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HHS Awards New Funds for Innovative Child Support Projects

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala recently announced the award of more than $1.1 million in demonstration grants to states for funding innovative projects to promote the objectives of the nation's child support enforcement program. The grants provide a wide opportunity to test new methods to enhance the child support enforcement program through the development of a fresh knowledge base.

"The child support program has made great strides for millions of children," said OCSE Commissioner David Gray Ross, "but there is always more to learn and do. We are excited about these new grants."

Seventeen grants were awarded to 12 states. Funding for the 17-month grants was made available under the authority of Title IV-D and Section 1115 of the Social Security Act.

The projects and grant amounts by state

Arizona ($50,000) will enhance its medical support order establishment.

California ($50,000) will improve outreach and services to urban Hispanics.

Connecticut ($50,000) will improve child support program outcomes through the development of a partnership executive council involving the courts, the attorney general, and the Bureau of Child Support.

Maryland ($49,979) will continue to develop a program of certification of its child support workers.

Maine ($134,640) will enhance the use of community resource networks to reach out to noncustodial parents to ascertain their financial circumstances.

"The child support program has made great strides for millions of children, but there is always more to learn and do." ...OCSE Commissioner David Gray Ross

Massachusetts ($167,748) will pilot a project to develop methods of identification and coordination related to inmates and offenders with child support obligations.

Minnesota ($150,000) will test ways to increase the medical coverage of children through outreach, referrals, and direct enrollment; strengthen its voluntary paternity establishment activities for nonEnglish speaking parents; and look at ways to get more money to families.

Montana ($50,000) will develop data on the costs of raising children, targeted to that State.

New Jersey ($47,500), through intense outreach, will improve establishment of medical support orders.

Puerto Rico ($145,000) will enhance the use of automated processes to reduce errors and paperwork.

Virginia ($120,265) will enhance its Project Save Our Children law enforcement collaboration activities.

Washington ($50,000) will study ways to improve its child support guideline schedules so that payments are made more regularly.

West Virginia ($50,000) will develop multi-media approaches to encourage teens to practice abstinence and avoid teenage pregnancy.

Cost Avoidance and State Financing Variables' Effect on Performance

Two recent research studies funded by OCSE contain information of importance to caseworkers and managers. A brief summary of each report's main findings follows.

The Potential of the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Program to Avoid Costs to Public Programs: A Review and Synthesis of Literature (The Lewin Group with Johns Hopkins University).

Findings

• Previous estimates of cost avoidance are outdated, difficult to compare, and cannot be generalized. Some previous studies may only apply to one state, and all suffer from data limitations and methodological problems.
• The potential for cost avoidance is unknown. The potential for improved collections may be mitigated by the inability of many of the poorest noncustodial parents to pay support.
• Studies of child support review and adjustment efforts that avoided government costs in public assistance cases may be outdated by new changes in the caseload caused by TANF programs.
• A small number of studies indicate that child support has, at most, a limited indirect effect on marital and childbearing behavior of parents.
• The Urban Institute's Transfer Income Model (TRIM) is the only current major microsimulation model with the capacity to measure child support cost avoidance.

While state child support program administrative data, merged with data from other agencies, are potentially a rich source of data to estimate cost avoidance, recent state studies have limitations.

Preliminary Assessment of the Associations Between State Child Support Enforcement Performance and Financing Structure (The Lewin Group with ECONorthwest)

States may face tradeoffs in attempting to maximize their overall performance in the incentive measures, especially with regard to the cost-effectiveness measure.

Findings

• A greater reliance on general fund appropriations may be associated with somewhat better performance.
• Several factors related to the structure of the child support program appear to be related to CSE performance.
• Several demographic factors outside the domain of the child support program also appear to be related to CSE performance.
• States may face tradeoffs in attempting to maximize their overall performance in the incentive measures, especially with regard to the cost-effectiveness measure.
• Other than tradeoffs associated with cost-effectiveness, it does not appear that improvement on one incentive measure automatically translates into either an improvement or worsening of another measure. Exceptions include a positive and strong correlation between the paternity establishment percentage and percent of cases with orders and a positive but weaker correlation between the percent of cases with orders and the collection rate for current support.

The complete reports are available on OCSE's Website at: /programs/cse.

How to Obtain Military Information

Marilyn Michaels

On July 1, 2000, active duty members of the military received a pay adjustment, which amounted to a raise for most members. A new pay chart can be found on the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) web site at http://www.dfas.mil.

The web site contains other information on military pay and allowances, plus garnishment of active duty/retired/reserve/Department of Defense (DoD) civilian pay at http://www.dfas.mil/money/garnish/index.htm.

When military members retire from active duty, garnishments may need to be re-started, as they generally do not carry over to retired pay. If you are aware of a noncustodial parent in this situation, you need to inform DFAS so it can re-start the garnishment. Be sure to have the military member's Social Security number when contacting DFAS. The customer service phone number at DFAS is (216) 522-5301; the fax number that goes directly to its imaging system is (216) 522-6960.

Be sure to have the military member's Social Security number when contacting DFAS.

Most DoD civilians and all military members' garnishment actions are served on DFAS. A comprehensive listing of all federal employer agents for purposes of service of process can be found at http://frwebgate.2.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/multidb.cgi (select #10, then Text; 5 CFR 581 at Appendix A).

Freedom of Information Act

When requesting information from DFAS or one of the military services, cite the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Examples of FOIA requests are found at Appendix B (military worldwide locator services) and Appendix F (requests for pay information) of the OCSE publication, A Caseworker's Guide to Child Support Enforcement and Military Personnel,(February 2000).

The publication is available through the OCSE National Reference Center and also can be accessed on the OCSE Web Page.

Using a format other than an FOIA request may result in the request being returned to the caseworker, possibly with a referral to send it to a different address. When requesting employment verification from DFAS, caseworkers should ask for copies of the member's Leave and Earnings Statement to gain a complete picture of the service member's pay.

Internet Information

Each service has a web site: http://www.army.mil, http://www.af.mil, http://www.navy.mil, http://www.usmc.mil, and http://www.uscg.mil

Those needing information regarding the Veterans Administration can go to http://www.va.gov. Keep in mind that most Veterans Administration entitlements cannot be garnished. Many active duty sailors can be located by checking http://directory.navy.mil, though the addresses of Navy personnel overseas must be requested in writing as they are not available over the Internet.

Military members stationed overseas generally have an address containing an APO or FPO number. The last line of the address will be APO (or FPO), either AE or AP or AA, then a zip code number. If you want to know where the member is stationed, a good listing of APO and FPO locations (in numerical order, by zip code) can be found at http://www.web7.whs.osd.mil/html/45261l.htm

For information on service of process overseas, refer to the Department of State Home Page, Children's Issues section, at http://www.travel.state.gov. Forms and regulations issued by DoD may be accessed at http://web7.whs.osd.mil/dodiss/links.htm. The DoD directive that addresses leave issues involving the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act may be found at http://www.web7.whs.osd.mil/text/d13275p.txt.

If you have any questions regarding military members and child support, you may contact Marilyn Michaels at (808) 692-7139, or by e-mail at mmichael@pixi.com or mmichaels@acf.dhhs.gov.

Marilyn Michaels is OCSE Military Liaison Officer.

Child Support Course for Employers on Small Business Web

To expand its outreach effort to six million small business employers, OCSE has collaborated with the Small Business Administration (SBA) by placing a new online course, entitled Child Support Enforcement and the Small Business Employer: What Every Employer Needs to Know About Child Support, in SBA's web-based classroom. Since most small business employers have neither the time nor the financial capability to attend workshops and conferences, this online course gives them the information they need, when and where they need it, free of cost.

The online course presents the highlights of employers' responsibilities.

It also serves child support professionals and attorneys who want to review the basic responsibilities and practices of the employer community with respect to child support.

The online course presents the highlights of employers' responsibilities. The course includes a downloadable version of the standardized Order/Notice to Withhold Income for Child Support. Also provided are a quick self-test, glossary, and list of additional online resources.

Appealing graphics, voice-over narration and video clips make this an interesting site for employers to visit. A text-only version of the course is available for employers with minimal technology.

The website can be accessed from: http://www.sba.gov/classroom/courses.html. If you would like more information, contact OCSE's Carol Callahan at (202) 401-6969.

Fatherhood Initiative in New Jersey

Joe Travea

New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman and Department of Human Services Commissioner Michele K. Guhl recently joined several retired professional football players and their community service organization to remind fathers of their emotional and financial responsibility to their children.

The Governor joined with members of Minority Athletes Networking Inc. (MAN Inc.) in support of several initiatives to promote responsible fatherhood. These included unveiling of new advertising for the Office of Child Support's Learning, Investing, and Networking for Kids Sake (LINKS) public awareness program and the awards ceremony for the winners of New Jersey's Sixth Annual Teen Parental Responsibility media contest.

"Parents owe their children two fundamental things," the Governor said. "The first is adequate financial support. The second and equally important thing is the commitment to emotional support--to be there for them in both good times and not so good times."

"I want to commend the founders and members of Man Inc.," the Governor continued, "for the work they do to encourage youth in minority communities to seek academic and career success and to be responsible citizens."

Joining the Governor and Commissioner for the ceremony were James DiEleuterio, New Jersey Sports President Exposition Authority; Sam Nails, Executive Director of Man Inc.; and former New York Giants' players Ron Johnson and Zeke Mowatt.

Man Inc. was founded in 1989 by Ron Johnson and George Martin, also a former player for the New York Giants, to create a networking of retired and professional athletes from New Jersey who could offer services, mentoring, and support to New Jersey's urban minority communities.

For more information on this event, or about New Jersey's child support public awareness campaign, contact Joe Travea at (609) 588-7867.

Joe Travea is Public Awareness Coordinator of New Jersey's Child Support Program.

Virginia's Abingdon District Office Benefits from NDNH and Federal Registry Data

Patricia F. DuBose

The Abingdon District Office of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) is bordered by West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Its location and high levels of poverty and unemployment--characteristic of rural Appalachia--ensure a high level of interstate cases. In fact, interstate cases make up more than 30 percent of Abingdon DCSE's caseload.

In December 1998, Virginia's automated child support enforcement system began displaying data from the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH). The data included new hire, quarterly wage, and unemployment insurance information from other states. For DCSE Abingdon, the result was an immediate identification of approximately 3,000 employers belonging to cases assigned to DCSE's Enforcement Unit.

Over the next three months, the DCSE continuously prepared income withholdings on the noncustodial parents for these cases. With the help of the NDNH, the DCSE's income withholdings have risen from an average of $357 to $541 per month--a 52 percent increase-over the past two fiscal years. The DCSE's collections have increased by 30 percent during the same period. Prior to using the information from the NDNH, the DCSE averaged a 7 percent increase per year, with the highest increase being 10 percent in one year.

The use of the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS)--which houses both the Federal Case Registry (FCR) and the NDNH--as a locate tool, has been a benefit since its inception. For child support districts with high out-of-state caseloads, that benefit increases proportionally. From fiscal years 1998-2000, Abingdon DCSE's average number of locate hits per month increased 135 percent as a direct result of information received from the FPLS.

The value of FPLS data to Abingdon DCSE's Establishment Unit also has been significant. Using the State's Administrative Process, DCSE can, when appropriate, administratively establish paternity and support orders, and enforce orders without involving the court system.

In 1997, Abingdon DCSE had the highest number of cases needing establishment (excluding paternity) of all the State's districts. With over 7,600 cases requiring establishment of orders, 3,000 of those cases had out-of-state noncustodial parents. The FPLS provided DCSE's Establishment Unit with the locate and earnings data required for the preparation of Administrative Support Orders on noncustodial parents who could not provide the necessary financial statements.

The data received from the FPLS is also useful in hard-to-enforce cases. The absence of employer information and quarterly wage data for certain individuals on the FPLS helps identify those cases that should be checked against IRS 1099 data for other sources of income, such as self-employment, retirement pensions, stocks, and Social Security benefits.

Nick Young, Virginia's Child Support Director, notes that "Virginia recognized early on what a valuable tool the FPLS would be. I asked all offices to place a priority on using the new data. Abingdon has done an excellent job of doing just that."

For more information contact Pat DuBose at 540-676-5495.

Patricia DuBose is District Manager of the Child Support Office in Abingdon, Virginia.

Conference Calendar

October

16-18 ACF Users' Group, Holiday Inn at the Bay, San Diego, CA, Robin Rushton (202) 690-1244.

17-19 Welfare-to-Work Beyond 2000: Building the Future, Hyatt Regency Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ, Kelly Lynch (202) 219-0024 X 188.

18-20 Nebraska CSE Association 19th Annual Training Conference, Holiday Inn, Kearney, NE, Colleen Lembke (308) 534-4350 X 205.

22-24 South Carolina Fall 2000 Conference, Landmark Hotel, Myrtle Beach, SC, Michael Thigpen (803) 898-9450.

23 Indiana Fathers and Families Conference, Westin Hotel, Indianapolis, IN, Joseph Mamlin (317) 233-4482.

24-26 Public Consultation on Proposed Tribal Regulations, Holiday Inn - Downtown Anchorage, Anchorage, AK, Virginia Apodaca (202) 401-9376.

26-28 Social Commission on the Status of Black Men National Conference, Adams Mark Hotel Downtown, Indianapolis, IN, Stephen Jackson (317) 233-1744.

November

1-2 Public Consultation on Proposed Tribal Regulations, Holiday Inn Rosslyn at Key Bridge, Arlington, VA, Virginia Apodaca (202) 401-9376.

8-9 Oklahoma CSE Association Fall Conference, Marriott Hotel, Oklahoma City, OK, Barbara Hatfield (405) 262-8789.

14-17 Missouri CSE Association Conference, Tan-Tar-A Resort, Osage Beach, MO, Marla Ashley (573) 751-2648.

15-17 New England Child Support Regional Conference, Sheraton-Hyannis Hotel, Hyannis, MA Chris Arciero (617) 565-2472.

28-30 Public Consultation on Proposed Tribal Regulations, Crown Plaza Hotel, Phoenix, AZ, Virginia Apodaca (202) 401-9376.

December

5-7 Tenth Annual Tribal Grantee Conference, Marriott Hotel, Sea/Tac, WA, George Lund (206) 615-2550 X 3053.

Arizona Has Success with MSFIDM

Mark Bluemke

Since the first of the year, Arizona, through the use of the Multistate Financial Institution Data Match (MSFIDM), has seized and collected just under $500,000 in past due child support. Using FIDM and MSFIDM as an enforcement tool has enabled us to increase our child support collections on many difficult cases.

Our first success story involves a custodial parent who had not received any child support on her case for years. We were able to seize $27,000 from the noncustodial parent's account. After we distributed the money to the custodial parent, she held the check for over two weeks, unable to believe that she was finally getting the money owed for so long to her and her children.

Using FIDM and MSFIDM as an enforcement tool has enabled us to increase our child support collections on many difficult cases.

On another case, we seized over $10,000 from an account. Two months later the noncustodial parent came into the office with a check for $12,000 to pay off the remainder of the arrearages.

MSFIDM has provided us with many lump-same payments; also, it has enabled us to collect money we otherwise might not have been able to collect. In more than 70 percent of the cases in which we have seized money from accounts, we have been able in subsequent months to collect all or part of the entire obligation. For more information about MSFIDM in Arizona, contact Mark Bluemke at (623) 842-1070 extension 6603.

Mark Bluemke is MSFIDM Coordinator for Arizona's Child Support Program.

Working Out of Poverty

The following is excerpted from:

Working Out of Poverty: Employment Retention and Career Advancement for Welfare Recipients, by Rebecca Brown, Evelyn Ganzglass, Susan Golonka, Jill Hyland, and Martin Simon, published by the Policy Studies Division of the National Governors' Association Center for Best Practices. While not specific to child support enforcement, the report spotlights an issue that is important to child support workers: the connection between good paying jobs and the ability of noncustodial parents to make regular child support payments.

A work first approach to welfare reform should not simply be about placing welfare recipients in entry-level jobs. It should be about helping people with limited skills, work history, and education turn every job into a learning experience that leads to a higher paying job. To meet this challenge, states should complement strategies that help welfare recipients get jobs as quickly as possible with ones that work with them and their employers after they start work. Providing effective job retention and career advancement services requires establishing much closer relationships with employers.

The report spotlights an issue that is important to child support workers: the connection between good paying jobs and the ability of noncustodial parents to make regular child support payments.

It also requires integrating employability development efforts across welfare, workforce, education, and economic development systems to strengthen state capacity for helping low-income workers retain and succeed in their jobs.

Recommendations

To promote job retention among low-income workers, states should work with employers to:

• Increase access to and awareness of work-related supports, such as transportation, child care, and health care;
• Modify employee assistance programs to better aid low-income workers;
• Launch more aggressive efforts to promote earned income tax credits;
• Train supervisors to help them respond to the problems of low-income employees; and
• Help recipients who lose jobs become reemployed quickly.

To promote career advancement among low-income workers, states should:

• Improve access to career ladders;
• Work with employers to promote learning at the workplace;
• Identify employers and labor market sectors that provide career advancement opportunities for employees; and
• Make education and training compatible with employment.

For more information, or a copy of the report, contact John Thomasian, Director, NGA Center for Best Practices, at (202) 624-5300.

Used with permission.

PRWORA Certification Guide Update

Twenty states have now had either full or incremental PRWORA certification reviews and another 19 have requested reviews over the next three months.

Twenty states have now had either full or incremental PRWORA certification reviews.

A revised version of the PRWORA Certification Guide has been issued as Action Transmittal (AT) 00-07, dated August 28, 2000. It is on the OCSE Web page at:www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/stsys/tab3.htm

Another new publication available on the OCSE Web page is "Cost Benefit Analysis Illustrated for Child Support Systems," with spreadsheets and a help guide.