Employers Enlisted In Plan To Track Deadbeat Parents
Published 10/9/97

New Hampshire has recently strengthened the ability of the Division for Child Support Enforcement to keep track of parents who have a child support obligation, and in so doing has created an important new obligation for all employers in this state.

RSA 282 A:117(a), the New Hire Reporting Law, became effective October 1, 1997. Under the terms of that statute, all employers, regardless of size, must inform the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security of each time they hire a new worker, and must make the report within 20 days of the date of hire. The Department of Employment Security will then pass on that information to the Division for Child Support Enforcement, which will match this information against their child support records to locate parents, establish a child support order, or enforce an existing order. The information will also be forwarded to the National Directory of New Hires, which will act as a nationwide database to assist in the location of parents having a child support obligation.

This new statute is expected to substantially increase the ability of the state and private parties to enforce child support orders. As a result of recent changes in the law regarding child support, it is now much easier to obtain an Order from the Court requiring a parent who has a child support obligation to pay that obligation through a wage assignment, where the child support owed is directly deducted from the parent's paycheck. Under the New Hire Reporting Law, a national database will be created keeping track of parents who have a child support obligation, which should make it much easier to locate parents at their new job in order to implement a wage assignment.

The statute is very broad, and affects virtually all employers in New Hampshire, whether the employer employs workers only in New Hampshire or if the employer has employees in many states. The statute requires all new hires to be reported, so long as the employer expects that the employee's compensation will be at least $2,500. Employers must also provide a new hire report to the state for employees returning to work after a permanent layoff or after a break in employment of at least 26 weeks. If an employee quits in the first 20 days of employment such that he is no longer an employee at the time the New Hire Report would be due, the employer must still file a report under the terms of the statute. The statute even applies to temporary employment agencies, if those agencies are directly paying the employees. Companies which simply refer workers to other employers, but do not directly pay the workers, do not need to file new hire reports for such workers.

The statute provides civil and criminal penalties for noncompliance. Civil penalties which can be assessed against employers who don't comply with the statute include fines of up to $25 for each new hire the employer failed to report. In addition, if an employer conspires with a new employee not to report, the employer can face fines of up to $500 for each new hire which it fails to report.

The New Hire Reporting Act is an important new statute in terms of improving the collection of child support, and it creates important new obligations for employers.

The attorney who wrote this article is no longer at the law firm of Hamblett & Kerrigan, P.A. in Nashua. Other practitioners at the firm handle work in the same areas of law which he worked in, which included employment law, family law, and general litigation, including property tax abatement and personal injury.You can reach one of those lawyers by calling the law firm (883-5501) or by e-mail at info@nashualaw.com .

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