What If Immediate Support Is Needed?
A. The North Dakota Department of Human Services and county social service boards can grant TANF pending the establishment of a court order. As a requirement of eligiblity, the TANF applicant must assign all past, present, and future child support rights to the North Dakota Department of Human Services. These collections reduce the state’s expenditures for public assistance. Any TANF parent working with the Child Support Enforcement program who knowingly receives and keeps a child support payment can be prosecuted for fraud. The location of a noncustodial parent may result in sufficient monthly support payments to eliminate a family’s need for TANF. Future monthly support payments will then be paid to the child’s caretaker rather than kept by the state. The Child Support Enforcement program can countinue to enforce the child support payments even after the family leaves TANF, if the family so wishes.
