Applying for Child Support

• Parents who receive public assistance (medical, financial) are automatically enrolled to receive child support services. Other parents must complete Form CS-33 and provide their full name, street address, telephone number, date of birth, employer's name and street address and the names and dates of birth for each child they are requesting to receive support for. Custodial parents must provide the name and address of the child's non-custodial parent as well.
  
  

Establishing Paternity

• Kentucky will not set child support court orders until paternity is established. Mothers and fathers can sign an Acknowledgement of Paternity form at the hospital after their child is born or they can sign the form at a later date in the presence of an attorney or Kentucky child support office administrator. If a mother is unsure as to who the child's father is, she must tell a child support case worker at the Cabinet for Health and Family Services the names and addresses of men she suspects are the child's father. The case worker will work with local courts to locate the men and order them to submit to a paternity test.
  
  

Setting Payment Levels

• Both parents' gross monthly incomes are taken into consideration before child support court orders are established in Kentucky. Alimony payments and payments that parents are legally required to make to support additional children are deducted from gross monthly incomes. Personal clothing, rent, mortgage and auto expenses are not permissible deductions. Courts review parents' income tax returns, paychecks, retirement statements, Social Security payment reports and monies earned from self-employment when they set child support payment levels.
  
  

Modifying Court Orders

• If a parent experiences a significant shift in his income (15 percent or more), he should contact the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services to request that his child support order get reviewed. Court orders can also be reviewed if either parent experiences a change to the number of children they are legally required to support (e.g. birth of another child) or they experience other changes to their living arrangement (e.g. a minor child recently moved in with them). Non-custodial parents are responsible for making child support payments at the current rate until their child support order is modified.
  
  

Penalties for Non-Payment

• Kentucky's child support enforcement agency is authorized to intercept the federal and state tax refunds of parents who fail to pay or remain current in their child support payments. They can also garnish wages, suspend professional and driver's licenses, place liens on property and suspend passports.