Virgin Islands child support disbursement unit

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  • (a) The Division is designated as the central “State Disbursement Unit” for the collection and disbursement of all child support payments in the Virgin Islands. Effective on January 1, 1998, all child support obligations, and spousal support obligations ordered in conjunction with a child support obligation, whether established or modified by the Superior Court or the Administrative Hearing Office, shall be payable to the Division, and the court or administrative order shall include a provision to this effect. Payments made to the Division shall be distributed in accordance with this section, and in accordance with any other applicable Territorial or Federal law or regulation.

  • (b) The State Disbursement Unit shall utilize the Division's automated child support enforcement system, known as VIPERS, or any other comparable automated system, in order to collect and disburse child support payments from and to appropriate persons or entities, to maintain accurate identification of payments, to ensure prompt disbursements, and to provide timely and current payment records to persons or agencies entitled to same. Specifically, the State Disbursement Unit shall:

    • (1) distribute child support payments received from an employer or other source of periodic payment within 2 business days after receipt, unless sufficient information identifying the payee is not provided, or unless a collection towards child support arrears is on appeal; and in order to facilitate the collection and distribution of support:

    • (2) transmit income withholding notices to an employer or other appropriate entity within 2 business days after receipt of information sufficient to initiate income withholding, using uniform formats prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services; and

    • (3) monitor cases in order to promptly identify failure to make timely payments of support; and

    • (4) if payments are not timely made, in addition to initiating income withholding, utilize all appropriate enforcement procedures as authorized by law.

  • (c) For purposes of this section, business day means a day on which Virgin Islands government offices are open for regular business.


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