FINDING THE NONCUSTODIAL PARENT

When a person makes a legal claim against another, the defendant must be given notice of the legal action to take the necessary steps to protect his or her rights. Therefore the most important information that you can provide is the noncustodial parent’s Social Security number and any employer information that you know about.

In most cases, the child support agency must know where the other parent lives or works to establish the paternity of a child, obtain an order for support, and enforce that order. To notify the noncustodial parent in advance – for example, by certified mail or personal service – under the state’s service of process requirements child support officials need a correct address. If you do not have the address, the child support office can try to find it.

To assist in finding noncustodial parents state and tribal child support agencies, with due process and security safeguards, have access to information from the following:

▪ public assistance agency
▪ motor vehicle department
▪ law enforcement departments
• Records of private entities like public utilities and cable television companies (such as names and addresses of individuals and their employers as they appear in customer records)
• Credit bureaus
• State and local government:
▪ vital statistics
▪ state tax files
▪ real and titled personal property records
▪ occupational and professional licenses and business information
▪ employment security agency
• Information held by financial institutions, including asset and liability data
• The State Directory of New Hires (SDNH), to which employers must report new employees
• The Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS)

The FPLS, which includes the Federal Case Registry (FCR) and the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH), has access to information from:

• The Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Defense, the National Personnel Records Center including quarterly wage data for federal employees, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Veterans Affairs
• State Directories of New Hires
• State Workforce Agencies (SWA)




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