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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 153-04
June 17, 2004

LETTER FROM MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG TO ALL CITY EMPLOYEES REGARDING CHILD SUPPORT

Below is the text of a letter that Mayor Bloomberg sent to all City employees and will be distributed with their next paycheck:

Dear City Employee:

The well-being of New York's youngest residents is my top priority as we work to improve our great City for all New Yorkers.  Nothing is more important than the role parents play in caring for their children and, as Mayor of the City of New York, I am committed to making sure our City's young people are provided for. 

In instances when the parents of a child are no longer together and a court has ruled that a parent must make child support payments, the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), a division of the Human Resources Administration, is charged with ensuring that these payments are collected on-time and in-full. If you are obligated to make child support payments and are not currently doing so, OCSE can help you begin or resume the payment process.  OCSE has established a program that automatically deducts the full payment from your salary, similar to the way many individuals have health insurance payments automatically deducted from their paychecks. 

If, however, you refuse to fulfill your legal and moral obligation to support your child, OCSE will compel payment through any legal means necessary, including intercepting your tax refund, freezing and seizing your bank accounts, or suspending your driver's license.  Child support payments are not optional; they cannot and should not be delayed, avoided or ignored.  These payments are critical to the health and well-being of the children whose caretakers depend on the money to help pay for the child's food, clothes and all the other essential expenses involved in raising children. 

As an employee of the City of New York, you represent the City through your personal actions, even when unrelated to your professional duties.  For this reason, I have zero tolerance for those who neglect their parental responsibilities and act like deadbeats.

If you have any questions or would like to make arrangements to have an automated payroll deduction, call 311 or OCSE directly at (212) 226-7125 or visit OCSE's Customer Service Office in lower Manhattan at 151 West Broadway, 4th Floor between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday.

If you have not been making your child support payments, or have been having difficulty doing so, please call the Office of Child Support Enforcement today.







MEDIA CONTACT:


Edward Skyler / Jennifer Falk   (212) 788-2958

David Hansell   (HRA)
(212) 331 6200




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