Glossary

  • Arrearage: The amount of child support that is past due when payments are not kept up
  • CSEA: Child support enforcement agency
  • Current support: The amount of child support owed in the current month
  • Custodial parent: The person who has legal custody of the child and with whom the child lives. This person may be a parent, other relative, or someone else
  • Genetic testing: A process used to establish paternity - to legally determine the child's father. This process is used when it is not certain who the father may be
  • Income withholding: A process where the CSEA can have child support taken directly from the income of the non-custodial parent. Child support can also be taken from the money the non-custodial parent has in a bank IV-D: CSEAs are sometimes referred to as IV-D (pronounced "Four-D") agencies. This term comes from Title IV-D of the Social Security Act of 1975, which set up the nation's current child support system.
  • Non-custodial parent: The parent who does not have primary custody of the child and who is responsible for child support
  • Obligee: The person who gets the child support, usually the custodial parent. Someone else, such as a relative, could also be the obligee if he or she has legal custody of the child and is the person with whom the child lives
  • Obligor: The person who must pay child support, usually the non-custodial parent
  • Paternity: Fatherhood
  • Poundage: Poundage is a fee paid by the obligor to cover the CSEA's cost of handling the payments. Poundage is paid in addition to child support
  • URESA: Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act- a variety of processes to set up or enforce child support orders when a child's parents live in 2 different states