Virginia Child Support Payments and EFT
The Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement offers you the opportunity to
electronically submit your payroll withholdings for child support payments. The
use of electronic funds transfer (EFT) has several benefits for your business.
- The cost of an EFT remittance is lower than the cost to write a check.
- A detailed paper listing of employees, with social security numbers and the amount
withheld per employee, is no longer needed.
- Inquiries regarding discrepancies between the check amount and the employee list
are eliminated.
- There can be no lost checks to track and no stop payments to place.
- Child support payments are promptly and correctly posted to each case, reducing
potential headaches for your employees and your payroll department.
There are several different ways to remit child support payments by electronic funds
transfer (EFT). These various options are offered to help employers select the method
most favorable to their circumstances.
- Many payroll companies can pay child support wage withholdings electronically. ADP
and Paychex are two of the largest companies that offer this service for Virginia
child support payments.
- Online banking and other bank websites for bill payments can be used to pay child
support electronically. For online banking, enter the nine-digit social security
number, without dashes, in the consumer account number field. The payment address
of PO Box 570, Richmond, VA, has been programmed to generate EFT payments to Virginia
Child Support Enforcement. Banking websites other than online banking will require
a routing number and account number for Virginia Child Support Enforcement. Please
contact the EFT Unit listed below for that information.
- Employers can utilize the direct deposit function of their payroll system to make
child support payments. The employee’s social security number in the identification
number field (field 7 of the Entry Detail Record) ensures the proper posting of
the employee’s payment.
- Virginia Child Support Enforcement can set up a recurring bank draft to an employer’s
bank account to collect support payments. This method works well with employees
whose wage withholding does not vary from paycheck to paycheck. Please contact the
EFT Unit listed below for an application.
- PayChildSupportOnline.com and ExpertPay.com are two private web businesses that
can transmit electronic payments to Virginia. An employer can contract with either
for EFT service.
- Larger, multistate employers are often more interested in the CCD+ or CTX formats
for EFT. These formats are not only accepted by Virginia, but also most of the other
child support agencies in the country. Please contact the EFT Unit listed below
for a copy of the "Child Support Application Banking Convention", which
gives additional information about the NACHA standards for these two file formats.
Note: the CTX format must contain the full ASC X12 820 transaction set. Virginia
posts child support payments by the non-custodial parent’s social security number,
so verification of the state’s case number is not required. (The case number is
a mandatory field in the addenda record, so it must contain data as required by
NACHA. However, the correct case number is not necessary.) Payments are applied
to the non-custodial parent’s account and then divided among that person’s cases.
The employer need not send individual payments for each case that an employee may
have. Also, Virginia does not require a FIPS code, though 51000 may be used.
For further information and assistance, please contact:
Cheryl Parker
EFT Manager
(804) 726-7277
Cheryl.Parker@dss.virginia.gov
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