Pulaski County Prosecutor’s Office Receives Honor Roll Award for Child Support

Pulaski County Prosecutor Kelly Gaumer and Child Support Administrator Sherrel Hudson

The Pulaski County Prosecutor’s Office recently received the “It’s Not Easy Being Green” Honor Roll award for meeting or exceeding the state and federal average performance measures for collecting child support for families in the federal fiscal year 2020.  This is the third consecutive award for the Pulaski County Prosecutor’s Office.   

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New State Law To Affect Age Of Emancipation In Child Support

Nicholas Bourff

On July 1, a new state law takes effect involving the age of emancipation for purposes of child support. Starke County Prosecutor Nicholas Bourff said custodial parents and non-custodial parents need to be aware that the emancipation age will change from 21 to 19.

“Custodial parents will no longer have the right to receive child support once their youngest child turns 19, unless the court has found the children to be disabled,” said Bourff. “Payment on past-due child support is not affected by this change. If there are court ordered payments for educational support, that’s something separate from child support and there would have to be an additional hearing in the future to discuss what will happen regarding that.”

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Starke County Commissioners Discuss Prosecutor’s Claims

Julianne Havens discusses claims with the Starke County Commissioners

The discussion between the Starke County Commissioners and outgoing Prosecutor Julianne Havens came to an amicable agreement Monday night. Havens had earlier submitted claims for law enforcement needs and the Commissioners questioned whether the funding was appropriate for the funding source. Havens, herself, eliminated some of the items from questionable categories.

“It gets complicated because I can use the IV-D fund for child support enforcement and for five years I’ve been using it to support child support,” explained Prosecutor Havens. “This year, I was going to try and focus on the enforcement aspect of it which, to me, means police. They agreed with my argument. However, they indicated that if an audit were to happen, the way they look at it is a proportional nexus. They are going to look at it whether or not the police are out supporting child support, making arrests, picking up people on body attachments and things of that nature. Their fear is that the proportionate nexus is not going to be enough for them to say that these funds that were spent were reasonable.”

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