Many people think that because they have an order for child support and payments are made through the County Clerk's office, the Child Support Division is automatically enforcing or handling the case. This is not correct. Child support cases are opened in our office through one of the following ways:

  1. Recipients of public assistance are referred to our office by the Porter County Division of Family & Children, also known as the Welfare Department. Our office is required by Federal law to open these cases and pursue them.
  2. Applications made by persons not on public assistance but wanting or needing services provided by our office. A $25.00 application fee is paid by the applicant. The application fee can be waived if the applicant or children involved in the case are receiving Medicaid benefits.
  3. Sometimes, cases are transferred to our county from another locality.


If you are receiving AFDC/TANF or Medicaid and you have not been referred to our office, ask your DFC caseworker to make a referral for you.

A person who is not on AFDC/TANF or Medicaid can apply for services by filling out an application form and paying the $25 application fee. The fee MUST be paid by either money order or cashier's check. It MUST be made payable to:

Indiana State Bureau of Child Support


Once the application and fee are received, we will process the application and begin work on your case. We will make every effort to process your case as quickly as possible to insure that your child(ren) receive the support they are entitled to. However, if you do not provide complete information and/or the necessary documents, there will be a delay in processing your application.

If you already have a Court order for child support, you will also need to provide the following:

Porter County Orders:
ALL Court Orders (1 copy of each)
and
COMPLETE payment record (1 copy)


Other Court Orders:
ALL Court Orders (3 CERTIFIED copies of each)
and
COMPLETE payment record (1 certified copy)


If Paternity needs to be established first, you will need to provide the following:
Copy of the Paternity Affidavit, if available
Copy of the Child's Birth Certificate & Social Security card


A person who is on some type of public assistance, and their situation indicates he or she may need our services, an appointment is made to our office by the Division of Family and Children. After the appointment, the case is assigned to a caseworker and work on the case begins. The hope is that they will receive enough support from the non-custodial person that welfare services can be terminated for the child. Even if services cannot be totally terminated, at least a partial reimbursement of State funds might be received.

AFDC and non-AFDC cases are handled the same way within our office. No preference is given to one type of case over the other. The attorneys and staff do not believe who gets the money is the issue. The issue is making sure all children are financially supported. If a custodial person is asked questions regarding current or past assistance benefits it is because the IV-D staff is required by law to seek reimbursement of those benefit amounts.

All the cases our office works are IV-D cases, regardless of how they were opened. The IV-D stands for the Title IV-D (4D) of the Social Security Act (U.S. Code) which gives the IV-D office (the Child Support Division of the Prosecutor's Office) it's authority to establish and enforce child support orders. NIVD or Non IV-D cases are those cases that have child support orders in our county but our office is not involved in them.

If you would like to apply for services, click on the IV-D Application Form link download a printable application. You may also pick up an application at our office.