Effective May 1, 2020, the California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) is distributing child support collections from federal tax intercepts in cases where the custodial parent is not currently receiving CalWORKs to the custodial parent. DCSS states that this has been an option since 2005 but California has not implemented it. DCSS states that Governor Newsom’s
Executive Order N-52-20 requires it to exercise this option.
Going forward, child support collections from federal tax intercepts will be applied to current support first, which means the collection will be paid to the family first before being applied top government-owed arrears when the family is not currently receiving CalWORKs. (CSSP Letter 20-05, August 10, 2020.)