SECTIONS: Enforcement and Supervision | Modification | Medical Judgments
Enforcement and Supervision
Immediately following the filing of any temporary or final support order in either the District Court of Harvey County, Kansas or McPherson County, Kansas, Trustee will determine if the support order is authorize for enforcement and supervision by Trustee. If an authorized support order, Trustee will take the following actions:
- Trustee will then open a case file, set up an account with the Kansas Payment Center (KPC) and issue an Income Withholding Order (IWO) on wage income if one has not been filed. The IWO is required in most cases and is a garnishment on your wages. The IWO orders the employer to withhold from wages a certain allowable amount each pay period to satisfy the support obligation. If prior to this date the monthly support payments were paid directly without the required IWO, you will need to stop paying directly immediately. See IWO below for further information.
- If support is not being timely paid, Trustee will send a letter to the party responsible to pay (Payor) requesting contact with the Trustee within 7 days. If Payor timely contacts the Trustee, Payor is requested to explain the nonpayment. If there is good cause for nonpayment the party will be expected to contact the Trustee every two weeks thereafter until payments are made. If party does not contact Trustee or does not provide good cause for nonpayment then contempt proceeding are filed against the party. See CONTEMPT below for further information.
- Trustee will pursue garnishment of financial institution accounts and request set off toward the support obligation from any allowable amounts owed to Payor from the State of Kansas against Payors with a history of nonpayment.
- Trustee will provide an accurate and prompt account balance of any support order upon request. Note the Kansas Payment Center (KPC) cannot provide account balances.
IWO: An Income Withholding Order (IWO) consists of the employer withholding money from Payor’s paycheck in accordance with an order of the court. Kansas law provides that after July 1, 1993, all new or modified orders for child support shall provide for immediate issuance of an income withholding order. An immediate issuance of an income withholding order in cases with only a spousal support (alimony) order is allowed after two months of nonpayment. The language of the court order determines the timing of the income withholding order. NOTE: If an IWO is entered there may be some delay in the initial payment of a new or modified support order. If payment is not received within 15 to 30 days of when an IWO was entered contact Trustee.
Employers are allowed a certain time from the date the support ordered was granted to implement income withholding into their payroll system. Therefore, there may some delay in only the initial payment. Payors are advised to pay their support directly to the Kansas Payment Center (KPC) until such time as deductions begin from their earnings.
By statute, support must be deducted evenly among the pay-periods of the employee. Once the employer begins remitting payments, those payments will usually fall into a pattern of paying monthly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or weekly. All payments are made through KPC.
Example:
The court order is $500.00 monthly:
If the payor is paid weekly, we multiply $500.00 by 12 (the months in the year) and then divide it by 52 weeks to get the weekly pay amount of $115.38.
If the payor is paid bi-weekly (every other week–26 paydays a year), we multiply $500.00 by 12 (months in the year) and then divide it by 26 to get the bi-weekly amount of $230.77.
If the payor is paid semi-monthly (1st & the 15th etc…24 paydays a year) we multiply $500.00 by 12 (months of the year) and divide it by 24 to get the semi-monthly amount of $250.00.
If, after receiving support on a regular basis through income withholding, a payment is not received within 7 days of normal receipt, please notify Trustee.
The Income Withholding order requires the employer to deduct a designated amount of money each pay period. The total amount deducted from each pay period will be limited to 50% of the Payor’s disposable income.
CONTEMPT: Payors who do not make support payments as ordered may be served with a Citation in Contempt and Order to Appear. Service is generally attempted through the County Sheriff. If Payor is living outside the jurisdiction of the Sheriff, service may be made by the Sheriff in the county in which Payor resides (if in Kansas) or by certified mail if Payor is residing in another state. In some instances orders are also served by Special Process Server.
When served with the Order to Appear, Payor is given a hearing date and is ordered to appear before the Court on Trustee’s allegations of contempt. These hearings take place with Trustee and Payor at either the Harvey County Courthouse or McPherson County Courthouse.
If Payor has been personally served with an Order to Appear and fails to appear for the Court
hearing, a warrant for an arrest may be issued.
Modification
If Trustee is authorized to enforce and supervise the child support order then a party can request Trustee to conduct a review of the child support order. A review of child support is appropriate every three years or when substantial change of circumstances exist. Unless child support terminates, (see below), child support does not automatically change when appropriate. Before the amount of child support can change, a party must first request a review from the Trustee, their attorney or the Court directly. Second the Court must approve of any modification. Parties always have the right to retain their own attorney to pursue a review of the child support order.
To commence a review the party must complete an Abbreviated Domestic Relations Affidavit (DRA). You can either contact Trustee and request this affidavit be mailed to you or download this affidavit here (click here). This affidavit is required to be signed before a notary public. If you do not have access to a notary public one is available at Trustee’s office. Trustee upon receipt of a completed DRA will seek other information to complete a review. If Trustee determines a modification of the child support is appropriate a motion requesting this modification is filed. The effective date of the modification requested is the first day of the month immediately following the expiration of 30 days from the filing date of the motion with the District Court. An illustration: the motion is filed on March 15, the requested effective date is May 1. A court hearing on this motion is scheduled and parties are notified of this hearing date. Trustee cannot represent either party at this hearing and will only advocate for the child support amount Trustee computed and believes is in the best interest of the child. If the party objects to Trustee’s motion, retaining their own attorney is strongly recommended. The Judge at this hearing will decide whether the child support is modified.
The main factors in the computation of child support are the parties’ gross wages, costs of health insurance coverage on their children, work related daycare costs, age of children, the parties’ state residency; whether spousal support is paid or received; whether child support is paid in other cases. The party ordered to pay child support (Payor) may not be allow to include a child residing with Payor from a different relationship to lower child support but may be allowed to reduce any proposed increase.
Also, Trustee’s review of the child support order must be based on the existing custody/parenting time order. Trustee’s review will not be based on a custody/parenting time arrangement that is contrary to Court’s order. Even if the arrangement is agreed to by the parties such arrangement must be approved by the Court before same will be considered in Trustee’s review. Though custody/parenting time relate to child support Trustee cannot resolve any contested child custody or parenting time matter. Trustee office can provide some limited assistance if parties are in agreement on these matters. However, Trustee cannot represent the parties in these cases. No attorney-client relationship exists between Trustee and the parties. Retaining an attorney is strongly recommended.
For additional information on the computation of child support, please refer to the Kansas Child Support Guidelines (click here).
Child support will terminate when the child reaches 18 years of age, unless (a) the parties have agreed, by written agreement approved by the court to pay support beyond the time the child reaches 18 years; (b) the child reaches 18 years of age but is still a bona fide high school student, in which case child support shall continue until graduation; (c) the child is still a bona fide high school student after the school year during which the child became 18 years of age. In such case a motion must be filed to continue support through the school year during which the child become 19 years of age, so long the child is a bona fide high school student and the parties jointly participated or knowingly acquiesced in the decision which delayed the child’s completion of high school.
In cases where there are multiple children and child support terminates as to oldest child, the total monthly child support amount will be reduced automatically on a pro rata basis. For example: the total monthly child supports is $300 for three children; support for oldest child terminates on May 15, the monthly child support is reduced to $200 on June 1. When support for second oldest child support terminates, the monthly child support is reduced to $100. However, in these instances a review of the child support order as describe above is appropriate.
Trustee cannot conduct reviews of spousal support (alimony) orders. Trustee can only enforce these orders.
Medical Judgments
As of January 1, 2020, the additional service provided by Trustee in obtaining reimbursement of uninsured health care costs of children from nonpaying parent has been terminated. The Kansas Child Support Guidelines changed on January 1, 2020 and now provide a better process for parties to obtain this reimbursement on their own or with assistance of an attorney. See section IV.D.4.b. of these guidelines. However, if parties agree to the amount or agree to Trustee enforcing this amount, then Trustee will prepare and file with Court the related Agreed Order upon request.