Frequently Asked Questions

Assuming the cost of the children's premium does not exceed the limit shown on the Notice, the answer depends on whether or not the employer has to enroll just the children or enroll both the employee and the children.

When the employer has to enroll only the children, the cost of the children's premium plus the cash support amount cannot exceed the 50% limit. For example: The employee is already enrolled and paying a premium of $28. The additional cost to enroll the children is $46. The employer should enroll the children if the cash support amount plus the children's premium cost ($46) does not exceed 50% of the employee's net disposable income.

When the employer has to enroll both the employee and children, the cost of both the employee's and children's premium plus the cash support amount cannot exceed the 50% limit. For example: The employee is not enrolled. The cost to enroll the employee is $20.50. The additional cost to enroll the children is $39.50. The total for both is $60. The employer should enroll the employee and children if the cash support amount plus the employee's and children's premium cost ($60) does not exceed 50% of the employee's net disposable income.

When the children or the employee and children cannot be enrolled because the premium plus the cash support amount exceeds the 50% limit, check box 5 on the Employer Response form and send the form to DCS. DCS may call you when you mark box 5. To avoid a call, you are welcome to note on the form that the cash support plus the premium would exceed the 50% withholding limit. If the plan administrator has already added the children to the plan, contact the plan administrator to tell them the children cannot be added.

Click here to read the Division of Child Support's Privacy Notice.

To check your balance, reset your PIN or report a lost/stolen EBT card, call the EBT Vendor at 1-888-328-9271.

You may contact the Medicaid Purchasing Administration's Customer Service Center at 1-800-562-3022. (or TTY at 1-800-848-5429) or online at Washington State Medicaid Customer Service.

Families who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Children or Medicaid automatically receive DCS services. You qualify to receive DCS non-assistance services if you are not currently receiving services from another state and any one of the following statements applies to you:

1. I am a parent who has custody of a minor child.
2. I am a lawful custodian of a minor child.
3. I am a former custodian who is owed child support that accrued under a support order.
4. I am the father of the child and want to establish the paternity of my child.
5. I am the non-custodial parent of a child and want to pay support.
6. I am due court ordered post-secondary educational support for a child in school.

If both the custodial parent and the noncustodial parent live outside Washington, the non-custodial parent must have some tie to Washington State, such as, a Washington support order, a Washington-based employer, or assets located in Washington. If there is no tie to Washington, apply for services in the state where where one of the parents live.

The plan administrator is the person designated to enroll employees and their dependents in insurance plans. Employers can:

• Contract with a private company to handle enrollments
• Have a benefits office within their company that handles enrollments. OR
• Handle the enrollments themselves.

When the employees have health insurance benefits through a union, the union's third party administrator is the plan administrator. The third party administrator generally handles premium Payments.

Per federal law, 22 CFR 52.70(a)(8), passports are denied and/or revoked for any individual who is more than $2500 in arrears in their child support obligation.

The noncustodial parent is notified in the IRS pre-offset notice that the Department of State (DOS) through the federal Office of Child Support Services (OCSS) will deny issuance or renewal of their passport when their child support debt reaches $2500.

Once the threshold of $2500 has been reached, the denial/revocation will remain in place until the debt is paid in full or is exempted by DCS. NOTE: Effective October 1, 2006 the threshold for passport denial/revocation will be lowered to $2500.

When DCS establishes a support order, DCS always includes a medical support provision requiring the non-custodial parent and custodial parent to provide medical insurance when available through an employer or union.

• If you have a support order with a medical support provision, DCS may enforce medical support along with child support. You must apply for DCS services if you want DCS to enforce the other parent's medical support obligation.
• If your support order does not require medical support, DCS may be able to help you get that order modified to include an insurance requirement. Please note: A request to add a requirement for the custodial parent to provide health insurance coverage, or to add a provision in the order to include the custodial parent's share of medical expenses, is not by itself a sufficient basis for modification of the order.

DCS may collect unreimbursed medical expenses that meet certain threshold and time limit requirements. DCS does not collect unreimbursed medical expenses owed to a third party.