Office of Child Support Enforcement Releases Standard Verification of Employment Form

Employers and the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) have collaborated to create a Standard Verification of Employment (VOE) Response Form. The OCSE says that the form was created to hopefully streamline employer responses to each state's non-standardized request for information to verify a worker's employment. Recognizing that a standard response to a VOE could not include all the information that each state requests, the response form provides the essential information that states need in order to establish and/or modify child support orders.

States will continue to send their state-specific VOEs. Employers may return the Standard VOE Response Form to those states that have agreed to accept it (i.e., Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia). There may be situations when a state child support enforcement agency will need to contact the employer for additional information not provided on the standard form.

The following states have already announced that they will not accept the standard form: Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia.

The new form has a “Payroll Section” and a “Health Insurance Section.” The Payroll Section asks for information about the employee, employer, and the wages that the employee receives. The Health Insurance Section asks for information about the employee's medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, prescription drug insurance, and mental health insurance.

The new form is on the OCSE website.