The child support and paternity determination services established by the department pursuant to this chapter and other appropriate services provided by law including but not limited to the provisions of chapters 239, 252A, 252C, 252D, 252E, 252F, 598, and 600B shall be made available by the unit to an individual not otherwise eligible as a public assistance recipient upon application by the individual for the services. The application shall be filed with the department.
1. The director shall require an application fee of five dollars.
2. The director may require an additional fee to cover the costs incurred by the department in providing the support collection and paternity determination services.
a. The director shall, by rule, establish and inform all applicants for support enforcement and paternity determination services of the fee schedule.
b. The additional fee for services may be deducted from the amount of the support money recovered by the department or may be collected from the recipient of the services following recovery of support money by the department.
3. When the unit intercepts a federal tax refund of an obligor for payment of delinquent support and the funds are due to a recipient of services who is not otherwise eligible for public assistance, the unit shall deduct a twenty-five dollar fee from the funds before forwarding the balance to the recipient.
a. The unit shall inform the recipient of the fee under this subsection prior to assessment.
b. The fee shall be assessed only to individuals who receive support from the federal tax refund offset program. If the tax refund due the recipient is less than fifty dollars, the fee shall not be assessed.
4. The department may adopt rules to establish fees which provide for recovery of administrative costs of the program in addition to other fees identified.
5. Fees collected pursuant to this section shall be retained by the department for use by the unit. The director or a designee shall keep an accurate record of funds so retained.
6. An application fee paid by a recipient of services pursuant to subsection 1 may be recovered by the unit from the person responsible for payment of support and if recovered, shall be used to reimburse the recipient of services.
a. The fee shall be an automatic judgment against the person responsible to pay support.
b. This subsection shall serve as constructive notice that the fee is a debt due and owing, is an automatic judgment against the person responsible for support, and is assessed as the fee is paid by a recipient of services. The fee may be collected in addition to any support payments or support judgment ordered, and no further notice or hearing is required prior to collecting the fee.
c. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, the unit may collect the fee through any legal means by which support payments may be collected, including but not limited to income withholding under chapter 252D or income tax refund offsets, unless prohibited under federal law.
d. The unit is not required to file these judgments with the clerk of the district court, but shall maintain an accurate accounting of the fee assessed, the amount of the fee, and the recovery of the fee.
e. Support payments collected shall not be applied to the recovery of the fee until all other support obligations under the support order being enforced, which have accrued through the end of the current calendar month, have been paid or satisfied in full.
f. This subsection applies to fees that become due on or after July 1, 1992.
[C77, 79, 81, § 252B.4]
83 Acts, ch 153, § 16; 92 Acts, ch 1195, § 101, 102; 93 Acts, ch 78, §6, 7; 93 Acts, ch 79, §37
Referred to in § 252B.2, 252H.5
Deadline for initial rules implementing subsection 4; items to be considered; 93 Acts, ch 78, §49
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