UNDATED (AP) -- The state's Division of Child Support Enforcement is charging a $25 annual fee for the government's help in collecting past-due support payments.

About 130,000 Virginians are being notified of the fee in a letter. The fee goes into effect in October.

It is being charged to custodial parents who receive at least $500 a year in their child support cases. Parents who have received public assistance such as welfare payments are not charged the fee.

It is part of a federal change that was approved in the sprawling Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The fee is estimated to raise two million dollars in Virginia. Two-thirds of that will go to the federal government to reduce the deficit.

Officials say that if a state doesn't apply the fee to custodial parents, Virginia will lose federal funding.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)