A simplified process of paying child support both for individuals and for employers with income withholding orders for employees will soon be in operation in Kansas.

The Kansas Payment Center will give people making child support payments and employers who are complying with income withholding orders one place to send all Kansas child support payments. Those receiving child support payments will be able to inquire about the status of their payments through an automated telephone line operating 24 hours a day.

Tier Technologies, Inc., Walnut Creek, Calif., was awarded the contract to create the payment center earlier this year by the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS). The transfer of child support payment processing to a centralized location was required by federal welfare reform law.

Tier will begin the process of supplying information about the payment center by sending informational letters to Kansas employers in the near future. Then as the center nears operation, individual, court-order specific notices will be mailed both to employers and to individuals making child support payments.

Presently, child support and maintenance payments in Kansas are processed in all 105 counties, and some employers with income withholding orders may have to send income withheld to several different counties.

"This will be a simplified process for employers who have had to shoulder a lot of the responsibility for collecting child support from those delinquent with their payments," said Jim Robertson, director of Child Support Enforcement for SRS. Robertson estimated that having the payment center will save Kansas businesses up to $3 million a year through efficiencies, including postage and check handling costs.

Brochures are also being developed about the Kansas Payment Center which will be available in all SRS offices across the state and in district court offices.

Among options for employers making payments will be to submit payments electronically through the banking network known as the Automated Clearing House.

Only child support and maintenance payments that are currently being sent to Kansas Clerks of the District Court and District Court Trustees should be sent to the Kansas Payment Center when the system becomes operational. Payments that are currently being sent to child support agencies in other states should not be sent to the payment center.

No payments should be sent to the Kansas Payment Center prior to individual, court-order specific notices being received.

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001