Download If you are a Custodial Parent

If you are a Custodial Parent:
The parent who has primary residence
of the children, or who is owed child
support through an Order for Child
Support is called the “Custodial Parent”
or “CP.” DSER’s services are primarily
geared toward helping the CP obtain
financial support for the children living
in her or his home. As a CP, you have a
very important role in your child’s life!
There are three ways that DSER helps CPs:
1. If you receive TANF benefits: Because DHHS sends State money to your household
as a public assistance grant, you will “assign” your right to child support to DHHS to
pay back that money. In other words, the other parent, who is obligated to financially
support your children, will send child support to the State to reimburse the money sent
to your household by the TANF program.
2. Full Services: If you have never received TANF benefits on behalf of your children,
or if you have received TANF and no longer need it or are now ineligible to receive it,
you may apply for full services and receive paternity, establishment and
collection/enforcement services from DSER. To see a detailed Guide to DSER Services,
click here.
DSER has a wide range of mechanisms to encourage parents who are ordered to
support their children to keep current on their child support obligation. This includes
tools not available to collection agencies, such as garnishing wages, seizing assets,
intercepting tax refunds, liening property and taking professional, recreational and
automotive licenses and passports. If you contract with DSER, you allow us to use
these methods to help collect child support for your children.
Also, DSER will help you to modify your case when necessary, and will go to court as a
representative of the Department when the parent who owes you child support is
habitually behind or “in arrears.” In extreme cases, DSER may ask a Court to force the
other parent to seek work, or to send him or her to jail for chronic non-payment of
support. Assistant Attorney Generals represent DHHS’s interests in these matters. If
you would like representation of your own interests, you may hire an attorney.
3. Limited Services: In a limited services case, if you or the other parent serves an
income withholding order, the Department will process those payments. The
Department's only responsibility on a limited services case is to accept and disburse
payments. The Department will keep records of payments received.
In Limited Service cases the Department does not locate the other parent or the other
parent’s employer, serve income withholding orders, intercept the other parent’s tax
returns, gambling proceeds or lottery winnings, attach unemployment compensation or
workers’ compensation payments, lien property, or take the other parent’s licenses if
the he or she fails to pay child support. The Department provides this help only in a full
service case.
If you receive limited services and would like us to employ the methods above to collect
your child support, you may ask for full services at any time. Contact any Division of
Support Enforcement and Recovery office and ask for a “non-welfare application for
services,” or click here for an application.
4. Medical Expense Reimbursement
If you would like DSER to help you receive reimbursement for medical bills which your
support order requires the other parent to pay or share, do the following:
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Notify the non-custodial parent of the paid bills in writing, enclosing copies of
them, and requesting payment or the making of a satisfactory arrangement for
payment of the non-custodial parent's share of them within 30 days.
If neither payment nor satisfactory arrangement for payment is made within 30
days from date of mailing of the letter to the non-custodial parent, mail a copy of
the letter and the paid bills to, Case Review Unit, DSER, 11 State House Station,
Augusta, Maine 04333. Be sure to keep a copy of all documents for yourself.
In your cover letter, please remember to give your case number and the date you
mailed the letter to the non-custodial parent. The Case Review Unit will forward
this material to the enforcement agent handling your case, and DSER will then
take steps to establish an enforceable legal debt against the non-custodial parent
for the reimbursement to which you may be entitled.
You can help DSER in its efforts to obtain medical expense reimbursement for you by
doing the following:
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Always include an itemized calculation of what is owed to you.
Do not submit bills to DSER more than once every three months, unless the new
un-reimbursed amount is high; and
Do not keep un-reimbursed bills for more than a year before submitting them to
DSER.
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Remember that DSER cannot seek reimbursement for any medical bills that you
haven’t paid yet.
A note about the Special Responsibilities of the CP: You are primarily responsible for
ensuring that your child’s day to day needs for growth and development are met, and
sometimes must do so on a limited budget. In addition to your love and emotional
support, physical presence and assurance that you will always be there when your
children need you, remembering not to cast a negative light on the other parent, even if
he or she is late or delinquent in paying child support, will help to ease the stress of
divorce for them. Remember to put your kids’ needs and feelings first, even if you are
angry, frustrated or hurt over the actions of the other parent. Your kids will thank you
for your unselfish devotion to their needs during what is a difficult time for the entire
family, and for keeping them out of the middle of an adult dispute.