Overview of Requirements and Procedures

By virtue of changes in the various income withholding statutes, all support orders and withholding notices must now include the obligor’s social security number. 750 ILCS 28/20(a)(3). Withholding notices should direct the payor to withhold the dollar amount required for current support and arrearage payments; direct enrollment and withholding for insurance; state the amount of the fee allowed for withholding; state that the amount actually withheld, including the fee, cannot be in excess of the Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act guidelines; and state the duties, fines, and penalties applicable to payors as well as the rights, remedies, and duties of the obligor. 750 ILCS 28/20(c)(6). Illinois law also requires that the withholding notice include the date that withholding for current support terminates (750 ILCS 28/20(c)(1)), but the federal form requires the termination date for all payments, not simply the current one. Procedures regarding delinquency have also been changed, and “delinquency” has been redefined as “any payment under an order for support which becomes due and remains unpaid after entry of the order for support.” 750 ILCS 28/15(a)(4)(c).

Income withholding notices may now be served on payors by ordinary or certified mail, facsimile transmission or other electronic means, personal delivery, or any other means provided by law for service of a summons. 750 ILCS 28/20(g). When the notice is first served, a copy “shall” be sent to the obligor by ordinary mail (even if the obligor already received one during the court proceedings). Id.

Effective July 1, 1998, parents also have an enforceable continuing duty to update employment information:

An order entered under this Section shall include a provision requiring the obligor to report to the obligee and to the clerk of court within 10 days each time the obligor obtains new employment, and each time the obligor’s employment is terminated for any reason. The report shall be in writing and shall, in the case of new employment, include the name and address of the new employer. Failure to report new employment or the termination of current employment, if coupled with non-payment of support for a period in excess if 60 days, is indirect criminal contempt. For any obligor arrested for failure to report new employment bond shall be set in the amount of the child support that should have been paid during the period of unreported employment. An order entered under this Section shall also include a provision requiring the obligor and obligee parents to advise each other of a change in residence within 5 days of the change except when the court finds that the physical, mental, or emotional health of a party or that of a child, or both, would be seriously endangered by disclosure of the party’s address. [Emphasis added.] 750 ILCS 5/505(h).

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