Child Support Report XXV, No. 11, 20031101

Urban Institute reports, in a recently released article that significantly more children in low income families received child support in 2001 than in 1996. Half of all children with family incomes below the Federal poverty thresholds lived with their mothers and had fathers living elsewhere in 2001, making them potentially eligible to receive child support. Thirty-six percent of those children received support that year, up from 31 percent in 1996.

The research determined that gains in receiving child support were greatest for children in families with low incomes. For example, 35.5 percent of children whose family incomes fell below the Federal poverty thresholds received child support in 2001, up from 30.8 percent in 1996, a statistically significant gain.

Significant gains in child support were also made among children with family incomes between 100 and 200 percent of the poverty thresholds: 50.1 percent received child support in 2001, up from 44.6 percent in 1996.

Children whose family incomes were more than twice the poverty threshold did not experience significant gains in child support. The gains in collections for lower income families suggest that efforts to improve the child support program have met with some success.

Families with child support income did not experience significant gains in the amount of that support. After adjusting for inflation, the average amount of child support received in 2001 was $4,650, compared with $4,390 in 1996. On average, poor families received $2,550 per year in 2001 (about 18 percent of the federal poverty threshold for a family of three), an amount that is not significantly greater than what they received in 1996. Among poor families receiving some support, child support represented 30.0 percent of total income in 2001.

Urban Institute's research and research of others indicated that, while these gains are good news for low-income families, the child support program needs to do more. Over 60 percent of poor children who live with their mothers and whose fathers live outside the home, do not receive child support. One reason is that the fathers of these children tend to have low incomes themselves, limiting their ability to pay child support. Work-oriented programs designed to ensure that fathers are doing what they can to support their children financially could be beneficial.

Another reason that child support receipt is low among poor families is that nearly all of the support paid on behalf of children receiving public assistance goes to the government rather than to the children. In 1996, Congress eliminated the requirement that the first $50 of child support go directly to families on public aid. While some states have retained the $50 child support pass-through, most have not. The TANF reauthorization in reference to pass-through involves state-by-state decisions on how to respond.

The article, "Child Support Gains Some Ground" is part of a series entitled "Snapshots of America's Families III," published by the Urban Institute. Elaine Sorensen, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute is the author.

Dedicated Child Support Enforcement (CSE) and Temporary Assistance for Needy families (TANF) workers across the nation have contributed to the success of welfare reform by helping clients toward paid employment and supplementing their earnings with child support. The combination of job earnings and child support is key to helping low-income families become and remain self-sufficient. Nearly half the families leaving TANF depend on child support payments for about one-third of their budgets. In fact, research shows that child support income is one of only two benefits that have been shown to help families avoid returning to TANF (the other is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)). It is critical that all local TANF and CSE offices work together on TANF cases.

The goal of TANF/child support collaboration is to empower families to achieve self-sufficiency through effective, coordinated service delivery. When clients talk to local TANF and CSE staff, clients should hear the common message that they need work and child support. Both agencies must send this message clearly and reinforce it in all client interactions. Also, TANF and child support staff need to understand they share common goals and clientele. Child support depends on information from TANF, and TANF staff need feedback from CSE to know that their efforts to provide good and complete information actually do help child support enforcement efforts succeed for families.

Regular interaction between local TANF and child support offices is key to providing both optimum customer service and meeting state performance measures. Inaccurate TANF information may prevent a state from meeting required child support performance standards and thereby, reduce the amount of its TANF grant. Also, each state's collections base, from which the incentives are calculated, double counts collections from Former and Current Assistance cases.

OCSE and the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) are promoting these partnerships with two recent products.

First, OCSE DCL-03-28, issued July 11, 2003 (simultaneously issued as a DCL from OFA) encourages improving communications and interactions between child support and TANF. It includes a checklist of basic services and information flow and identifies many of the important junction points for the two organizations. It also lists some strategies states are currently using to improve service delivery and information flow.

Second is Better Outcomes Through Collaboration: An Interactive Seminar for Managers of Child Support, TANF, and Workforce Development. OCSE and OFA, along with the Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration, have partnered to create a seminar curriculum on improving program outcomes through interagency collaboration. The seminar, designed for office and/or regional managers from child support, TANF, and workforce development, demonstrates the advantages of working together to achieve program goals to help client families.

Child support, TANF, and workforce development share goals and clients. Workforce development is the primary opportunity for employment services for non-custodial parents. There are numerous benefits to agencies and families if the systems collaborate. Benefits to agencies include improved performance, increased funding, and savings in resources and worker time. Benefits to clients include quicker processing of cases, faster access to services, increased money to children, reduction in poverty, more father involvement, fewer months on TANF, and increased self-sufficiency. The seminar is designed for joint sessions of office and/or regional managers from child support, TANF, and workforce development from the same geographical area of a state. The seminar size is 21 participants (7 from each program), and takes 10 hours to deliver. The curriculum is in clearance now and should be available soon.

New Recipes for the Future......was this year's theme for the Southwest Regional Child Support Enforcement Association's (SWRSEA) Annual Training Conference con-ducted during September 16-19 in New Orleans, Louisiana. More than 200 state, Federal and local staff participated in the conference which consisted of thirty-two workshops. Set in New Orleans' flamboyant Cajun-Mardi Gras style, workshop topics made your mouth water for more. Workshop tracks offered Recipes for Success: Expanding Partnerships with Other Agencies as well as ways to Spice Up Your Training Programs. The Main Ingredients for Quality Customer Service: Communication was served along with Ingredients for Mastering the Art of Interviewing Clients. The Proof was in the Pudding in Testimonials given by the Honorable Patricia Koch, Hearing Officer, 9th JD, and Ruby Freeman, Assistant district Attorney both from Alexandria, Louisiana. Recipes for Successful Stress Management were Simmered First, Then Served followed by New Tools for the Future: Paternity DNA.

Other innovative and informative topics enhanced everyone's knowledge in the areas of increasing child support collections, interstate case processing, medical support, tribal court, Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), state disbursement units, paternity establishment, fatherhood, and healthy marriage. Networking appetizers were sprinkled liberally throughout the event. Regional and Central Office CSE staff, national and state experts, state and local child support officials and front-line workers gained invaluable insight and shared their own "cooking" secrets for difficult child support issues.

Appetizers were offered up by Lisa Woodruff-White, 2003 SWRSEA President and IV-D Director, Support Enforcement Services, State of Louisiana. The main course was introduced by Leon McCowan, Regional Administrator, ACF Region VI. Dr. Sherri Heller, OCSE's Commissioner, delivered a full compliment of main entrees. Dr. Heller reviewed her list of ten key tools to set priorities and served them up five at a time. The first five items included better management of work lists and alerts, earlier intervention and being pro-active, customized approach or individualizing; getting data reports to local workers; and making them useful tools for our partners. The final five items were new initiatives on interstate cases; systematic review of arrears / debt management; systematic medical support approach with new performance incentives; role of marriage and healthy relationships; new legislative approaches; and FIDM/new federal role to freeze / intercept gaming proceeds. The overall menu for this conference provided policy guidance, fostered improved interfaces, and strengthened collaborations. New recipes and ideas for their programs satisfied all participants' quest for information, knowledge, partnerships / collaborations, and resources.

Reta Oliver-Muller is a Presidential Management Intern in Region VI's Office of Child Support Enforcement

When a tough issue such as undistributed collections (UDC) needs to be addressed, it is critical to martial all resources to ensure that families receive the support to which they are entitled. State child support programs reported in 2002 that, out of the $20.1 billion it collected, $657 million or 3% went undistributed. Recognizing that this amount of held money is unacceptable, during FFY 2003, OCSE and the National Council of Child Support Directors (NCCSD) jointly determined that UDC was the issue of highest importance within the child support community, as support collected will only benefit a family if it actually reaches that family. Therefore, OCSE and NCCSD pooled their resources and tackled the issue from several different vantage points:

"The issue of undistributed collections is both complex and simple. It is complex because there are several scenarios under which it is either legal or understandable. It is simple in the sense that if it isn't either of these, we need to do all we can to quickly get these collections to the families," said Commissioner Sherri Z. Heller. "We are working hard with the states to get this done quickly and clearly."

In order to resolve a problem, its scope needs to be defined. For undistributed collections, this takes two forms: defining what constitutes the pool of undistributed collections and determining the underlying causes. Simultaneous initiatives occurred in these arenas.

On the quarterly report of collections (Form OCSE-34A), States report a single UDC total for each quarter. In analyzing the underlying causes for UDC, NCCSD printed out that much of the UDC total was the result of federally sanctioned business practices such as holding joint tax returns for 6 months. As a result, OCSE included two additional reporting categories in the new version of this form. One category will enable each State to report UDC that have been identified and allocated to a specific case and are expected to be distributed shortly, pending the resolution of a routine administrative or legal process. The second category will permit each State to report UDC that will require more extensive research and information such as a custodial parent's address before a distribution can be made. The approved version of Form OCSE-34A was distributed through the issuance of Action Transmittal OCSE-AT-03-04 on September 26, 2003.

While this effort was ongoing, OCSE was also working with NCCSD on a task order that would look at several states that had the largest amounts of UDC, and, with the help of a private vendor, would take a close look at the root causes of UDC and the best ways to prevent or reduce them.

NCCSD is fully committed to ensuring that all child support collected is sent to families. To assist many states in being able to "get their arms around the UDC issue," ideas were obtained from a number of states and compiled into a best practices document that was issued by NCCSD in May 2003. NCCSD found that while there is commonality between states, one size does not fit all, and each state must analyze its own issues, take steps to determine the cause in its particular state, and to find the appropriate resolution.

The best practices report described the actions of several states that are aggressively tackling this issue. According to Diane Fray, IV-D Director, CT and Past President for NCCSD, "these states share some common traits: management commitment to solving the problem, innovative techniques for locating custodial parents for whom a payment has been returned, and streamlining of business processes to decrease the time it takes to disburse held money."

As an example of management commitment to solving the problem, several best practices from Virginia, one of the leaders in the nation in keeping UDC firmly under control, are highlighted in the report. Setting goals and monitoring progress ensures that staffs at all levels are held accountable for UDC. In fact, Virginia's child support director reviews the UDC totals on a daily basis. Virginia monitors progress by identifying different categories of undistributed collections and setting goals for reducing each one. For example, the goal for unidentified collections is to keep it below $50,000 at all times. It also establishes field office goals for reducing undistributed collections. Virginia's goal for field offices is to keep undistributed collections to less than 2% of monthly collections. Virginia has a daily report that lists each transaction that is not yet disbursed. This report is used to monitor and organize the work on undistributed collections. These reports also make it possible to analyze trends and shift resources when needed. Monthly analysis reports are provided by the central office to field staff and management so both can keep track of the progress being made toward achieving their goals. They also allow staff and management to compare their progress with that of other offices. Virginia uses its reports to give staff an accurate account of the types of money that are undistributed. Knowing which collections are being held based on state and federal law and which ones require work improves the efficiency of staff.

NCCSD surveyed states regarding their amount of undistributed collections for FFY 2002, and requested those states that had the ability, to break this number into its component parts based on varied categories. This data was shared with OCSE, which analyzed the data to determine how much of the UDC was due to federally sanctioned business practices, such as holding joint IRS tax returns for six months; and which was due to receipts that needed intervention by child support workers to locate the custodial party or update the child support case. Based on the states reporting, over 53% of the collections held were due to legitimate federally sanctioned reasons, only 15% were due to the whereabouts of the custodial party being unknown, and the remainder due to varied account issues, which, once resolved would result in the family receiving the child support.

Following the initial collaboration with NCCSD on the OCSE 34A, OCSE and NCCSD have agreed that a more extensive UDC supporting schedule will enable each State to itemize the UDC into the agreed upon 10 sub-categories as well as track UDC within time frames. Although many States regularly track this information, there has been no mechanism to enable all states to report this data to OCSE. A Federal Register Notice, published October 8, 2003 (Vol. 68 No. 195), provided a 60-day period to permit all interested individuals and organizations an opportunity to comment on the feasibility, desirability and composition of such a schedule. NCCSD's committee on UDC is obtaining input from all states through its regional representatives, and will be providing input to OCSE for discussion later in 2003. By focusing attention on this problem and working together, OCSE and NCCSD expect to significantly reduce undistributed collections, and increase collections to families.

NCCSD under the leadership of its new president, Cindi Chinnock, IV-D Director, Oregon, will be collaborating with OCSE on several significant issues during the next year. These include revisions of the form OCSE 157, strategic planning, and work on the medical incentive measure. The strengthened partnership between OCSE and NCCSD has improved the way that we meet the needs of our nation's children.

Diane Fray is the former president of National Council of Child Support Directors.

Applying for social services in Kansas is now at your fingertips! The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services (SRS) is accepting applications via the Internet through a newly developed unique software program.

SRS developed an on-line application to improve access to benefits and services. Consumers no longer need to go to a local SRS office during regular business hours to apply. The on-line application is available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, and can be completed from home or a community location at a time that is convenient for the consumer. Convenient access has recently become even more important as SRS closed several local offices to achieve greater efficiencies and cost savings.

This project brought together SRS staff from many program areas to develop a single application that could be used to apply on-line for any or all of the following: Child Support Enforcement, Cash Assistance, Child Care, Energy Assistance, Medical Assistance, Food Assistance, and Vocational Rehabilitative Services.

Consumers open a log in screen and before they are taken to the application screens, they are offered assessment questionnaire. This step helps them determine which benefits and services they may be eligible to receive.

The system is designed to ask only for information essential to determining eligibility for services for which the consumer is applying. The consumer completes basic demographic information, and responds to program specific questions. Additional questions are displayed when the previous data entered indicate a need for more information.

The SRS systems developers programmed the application process to include a way for customers to start an application, and save it for up to 30 days. This important feature allows them to log back in and return to the information to complete it at a later time.

Many questions can be completed easily using drop-down menus and checklist boxes that allow an applicant to select the appropriate response, saving time and providing clear answer choices. When a consumer completes all appropriate questions, a summary is displayed for them to review and determine if the information is accurate and complete. The consumer can return to prior screens to change or add information.

When a consumer is ready to complete the application process, a simple click on the "submit" button will take them to a signature page. Anticipating that not all consumers may have access to a printer, two options for a signed signature page are available. For those who indicate they have a printer, an application page will print and include instructions to sign and submit the page to the SRS. For those who indicate they do not have print capability, an electronic report will notify SRS staff to send out a signature page to the applicant. SRS partners with a variety of local community organizations and businesses to assist customers with the application, or provide access to computers. In addition, a variety of behind the scenes processes support the on-line application process, including daily on-line activity reports for each local office and a Help Desk.

The on-line application was first available for use on September 2, 2003. During the first week, 41 consumers started the application process, including 2 persons who applied for child support enforcement services.

SRS officials plan to add features, including a text only version for visually impaired and a Spanish language version.

The SRS is very pleased to introduce the capability to apply over the Internet for a variety of services using one application. They hope this expanded, convenient customer access will supplement the many other steps they are taking to assure essential human services remain available to consumers throughout Kansas.

To view the On-Line Application, go to www.srskansas.org and click on Apply for Services. Brenda Hayes is the Policy Administrator, Child Support Enforcement, Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services.