DCL-05-35, SVES Garnishment Match

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-05-35

ATTACHMENT: State Verificaton and Exchange System: Benefits To State Child Support Enforcement Agencies

DATE: November 29, 2005

TO: ALL STATE IV-D DIRECTORS

RE: SVES Garnishment Match

Dear Colleague:

In November 2004, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA), conducted a very successful one-time match with SSA’s State Verification and Exchange System (SVES). This system, which is administered by the SSA, provides information on Title II--SSA Retirement, Survivors, Disability and Health Insurance benefits; Title XVI--Supplemental Security Income benefits; and prisoner data from Federal, state, and local correctional facilities. The match was designed to assess and demonstrate the potential benefits of using these data for child support purposes.

The match between Title II SVES data and the OCSE’s Debtor File resulted in the identification of 75,000 child support obligors who receive Title II benefits. This information was sent to all 54 states and territories for potential garnishment action. As of October 21, 2005, SSA has received and processed a total of 33,244 income-withholding orders (IWOs) through a PO Box assigned to this project. Based on the information provided to OCSE by nine participating states, it is estimated that these IWOs could yield overall collections exceeding $5.5 million per month.

Some states are currently receiving SVES data directly from SSA using the SSA State Data Exchange (SDX) process. However, SSA has advised us that requests to access SSA SVES data via the SDX process will no longer be supported. Fortunately, SVES data are available to state Child Support Enforcement Agencies via the FPLS and, given the success of this match, all states are encouraged to take advantage of this access.

The attached report provides guidelines to states for establishing regular access to SVES data through the FPLS. In addition, it details the results of the SVES Title II match, and provides information about other data contained in SVES. If you have any questions or comments, please contact your FCR state technical liaison. The list of liaisons can be found at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/newhire/contacts/fcrtscontacts.htm.

Sincerely,

Margot Bean
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Enclosure

cc: Regional Program Managers
ACF Regional Administrators
Tribal IV-D Directors