Income Withholding is a critical part of the child support program. In an effort to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of income withholding, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement implemented the electronic exchange of income withholding orders (IWO), "e-IWO". With e-IWO states send, and employers receive income withholding orders electronically. In addition, an electronic acknowledgement process enables employers to notify states, tribes or territories about the status of an existing income withholding order.
The electronic transmission of IWOs will increase processing efficiency and improve the speed with which payments are made to families by:
Reducing the time from IWO preparation to employer processing
Reducing errors that can occur through manual processing
Reducing cost of postage and processing paper documents
Providing an on-going communications link between child support agencies and employers should additional actions be necessary