to establish the priorities for withholding and allocating income withheld for multiple child support obligees (Sec. 407.5503, as added by H. 159, L. 1998, effective March 23, 1998).
Employer liability.- An employer who complies with an income withholding order issued in another state as described above is not subject to civil liability to an individual or agency with regard to the employer's withholding of child support from an employee's income (Sec. 407.5504, as added by H. 159, L. 1998, effective March 23, 1998).
Penalties.- An employer who willfully fails to comply with an income withholding order issued by another state and received for enforcement is subject to the same penalties that may be imposed for noncompliance with an order issued by a Kentucky tribunal (see “Penalties” below) (Sec. 407.5505, as added by H. 159, L. 1998, effective March 23, 1998).
WHAT THE EMPLOYER MUST DO
Payment amounts.- The withholding order will state the amount to be withheld. The total amount to be withheld, including current support, payment on arrearages plus interest, and medical insurance coverage may not exceed the federal limits (Sec. 405.467, as amended by H. 168, L. 2000). Fifty percent of the disposable earnings against which a support debt is asserted is exempt (Sec. 405.470, as amended by Ch. 365, L. 1996). Garnishment restrictions on payment amounts do not apply to child support withholding (Sec. 427.010).
Fees charged by employers.- The employer may deduct $1.00 for each payment made pursuant to a child support order (Sec. 405.465, as amended by Ch. 149 (H. 155, L. 2005, effective January 1, 2006).
Medical support orders.- Health insurers are prohibited from denying enrollment of a child under the health coverage of the child's parent when the child is born out of wedlock, the child is not claimed as a dependent on the parent's federal income tax return, or the child does not reside with the parent or in the health insurer's area. The insurer must allow a parent who is required by a court or administrative order to provide family health coverage through the insurer to permit the parent to enroll any child who is otherwise eligible for coverage without regard to enrollment season restrictions, to enroll the child upon application by either parent, or the Cabinet for Human Resources, and not to disenroll or eliminate coverage for the child unless the insurer is provided satisfactory written evidence that a court or administrative order requiring coverage of the child is no longer in effect or the child is or will be enrolled in a comparable health coverage plan through another insurer that will take effect no later than the effective date of the disenrollment (Sec. 205.594).
The insurer is required, for children with coverage under a medical support order through the insurance of the noncustodial parent, to provide information to the custodial parent for the child to obtain benefits, to permit the custodial parent or provider, with the consent of the custodial parent, to submit claims for covered services without approval of the noncustodial parent, and to make payment on claims submitted (Sec. 205.597).
If the parent who is required by court or administrative order to provide health coverage is eligible for family health coverage, the employer is required (Sec. 205.595, as amended by H. 161, L. 1998, effective July 15, 1998):
to permit the parent to enroll under family coverage any child who is otherwise eligible for coverage, without regard to any enrollment season restrictions;
in the case where the noncustodial parent provides health care coverage and changes employment, to accept a notice of transfer of the provision to enroll from the Cabinet for Human Resources, the custodial parent or the noncustodial parent, and to enroll the child in the noncustodial parent's health care coverage, unless the noncustodial parent contests the notice;
if a parent is enrolled but fails to make application to obtain coverage for the child, to enroll the child under family coverage upon application by the child's other parent, custodial parent, or by the Cabinet for Human Resources;
not to disenroll or eliminate coverage of a child unless the employer is provided satisfactory written evidence that a court or administrative order requiring coverage of the child is no longer in effect or that the child is or will be enrolled in comparable health coverage that will take effect no later than the effective date of the disenrollment or the employer has eliminated family health coverage for all of its employees; and
to withhold from the employee's compensation the employee's share, if any, of premiums for health coverage up to the federal limit and to pay the share of premiums to the insurer.
Retaliation.- No employer may discharge an employee because his or her earnings have been subjected to garnishment for any one indebtedness (Sec. 427.140). No assignment for child support by an employee is grounds for dismissal, refusal to employ, or taking disciplinary action against any employee (Sec. 405.465, as amended by Ch. 149 (H. 155), L. 2005, effective January 1, 2006).
Priority.- Any assignment made pursuant to a court order has priority against any attachment, execution, or other assignment, unless otherwise ordered by the court (Sec. 405.465, as amended by Ch. 149 (H. 155), L. 2005, effective January 1, 2006). Amounts withheld will be applied first to current monthly child support obligations. Payments exceeding the current monthly child support amount will be applied to the administratively-ordered or judicially-ordered medical support obligation (Sec. 405.467, as amended by H. 168, L. 2000).
Public employees.- Salaries or sums due state, county, city, and school board officers and employees are subject to attachment or garnishment. Service should be made on the Commissioner of Finance and the State Treasurer. The process must specify the name of the employee and the budget unit and division through which the sum is payable (Sec. 427.130).
NOTICE
Notification to employer.- The Cabinet for Families and Children will serve the order to withhold earnings or notice of multiple wage withholding orders specifying wage withholding requirements on the employer by certified mail, return receipt requested. The order will state the amount to be withheld, or the requirement to enroll the child under the health insurance coverage, including amounts to be applied to arrearages, plus interest, and the date withholding is to begin (Sec. 405.467, as amended by H. 168, L. 2000).
Termination of employment.- Employers must notify the Cabinet for Families and Children when an employee for whom a wage withholding is in effect terminates employment. The employer must also provide the terminated employee's last known address and the name and address of the terminated employee's new employer, if known (Sec. 405.465, as amended by Ch. 149 (H. 155), L. 2005, effective January 1, 2006).
Effective January 1, 2006, an employer with 20 or more employees shall notify in writing the cabinet, or its designee administering the support order, of any lump sum payment of any kind of $150 or more to be made to an employee under a wage withholding order. An employer with 20 or more employees shall notify in writing the cabinet or its designee no later than 45 days before the lump sum payment is to be made or, if the employee's right to the lump sum payment is determined less than 45 days before it is to be made, the date on which that determination is made. After notification, the employer shall hold each lump sum payment of $150 or more for 30 days after the date on which it would otherwise be paid to the employee and, on order of the court, pay all or a specified amount of the lump sum payment to the Division of Child Support. The employer may deduct the sum of $1.00 for each payment (Sec. 405.465(6)(a), as amended by Ch. 149 (H. 155), L. 2005, effective January 1, 2006).
PENALTIES
An employer who willfully violates the prohibition against terminating an employee for any indebtedness may be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year or both (Sec. 427.990).
The employer is liable to the Cabinet for Families and Children for any amount that it fails to withhold from earnings due following receipt of an order to withhold earnings. Remedies provided apply to applicable support orders issued in other states (Sec. 405.467, as amended by H. 168, L. 2000).
Any person or corporation who fires, refuses to hire, or takes disciplinary action against an employee because of a child support withholding order or who fails to withhold under the order will be fined not more than $500 or be imprisoned in the county jail for not more than one year or both (Sec. 405.991, as amended by H. 161, L. 1998, effective July 15, 1998).
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