OCSE Home . Program Information . News . Publications . Policy . State Links . OCSE Search . Help

The Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998 (P.L.105-200) requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) within 90 days after the date of enactment of the Act, to notify the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate of the specific purposes for which the new hire and the wage and unemployment compensation information in the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) is to be used.

Sections 452 and 453 of the Social Security Act (the Act) require the Secretary of HHS to establish and conduct the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS). The FPLS is a computerized national location network which provides address and social security number information to State and local Child Support agencies for the purpose of locating parents to establish or enforce a child support order and to assist authorized persons in resolving parental kidnapping and child custody cases. Section 453 of the Act, as amended by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, and the Taxpayers Relief Act of 1997, directed the Secretary to expand the FPLS in order to improve States' abilities to locate parents and collect child support.

The expanded FPLS includes the NDNH, which became operational October 1, 1997, and the Federal Case Registry of Child Support Orders (FCR), which will be operational October 1, 1998. The NDNH contains new hire information on employees; quarterly wage data on private and public sector employees, and information on unemployment compensation benefits. The FCR is a Federal data base that will contain identifying information on all individuals involved in cases where a child support order has been established or modified after October 1, 1998 and on all individuals involved in cases where the State is providing child support services pursuant to Title IV, Part D of the Act, whether or not an order has been established. The FCR will contain abstracts of support orders and other information described in section 453(h)(2) of the Act with respect to each case and order in each State Case Registry maintained pursuant to section 454A(e) of the Act, as furnished and regularly updated pursuant to section 454A(f) of the Act, by State Child Support agencies.

The purpose of the FCR is to assist States in administering Title IV-D (Child Support) programs and Title IV-A (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) programs under the Social Security Act. The FCR is intended to be used in conjunction with the NDNH to assist States in identifying individuals with child support obligations who are working in other States.

The NDNH and FCR databases will conduct automatic data matches against each other on an on-going basis. These automatic matches will enable the FPLS to determine if a newly hired employee is a participant in a child support case or order anywhere in the country. These automatic matches will also enable the FPLS to alert States when other States have registered the same individuals in cases or orders on the FCR.

With limited exceptions, all requests for NDNH information must be made through the State Parent Locator Service (SPLS) of a particular State. The uses of information contained in the NDNH, as a component of the expanded FPLS, are specified in section 453 of the Act, as amended by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996, the Balanced Budget Reconciliation Act of 1997, the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, and the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998.

• establishing paternity; and

• establishment, modification, or enforcement of child support obligations (section 453(a)).

• The following authorized persons may submit a request through the SPLS pursuant to section 453 of the Act for child support purposes:

• the agent or attorney of a State having a duty or authority to collect child and spousal support (section 453(c));

• a court or agent of the court with authority to issue an order against a noncustodial parent for child support, or to serve as the initiating court in an action to seek a child support order, or to establish, modify, or enforce child support obligations (section 453(c));

• a resident parent, legal guardian, attorney or agent of a child not receiving Title IV-A (TANF) benefits (section 453(c));

• State Child Support agencies (section 453(c)) and section 453(j)(3)).

• A State child welfare agency operating under Titles IV-B or IV-E may submit a request through the SPLS for this purpose. (section 453(c)).

• making or enforcing a child custody or visitation determination; and

• enforcing any Federal or State law regarding the unlawful taking or restraint of a child.

• The following authorized persons may submit a request through the SPLS pursuant to section 463 of the Act for these purposes:

• agents or attorneys of a State who have the duty or authority to investigate, enforce, or prosecute the unlawful taking of a child, or to enforce a child custody or visitation determination; and

• a court or agent of the court with jurisdiction to make or enforce a child custody or visitation determination (section 463(d)(2) and section 463(a)).

• agents or attorneys of the United States who have the authority or duty to investigate, enforce, or prosecute the unlawful taking or restraint of a child, may submit a request for information directly to the FPLS. (section 463(d)(2) and section 463(a))

• State IV-A agencies may receive information from the NDNH in the form of a data match from the FPLS when the Secretary determines that such a match would assist in carrying out the purposes of the Title IV-A program (section 453(j)(3)).

• The Social Security Administration may receive information directly from the Secretary of HHS for the purpose of verification of names, social security numbers, and birth dates of individuals on the NDNH (section 453(j)(1)).

• The Social Security Administration may receive information directly from the NDNH for purposes of determining entitlement and/or continuing eligibility for Title II and Title XVI benefits. Beginning in October of 1998, SSA will match NDNH wage and unemployment compensation data against its Title XVI payment file to detect unreported changes in income. (section 453(j)(4)).

• The Secretary of the Treasury may receive information, through data matches, directly from the NDNH for the purpose of the administration of Federal tax laws. (section 453(h)(3) and section 453(i)(3)).

• The United States Central Authority under the Hague Convention on international child abduction may receive information directly from the FPLS, upon request, for the purpose of locating any parent or child on behalf of an applicant to the Central Authority in a child abduction case. (section 463(e)).

• Researchers may receive data directly from the FPLS, without personal identifiers, for research purposes found by the Secretary to be likely to contribute to achieving the purposes of the Title IV-A or Title IV-D programs. (section 453(j)(5)).

Information contained in the NDNH, a component of the FPLS, may only be disclosed for purposes authorized by Federal legislation, and to legislatively specified persons. Applicable Federal statutes, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Bulletins, Federal Information Processing Standard Publications, and HHS policies establish specific requirements for confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information in the expanded FPLS. Safeguards that support legislation are in place to ensure the accuracy of the expanded FPLS information and to restrict access to authorized persons only, for authorized purposes.