State to for child seize insurance support payouts

Gov. Jerry Brown Monday signed a billed aimed at significantly increasing payments for past-due child support.

Assembly Bill 2802, authored by Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, establishes the Insurance Payment Intercept Program, which will require insurance companies to participate in a program matching individuals behind on child support payments with their insurance claims to verify any insurance payments are first used to pay past-due child support.

The bill is expected to lead to tens of millions in payments of previously unpaid child support to parents with children owed child support.

“Billions of dollars in unpaid child support are owed to families across the state, and similar programs have proven successful in several other states,” said state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, who sponsored the bill. “That’s why I’ve been working the past few years to create a program in California to make sure that child support is paid. AB 2802 provides a critical mechanism to make sure kids and families receive the child support they are owed. I thank the governor for signing this bill and Assemblymember Friedman for so effectively championing it in the Legislature.”

Unpaid child support continues to be a problem across the country, the commissioner said. In Califor nia alone, the total amount of unpaid child support is nearly $18 billion and over $116 billion in unpaid child support is owed to families across the country.

With the new law, California joins seven other states with similar programs: New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Texas and Oregon.

The law will take effect Jan. 1, 2020.