Delinquent child support payment income provisions could change

The Business and Labor Committee heard testimony March 7 on a bill regarding delinquent child support payments.

LB341, introduced by Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion, would clarify that compensation and benefits awarded pursuant to the Workers’ Compensation Act are subject to income withholding under the Income Withholding for Child Support Act, as well as the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.

The bill also would add compensation insurers, risk management pools and self-insurers to the definition of employer under the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act.

Smith said LB341 would ensure that garnishments are enforceable across state lines.

“We need to develop uniformity throughout the country and make it difficult for parents to dodge their responsibility for [child support] payments by skipping from state to state,” he said.

Brenda Spilker of Nebraskans for Workers’ Compensation Equity and Fairness testified in support of the bill.

Some children living outside of Nebraska are not receiving the child support they are entitled to, Spilker said. LB341 would ensure that such children do not get lost in “red tape bureaucracy,” she added.

Todd Bennett of the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys testified in opposition to the bill.

LB341 involves injured workers who are no longer working but are receiving workers’ compensation benefits, Bennett said, yet the bill would treat those benefits as income.

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.