Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

266 Amy E. Schwartz and Sharon Stapel
either through the Child Support Enforcement Unit, a private attorney, or on their
own. 73 If not, they must cooperate with paternity establishment and child support
collection and enforcement activities as a condition for receipt of benefits. 74
If a client is seeking only child care assistance benefits and has domestic
violence-related safety concerns associated with paternity establishment and
support collection activities, she is not eligible for child support-related waivers
under the Family Violence Option. However, the client could instead pursue a
“good cause exception” for refusal to participate with activities that may place
her and her children at risk of physical or emotional harm. 75 (The process is
discussed more fully in the following section.) If such a claim is raised, the client
will be asked to specify the circumstances that provide the basis of the claim,
corroborate the claim and, possibly, provide additional information in order to
permit an investigation. 76 Notably, an FVO waiver issued to a former TA
recipient within the last twelve months will be considered a demonstration of
good cause, but waivers older than twelve months will require a determination of
good cause. 77 When good cause claims involve domestic violence, child care
caseworkers can make the determination themselves or refer the client to the
DVL for a more complete assessment and recommendation regarding the
credibility of the claim. The child care caseworker and a supervisor will then
make a final determination about the claim. 78 Child care caseworkers also have
the authority to refer the client to the DVL or to a domestic violence program for
information and referral, but the client need not seek domestic violence services
as a condition of the receipt of a good cause exception. 79
Child Support, Spousal Support, Maintenance,
and Equitable Distribution Issues
As a condition of eligibility, public assistance recipients assign their rights
to collect child support, spousal support, or maintenance to the Department of
Social Services (DSS). 80 In other words, the local social services district, and
not the public assistance recipient, receives these support payments. This is
especially problematic for many survivors who may face the threat of violence
or other retaliation when the local district files a petition for support, enforces
an existing order, or attempts to establish the abuser as father of the child in
paternity proceedings. Recipients do not have control of the petitioning process
and often do not even know if and when a petition has been filed by DSS.
Recipients cannot file for child support without the knowledge and assistance of
DSS, although they may request child support and maintenance as a part of a
Family Court or divorce action, so long as this money is payable to the Office