Establishes procedures for obtaining information on persons delinquent in child support payments and allows motor vehicle registration suspensions

2 Co-sponsors

• Martin J. Golden
• Andrew J. Lanza

Title of bill

An act to amend the social services law, in relation to establishing procedures for obtaining from phone companies information regarding individuals who are delinquent in child support payments; and to amend the social services law, the domestic relations law, the family court act and the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to providing for the suspension of motor vehicle registrations for non-payment of child support obligations

Purpose

This bill adds providers of mobile, cellular or satellite telephone services telephone to the list of companies that may be served an administrative subpoena.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 amends section 111-s of the social services law to add providers of mobile, cellular or satellite telephone services to the list of companies that may be served an administrative subpoena.

Specifies information needed by an agency to request information by a cellular phone company.

Establishes procedures for the office of temporary and disability assistance to obtain information from cellular phone companies in order to establish the whereabouts of someone who is delinquent in child support and cannot be located.

Requires that any information obtained through such procedures shall be confidential and only used for child support enforcement purposes.

Allows the cellular phone companies to charge a fee to the agency for the actual cost of performing the records search.

Requires the commissioner of the office of temporary and disability assistance to promulgate the necessary rules and regulations.

Sections 2-5 amend the social services law, the domestic relations law, the family court law and the vehicle and traffic law by allowing for the suspension of motor vehicle registration for child support enforcement purposes.

Existing law

Existing law allows for administrative subpoenas to be issued for telephone records and other utility records, but does not specify cellular or mobile service phone records. Currently, an individual's driving privileges may be suspended for purposes of child support enforcement but provisions are not made with regard to vehicle registration.

Justification

The amount of unpaid child support in New York State is nearly $650 million. While a number of enforcement mechanisms have been given to child support collection agencies over the years, the fact that fewer people have landline telephones today makes it more difficult to track nonpayers. Other states have found that a way to locate the whereabouts of nonpaying parents is through the use of cellular phone records. In Virginia they found 840 new data matches per year, and about 400 of these people are now paying their child support as a result of the program. In a state like New York this number would likely be much higher. This legislation would allow child support collection agencies to issue administrative subpoenas to telephone service providers to locate nonpayers.

Currently, New York suspends the licenses of individuals who are behind in child support payments. However, while license suspension can be a useful tool, law enforcement tell us that many unlicensed individuals continue driving for years without being detected. The suspension of a car's registration would make it far more difficult to evade law enforcement. In addition to cars, this provision would allow for the registration suspension of all vehicles registered in New York, including trucks, ATV's, motorcycles and boats.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

Minimal if any to the state.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.