TEXAS

EMPLOYER INITIATIVE

Goals:

• To improve communication and the exchange of information with employers
• Increase child support collections from income withholding by employers
• Improve customer service to employers

Descriptions: The Texas Office of the Attorney General's Child Support Division initiated four projects to achieve the goals.

1. Improve Timeliness of Quarterly Wage Data: In Texas, quarterly wage data come to the Child Support Division (CSD) via an interface with the Texas Workforce Commission. The data are used to update our employer records.

Previously, the Texas Workforce Commission waited to provide wage information until all wages from employers for the quarter were reported and entered. This process delayed receipt of the data from four to five months after the wages were earned. Because of the age of the data, we issued verification of employment letters before sending a wage withholding order to ensure the non-custodial parent was still employed. This resulted in missed collections. Also, the non-custodial parents had often changed jobs by the time the income withholding order was received.

The CSD implemented new procedures with the Texas Workforce Commission to provide more timely data. The new process sends wage data to CSD monthly as it is reported. This has resulted in CSD issuing an average of 8,000 wage withholding notices per month in the second and third months after a quarter ends. In addition, verification of employment letters are no longer sent prior to issuing a wage withholding order since the data are now current.

As part of this effort, CSD obtained employers' payroll address information to ensure that wage withholding notices were sent to the proper place. Employer records were closed automatically on cases where wages were not reported within the previous two quarters.

Results: During fiscal year 2003, Texas collected over $22 million due to improvements in quarterly wage data. Ongoing collections average $3 million per month.

2. Employer Data Match: Texas entered into a contract with the largest provider of human resource payroll and benefits verification services to obtain access to 2,200 employers' payroll records via an electronic interface. This interface produced 6,530 wage withholding orders for the four months between September 4, 2003 and December 31, 2003 and yielded $1,904,498 for that time period. The percentage of paying cases is considerably higher compared to some of the other interfaces. This is due to the timely reporting of wages and data on the interface allowing CSD to only accept recent wages.

Results: Almost all verification of employment letters are eliminated for employers who use this employment and verification service. Major effort was expended to clean up records to ensure wage withholding orders were sent to the proper place. In addition, there was a reduction in correspondence that employers received from us after an employee terminated as a result of regular payroll data submissions by employers which closed out employment records.

3. Income Order/Notice Improvements: Several system edits were implemented to increase the accuracy and timeliness of issuance of wage withholding notices. Changes were put in place to reduce the mailing of duplicate notices, the number of notices sent to deceased parties, and the number of notices sent on cases that are flagged for closure. These edits prevented issuance of 17,422 erroneous wage withholding notices between August 28, 2003 and November 12, 2003 and provided a cost savings of $365,862 for postage and filing fees.

Results: The system edits reduced the number of wage withholding notices sent in error, the number of complaints from employers due to erroneous payment amounts, and the amount of time employers spent with CSD staff to identify errors.

4. Employer File Enhancements: Texas implemented commercial software in September, 2003 that performed address validation for adding employer information. The automated screens for employer updates were changed to increase search capabilities so staff could search for payroll addresses. These payroll addresses were verified by CSD staff to ensure accurate payroll information for issuing wage withholding orders.

A Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) data correction updated Texas' automated employer file for cases where the master records and the member records did not match. This resulted in the correction of 2 million records by enhancing successful matches from incoming interfaces to prevent duplicate employer records from being added.

Employer interface table changes route each of the main employer interfaces through the same employer table to ensure each is choosing the same employer record. This interface also allows a separate medical benefits address for an employer record to issue the medical support notice to the correct location.

In addition, over 900,000 duplicate, invalid and incomplete employer records were deleted to ensure field staff no longer select an invalid employer from an automated search. Removal of the bad employer records from our automated system increases the response time for employer searches.

Results: Wage withholding orders got to employers at the right location. Users reduced the amount of time spent researching employer records. Also, by matching employer federal identification numbers to employer records on the system, duplicate notices were not sent.

Funding: Regular IV-D funds were used.

Contact:

Ruben Barbosa

Project Director

Phone: (512) 460-6570

Email: Ruben.Barbosa@cs.oag.state.tx.us