Office of the Attorney General, Saipan – The Child Support Enforcement Unit of the Office of the Attorney General joins in celebrating the national campaign of Child Support Awareness Month. This campaign aims to spread awareness that there are children in our community who need financial support and services. As we all know, every child needs the financial and emotional support of both parents. The Office of the Attorney General’s Child Support Enforcement Unit (CSEU), works diligently to obtain the financial support necessary to raise, support, and improve each child’s overall well-being.
“It is important that we raise awareness and remind our community that children need our support to live a decent life and to be successful. Our office will continue to exert all efforts to ensure that each child receives the financial resources necessary to live like everyone else. Our government cannot do it alone. It takes our whole community, from non-custodial parents, neighbors, friends, and employers to help a child without one parent succeed” says Attorney General Edward Manibusan.
Currently, the Office of the Attorney General, CSEU handles interstate child support cases. An interstate child support case is between two parents who live in different states. For example, one parent resides in the CNMI and the other parent resides in Guam or somewhere in the United States. The CSEU currently handles over 194 active child support cases. The Office of the Attorney General is exploring how to help families within the CNMI with interstate child support cases as well and is hoping to expand our services.
In 2023, CSEU collected and distributed a total of $402,833.91 in child support. This substantial amount encompasses $356,483.86 from non-custodial parents, $35,422.05 from Tax Rebates/Refunds, and $10,928.00 from Labor (FPUC/PUA).
Since January, 2024, the CSEU collected and distributed a total of $353,880.01 in child support. This amount includes $341,644.15 obtained from non-custodial parents, $10,055.86 from tax rebates/refunds, and $2,180.00 from child tax.
The CSEU advocates for the financial support of children by all parents. Notably, Public Law 20-47 empowers the enforcement of child support orders by implementing the suspension of various licenses, including but not limited to driver’s licenses and fishing licenses, as a consequence of non-payment of child support obligations.
The CSEU emphasizes once again, the importance of employers’ adherence to PL 20-60 (State Directory of New Hires), which mandates the reporting of comprehensive employee information. This includes data on current employees, new hires, as well as resignations within your/their business. The provision of such details equips the CSEU with the necessary information to facilitate and thereby bolster our child support enforcement capabilities
The Office of the Attorney General encourages the community to take an active role in helping all children to live a happy life. For more information regarding the Child Support services of the Office of the Attorney General, please contact 670-237-7500 or you can visit our website www.cnmioag.org