You can create and review garnishments for arrears for US employees in the Garnishments screen. The application does not automatically add arrears garnishment orders to the employee's record, and you need to manually add them.
Garnishment orders for arrears exist as records that are nested within the details of a primary (that is, main) garnishment order. However, the application still treats them as separate records that are processed independent of the primary garnishment order. They also appear as a separate post-tax deduction in the employee's pay.
For example, the following earning statement shows a primary garnishment and garnishment arrears:
In the Garnishments screen, when you select a primary garnishment order from the list and it is the type of garnishment that allows arrears, the application enables the Arrears tab, as shown in the following screenshot:
Note: Only available for Current Support and Spousal Support. The Arrears tab is only enabled for a garnishment record if arrears are supported for that type of garnishment.
When you click the Arrears tab, the application displays a separate list for creating arrears garnishments. There are no garnishment arrears added to the list, by default, and you need to manually add them. The following screenshot shows the Arrears tab:
When you add a new arrears garnishment to the list, the application expands its details, as shown in the following screenshot:
There are fewer settings than for the primary garnishment order because some details of the primary order cascade down to the arrears order. For example, the garnishment arrears record shares the order number, issuing agency, and garnishment agency, and payee details of the primary order.
There is no Name field for arrears garnishments. The name of the garnishment order is the name of the primary order suffixed with "- Arrears". For example, "Support Garn - Arrears".
The Type setting for garnishment arrears only displays arrears options that can be associated with the primary garnishment order. In this example, the primary garnishment order has the Current Support - 502 type defined, and so you can only select the Current Support Arrears - 510 option for the arrears order, and if the primary garnishment order has the Spousal Support – 513 then the arrears type must be Spousal Support Arrears – 514. The following example shows the Current Support Arrears - 510 option:
For the garnishment arrears record, the Ordered Amount Type drop-down list is preset to Per Check Amount and this setting cannot be changed. This means that the application attempts to deduct the amount from each of the employee's payments. You need to define this amount in the Ordered Amount field of the garnishment order.
The amount that the application is allowed to garnish for arrears is subject to the requirements of the jurisdiction. This means that the application might deduct less than what you enter in the Ordered Amount field, or might not deduct any amount.
If the employee has other active garnishments, the application processes the arrears garnishment order in the default processing sequence for the jurisdiction, which you can override with the Override Processing Sequence field.
Based on the arrears garnishment type, the application can also display one or more options in the Parameters section, as shown in the following screenshot:
Note: The settings for arrears garnishments are similar to those in the General Details, Order Details, and Parameters sections of primary garnishment orders. You can refer to the documentation for these sections for descriptions of specific settings. See Create Garnishments for US Employees.
When a primary garnishment record contains an active arrears garnishment, the application displays an icon with a tooltip description in the Attributes column, as shown in the following screenshot:
If the arrears garnishment is no longer active, the icon in the Attributes column appears grayed out.
When you end-date or deactivate a primary garnishment record for a US employee, the application gives you the option to automatically end-date or deactivate its associated arrears and fee orders as well.
For example, when you clear the Active checkbox in the Properties tab of a primary garnishment order that has arrears and fees, the application displays the following dialog box, giving you the option to deactivate just the arrears or fees or both. You can also click the No option to keep the arrears and fees active:
The application also displays a similar dialog box when you enter a past date in the Effective To field in the Properties tab of a primary garnishment order that has arrears or fees.
See also: