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Child Support Clients Receive New Direct Payment Cards, Urged to Activate

January 22, 2016

BATON ROUGE -The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has contracted with a new bank to serve as the direct payment card vendor for Child Support Enforcement (CSE) customers. New cards were mailed to customers who do not have child support payments deposited into personal bank accounts. These cards must be activated in order to receive payments.

"Our primary focus during this transition is to ensure that timely child support payments are received by our families," said DCFS Secretary Suzy Sonnier. "We urge custodial parents to activate their new cards now to avoid any delay in receiving payments."

Payments issued prior to January 29th, 2016, will continue to be available on the old direct payment card until all funds have been used. Balances will not be transferred to the new card.

Custodial parents not enrolled in direct deposit and who have not received a new card should verify and update their mailing address. To do this, they should log into their DCFS CAFÉ account at www.dcfs.la.gov/CAFE and selecting "Check My Cases" under MyAccount and send a message with their address through the Child Support Message Center. They can also call 1-888-LA-HELPU (1-888-524-3578) to speak with a customer service representative to update their address.

For additional information on Louisiana Child Support Enforcement, visit www.dcfs.la.gov/CSE or call 1-888-LA-HELPU (1-888-524-3578).