2008 Amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act ...

(3) medical support, whether in the form of periodic cash payment, stated as a
sum certain, or ordering the obligor to provide health insurance coverage for the child under a
policy available through the obligor’s employment;
(4) the amount of periodic payments of fees and costs for a support enforcement
agency, the issuing tribunal, and the obligee’s attorney, stated as sums certain; and
stated as sums certain.
(5) the amount of periodic payments of arrearages and interest on arrearages,
(d) An employer shall comply with the law of the State state of the obligor’s principal
place of employment for withholding from income with respect to:
(1) the employer’s fee for processing an income-withholding order;
(2) the maximum amount permitted to be withheld from the obligor’s income; and
(3) the times within which the employer must implement the withholding order
and forward the child-support payment.
Comment
In 1996 major employers and national payroll associations urged NCCUSL to supply
more detail regarding the rights and duties of an employer on receipt of an income-withholding
order from another state. The Conference obliged with amendments to UIFSA establishing a
series of steps for employers to follow.
When an employer receives an income withholding order from another state, the first step
is to notify the employee that an income withholding order has been received naming the
employee as the obligor of child support, and that income withholding will begin within the time
frame specified by local law. In other words, the employer will initially proceed just as if the
withholding order had been received from a tribunal of the employer’s state. It is the
responsibility of the employee to take whatever protective measures are necessary to prevent the
withholding if the employee asserts a defense as provided in Section 506, infra.
At this point neither an initiating nor a responding tribunal is directly involved. The
withholding order may have been forwarded by the obligee, the obligee’s attorney, or the out-ofstate
IV-D agency. In fact, there is no prohibition against anyone sending a valid copy of an
income-withholding order, even a stranger to the litigation, such as the child’s grandparent.
Subsection (a) does not specify the method for sending this relatively informal notice for direct
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