BP Oil Spill Helps Oklahoma Families Receive Child Support Payments

News9.com

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Child Support Services (OCSS) says the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in several families receiving past due child support payments.

In April 2010, an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil well killed 11 men and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the gulf. BP, the owner of the well, established a $20 billion fund to pay claims to people affected by the spill.

OCSS says it originally tried to send a list to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) of all non-custodial parents who owed child support. The agency hoped GCCF would check the list before paying a claim to someone who owed back child support. But GCCF decided not to perform an automated data match.

OCSS found another way to go after the non-custodial parents. It developed a system to determine which parents may have a connection to BP. That generated a list of almost 22,000 people. Subpoenas were issued for each case and mailed to GCCF.

After GCCF received five boxes of subpoenas, the organization called OCSS to learn how to set up an electronic data match for all 50 states searching for parents who owed child support.

The first checks from the data matches were sent out in July. To date, OCSS has received nearly $19,000 in past due child support payments.