Child Support Commission Recommendations

The bill enacts recommendations of the Colorado child support commission concerning the establishment, calculation, and enforcement of child support, including:

• Technical amendments to clarify changes made to the child support guidelines pursuant to House Bill 19-1215 relating to a missing component of the schedule of basic child support obligations and clarifications relating to calculation of support;
• Defines the terms "child" and "parent" for purposes of commencing actions concerning the allocation of parental responsibilities and clarifies that the court shall determine legal parentage and join all necessary parties to the action;
• Reduces the interest rate and adds a new statute of limitations to seek interest on unpaid child support;
• Eliminates outdated provisions of the income assignment statute and brings the statute in compliance with federal law;
• Clarifies notice requirements for income assignments and requires an employer to report and withhold from lump sum payments;
• Clarifies that both the dependency and neglect court and the paternity and child support court have concurrent jurisdiction to address issues or parentage;
• Removes a limitation on the amount of the increase for orders increasing support filed by the child support enforcement agency against an obligor for whom income information is not available;
• Requires life insurance settlements to be reported to the child support enforcement agency; and
• Adds contract employee to the state directory of new hires for child support enforcement purposes.
  (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)