Glossary of terms

Arrearage: The amount of child support that is past due

when payments are not kept up.

CSEA: Child support enforcement agency.

Current support: The amount of child support owed

in the current month.

Custodial parent: The person who has legal custody

of the child and with whom the child lives.  This person

may be a parent, other relative, or someone else.

Genetic testing: A process used to establish

paternity - to legally determine the child's father.

This process is used when it is not certain who the

father may be.

Income withholding: A process where the CSEA

can have child support taken directly from the income

of the non-custodial parent.  Child support can also be

taken from the money the non-custodial parent has in a bank

IV-D:  CSEAs are sometimes referred to as IV-D

(pronounced "Four-D") agencies.  This term comes from

Title IV-D of the Social Security Act of 1975, which set up

the nation's current child support system.

Non-custodial parent: The parent who does not have

primary custody of the child and who is responsible for

child support.

Obligee: The person who gets the child support,

usually the custodial parent.  Someone else, such as

a relative, could also be the obligee if he or she has legal

custody of the child and is the person with whom the child

lives.

Obligor: The person who must pay child support, usually the

non-custodial parent.

Paternity: Fatherhood.

Poundage:  Poundage is a fee paid by the obligor to cover

the CSEA's cost of handling the payments.  Poundage is

paid in addition to child support.

URESA: Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act

- a variety of processes to set up or enforce child support

orders when a child's parents live in two different states.