Child support payments: electronic fund transfer: qualifying accounts.

Existing law obligates a parent to support his or her child. Existing law establishes the Department of Child Support Services within the California Health and Human Services Agency, which administers all services and performs all functions necessary to establish, collect, and distribute child support. Existing federal law, in connection with child support enforcement agencies, requires the state to implement a state disbursement unit for the collection and disbursement of payments under support orders, including electronic processes for receipt of payments from parents, employers, and other states, and for electronic disbursements to custodial parents and other obligees. Existing state law establishes within the Department of Child Support Services the State Disbursement Unit and the California Child Support Automation System. Existing law requires the California Child Support Automation System, which includes the State Disbursement Unit, to provide timely and accurate payment processing and centralized payment disbursement from a single location in the state. This bill would, if child support payments are directly deposited to an account of the recipient's choice, require that the payments only be deposited to a qualifying account, as defined. The bill would prohibit a person or entity that issues a prepaid card or maintains or manages a prepaid card account from accepting or facilitating the direct deposit of child support payments to a prepaid card account that does not meet the requirements of a qualifying account.