What the Feds Do With New Hire Information
The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement ("OCSE") runs a number of programs designed to locate parents who don't pay their child support. One of these programs is called the New Hire Reporting Program. This program requires employers to notify the state whenever they hire a new employee. The information provided is the same as on a W-4.
The employer must send in the new hire information within twenty days of the day the new employee begins work. If new hire information is sent in electronically, it must be done twice per month, with no transmissions being less than twelve days apart and none more than sixteen days apart. After the state receives the new hire information, the state sends it on to OCSE. The data become part of the National Directory of New Hires, which is a central repository of employment, unemployment insurance claimant data, and quarterly wage data. It is also added to the Federal Case Registry, which is a national database that contains information on individuals in child support cases and child support orders.
What does OCSE do when it receives new hire information? All new hire information is run through the National Directory of New Hires and the Federal Case Registry. If a name pops up, then the information is sent back to the state. The state child support agency uses this information to establish or modify a child support order, or enforce (through income withholding) an existing order.
On request of a state, OCSE's Federal Parent Locator Service will run a name through "external federal agency databases" for the purpose of establishing or enforcing a child support order. These databases are immense and confidential. They include IRS records, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense and the FBI.
Never heard of the New Hire Reporting Program? Perhaps this is why: By federal law, the penalty for failing to report a new hire can be no more than $25.
