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In accordance with Title 23 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes (23 Pa.C.S.) §4374(c)(1), the State may retain the support collected on behalf of a family receiving TANF up to the amount of the cumulative assistance paid to the family. The State will distribute child support collected on behalf of families receiving TANF cash assistance as follows: Effective October 1, 2008, from the amount of current support collected, pass through to the assistance group the first $100 per month for one child or the first $200 per month for two or more children, or the first $50 per month for spousal support, without decreasing the amount of cash assistance. In no case will an assistance group be paid more than one support pass through per month. The support pass through will be capped at $200 maximum per month.
Pay the federal government’s share and retain the remainder of the amount collected to reimburse the commonwealth until the amount equals the amount of unreimbursed cash assistance paid to the assistance group.
Pay to the assistance group receiving TANF any support collected in excess of the amounts distributed or retained as listed above.
In accordance with 23 Pa.C.S.§4352(a.1), TANF child support orders must be reviewed and adjusted, as necessary, on a 3-year cycle absent of any specific request from the Department.
Effective October 1, 2008, in accordance with 23 Pa.C.S. §4374(d), the state will pay support collected through the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program to families to whom current support or arrears is owed prior to retaining such collections to pay the federal or state shares of assigned support. Specifically:
For a family receiving cash assistance, arrears collected through the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program shall be retained by the commonwealth to the extent past due support has been assigned to the department as a condition of receiving assistance.
For a family that formerly received cash assistance, arrears collected through the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program shall first be applied to the monthly support obligation, and the balance shall be applied to arrears owed the family, including assignments of arrearages that accrued before the family received assistance from the commonwealth and that were executed between October 1, 1997, and September 30, 2009.
Any remaining arrearages shall be paid to the department.
In accordance with 23 Pa.C.S. §4378(b), the state limits the assignment of support rights only up to the amount of cash assistance received during the period that a