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EFT/EDI Child Support PaymentsGetting Started: Federal Agency Guide
IntroductionThe Financial Management Service (FMS) is working in cooperation with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS, also referred to as HHS), Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) to convert federal agencies' court ordered child support payments from checks to electronic funds transfer (EFT) using the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network. Payments targeted for conversion are child support payments directed to State collection entities from cases administered by State child support enforcement agencies. The child support payments will be processed by EFT using the National Automated Clearing House Association's (NACHA), Cash Concentration or Disbursement (CCD+) corporate payment format with a single 80 character addendum record. The addendum record of the CCD+ format will be structured using the DED (Deduction) Data Segment for child support payments that was developed by NACHA in cooperation with the child support enforcement community. The Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 has made EFT mandatory for certain federal payments, excluding the Internal Revenue Service tax refund payments. In implementing the EFT provision of the DCIA, FMS has been working with federal Agencies to assist them in identifying the most efficient and least costly processing methods for their payments. Federal agencies that process their payroll on-site through their servicing Regional Financial Center (RFC) or Federal Reserve Bank are being asked to convert their withholding child support payments from checks to EFT/EDI. The EFT/EDI Child Support Payment Application: Federal Agency Guide provides instructions for federal agencies to process child support payments to State child support collection entities by EFT/EDI through the ACH network. BackgroundThe FMS has teamed with the HHS, OCSE in implementing the EFT provision of the DCIA of 1996 in conjunction with the Family Support Act which mandate that State CSE agencies develop the capability to accept EFT/EDI transactions from employers. As the federal government's bill payer, the FMS is primarily responsible for the disbursement of payments for all federal agencies, except those agencies/bureaus with disbursement authority, such as the Department of Defense. The Payment Automation Branch of FMS provides instructions and assistance to federal agencies in the implementation of newly developed payment applications, as with the child support payment application. The HHS, OCSE has the program responsibility for implementation of the Family Support Act, and working with the State CSE agencies to assure that eligible custodial parents receive child support payments from non-custodial parents having income. The Federal Child Support Enforcement Program was first legislated in 1975, under the Section IV-D of the Social Security Act. The Act required state governments to set up their own programs to locate absent parents, establish paternity and support, enforce support, and collect and distribute child support payments. The Child Support Enforcement Act was furthered strengthened with the passage of the Family Support Act of 1988, and subsequently the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 (P.L. 104-193), signed into law on August 22, 1996. The key provision of the PRWORA required that all States develop EFT/EDI centralized collection capability by October 1998. With some exceptions the withholding requirements are:
The withholding transmission requirements are:
The EFT Provision of the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996, and PRWORA of 1996, which established the States' EFT/EDI centralized collections requirements provided the impetus for federal agencies' implementation of EFT/EDI child support payments using the ACH CCD+ format. The child support payments targeted for EFT/EDI are all child support payments that are enforced by a state child support enforcement agency or the child support enforcement agency's designated central disbursement unit (SDU). EFT/EDI Child Support Payment ProcessingChild support payments are processed through the ACH network to the specified electronic address of the child support enforcement agency's designated financial institution. Funds are transferred using primarily the ACH CCD+ format option with a single 80 character addendum record. The ACH CTX format with the multiple addenda capability is an option for those federal agencies and States that have a need for this format and the capability to process and receive the CTX format, respectively. Agencies processing EFT/EDI child support payments will deliver the appropriate flat file payment format to their servicing FMS RFC. The RFC will edit the file and convert it to the appropriate ACH format. The RFC will then deliver the file to its servicing Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) for further distribution to the child support enforcement agency's financial institution. Non-Treasury Disbursed Offices (NTDO) will deliver an ACH payment file directly to their servicing Federal Reserve Bank (FRB). The following flowchart illustrates the child support payment processing flow from the point in which the federal agency receives a child support withholding order/notice to the point in which the state child support enforcement agency's financial institution receives the child support payment transaction. EFT/EDI Child Support Payment Processing FlowPayment Processing Flow Description
Implementation of EFT/EDI Child Support PaymentsThe CCD+ and the CTX ACH payment formats are NACHA formats used for the transfer of payment transactions between businesses and government. Federal Agencies are instructed to use the CCD+ format in converting child support payments to EFT/EDI. The majority of federal and state agencies have the capability to process transactions in the CCD+ format. Federal and state child support enforcement agencies with CTX payment capability may elect to use the CTX corporate payment format to process child support payments. Federal agencies with Electronic Certification System (ECS) capability can use the ECS System menu for ACH Vendor Payments to create EFT/EDI child support payment files.
Implementation ProceduresThe conversion of child support payments to EFT/EDI will require staff that will be responsible for knowing each State child support enforcement agency's program requirements. As with check payments, there must be a designated contact person within the agency for EFT/EDI child support payments. The federal agency contact would work directly with the State child support enforcement agency contact in gathering and maintaining current information on the Child Support Enforcement Program, and the State's EFT/EDI child support payment capability, identifying old/new child support enforcement payments subject to EFT/EDI processing, maintaining current information on the state's financial institution account and electronic address, and the tax identification number (TIN) and FIPS Code or mailing address.
Sample Letter to State CSE Agency
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Date Dear State Child Support Enforcement Administrator: The (Agency Name) is converting its court ordered child support payments from checks to Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) using the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network. We are requesting assistance from your agency in reconciling our old and new withholding orders for child support, and identifying the child support orders that should be processed to your centralized collection location by EFT/EDI. In addition, we will need the State of (State Name) EFT/EDI child support enforcement payment procedures, and financial institution's (FI) information for processing payments through the ACH network to your FI. The child support payments will be processed in the Cash Concentration and Disbursement (CCD+)/Corporate credit format, using the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) endorsed Child Support Banking Convention, DED (Deduction) Segment data in the single 80 character addendum record. The DED Segment addendum record will contain the mandatory child support payment information specified by your state program. Please contact (Agency Contact) on (Telephone Number/E-mail address) by(Date)to discuss the program procedures and requirements for receiving EFT/EDI child supports payments processed by Agency Name. We look forward to working with your State on this important payment application. Sincerely, Federal Agency Official Signature |
Element | Comments | Contents | Attributes | ||
Segment Identifier | DED | M | ID | 3/3 | |
DED 01 | Application Identifier | CS | M | ID | 2/2 |
DED 02 | Case Identifier | XXXXXXXXX | M | AN | 1/20 |
DED 03 | Pay Date | YYMMDD | M | DT | 6/6 |
DED 04 | Payment Amount | $$$$$$$$CC | M | N2 | 1/10 |
DED 05 | Non-Custodial Parent SSN | XXXXXXXXX | M | AN | 9/9 |
DED 06 | Medical Support Identifier | 'Y' = YES, 'N' = NO | M | AN | 1/1 |
DED 07 | Non-Custodial Parent Name | XXXXXXXXXX | O | AN | 1/10 |
DED 08 | Fips Code | XXXXXXX | O | AN | 5/7 |
DED 09 | Employment Termination Identifier | 'Y' = YES | O | AN | 1/1 |
The following are federal agency instructions on the data element fields of the 80 position field length, DED Segment Addendum Record for child support payments.
DED | DED is the EDI Data Segment Identifier for Deductions, such as Child Support which is a payroll deduction. This is a mandatory (M) field, and should always include DED. |
01 | Application Identifier: CS is the acronym for child support, the supporting identifier for the DED segment. It is a mandatory, (AN) character data element, and the field length is (2). |
02 | Case Identifier: The Identifier is assigned to the case by the child support enforcement entity when a child support case is established. The data element field is an (AN) character, mandatory field. The minimum field length is (1) and the maximum length is (20). |
03 | Pay Date: Date in which the payment is due to the recipient/child support enforcement entity. This date is established by the child support enforcement entity. This is a mandatory data element, containing the numerical date, in the order indicated: (yy) for the last (2) digits of the year, (mm) for the (2) digit month reference, and (dd) for the (2) digit day reference. The field length is (6). |
04 | Payment Amount: This is the amount of the child support payment. It is a mandatory numeric field, with a minimum of (1) digit(s), and a maximum of (10). The decimal point is implied which means it is not necessary to include the decimal point for amounts less than one dollar. Thus, the dollar amount of one hundred, fifty dollars, and twenty five cents is written as (15025). |
05 | Non-Custodial Parent Social Security Number (SSN): Provide the social security number of the federal employee on whom's behalf the child support payment is being made by the federal agency. It is the federal employee's unique identifier. This is defined as (AN) characters, mandatory data element, with a field length of (9). |
06 | Medical Support Indicator: This field is for the federal agency to indicate whether or not the federal employee (or non-custodial parent) has health insurance available at the employee's place of employment. The indicators are: Y=Yes, and N=No. This is defined as (AN) characters, mandatory, (1) character data field. |
07 | Non-Custodial Parent Name: The name of the employee on whose behalf the Agency is making the CSP. This should include the first seven (7) characters of the employee's last name, followed by the first three (3) characters of the first name. If the last name is less the (7) characters, a comma is used to separate the last character of the last name from the first character of the first name, with no spaces between. It is an optional, (AN) characters, data element, with a minimum field length of (1) and a maximum of (10). |
08 | FIPS Code: The Federal Information Process Standard (FIPS) code refers to the assigned code of the child support enforcement entity receiving the child support payments. It is an optional, (AN) characters field, with a minimum field length of (5) and a maximum (7). The State CSE entity will provide the Agency with the appropriate FIPS code for this data element field. |
09 | Employment Termination Indicator: This data element field is used to notify the CSE agency that the employee's employment with the federal agency has terminated. A "Y" is placed in this field to indicate the employee's termination of employment, otherwise it should not be used. |
M: Represents Mandatory, indicating information in the data element field is required.
O: Represents Optional, indicating information in the data element field is optional.
Note: Though the DED Segment data element fields are defined as "mandatory" or "optional," some State CSE agencies may or may not require certain "mandatory" or "optional" data elements in the DED Segment. Thus, it is important that federal agencies contact each State CSE Agency before development of the DED Segment to confirm all data element fields that are necessary in the DED Segment addendum.
ID: This implies that the data element is an EDI standard value from a pre-established list.
AN: Indicates all letters, digits, spaces, and or special characters are acceptable in the data element. Exceptions: the asterisk, and backward slash should not be used as character data within a data element field.
DT: Defines the EDI standard format for the Date, the last two digits of the numeric year (yy), followed by the two digit numbers for the month(mm), and day(dd) of the Date.
N2: This defines the format for the amount data element field. The decimal is implied for amounts less than one dollar (represented without the decimal).
Data Element Fields: All data element fields are left justified. Trailing spaces are only used when satisfying a minimum length requirement.
Asterisks (*) are used as separators, and fillers. An asterisk should appear between each data element field, and in each optional data element field for which there is no data to indicate that the defined data element field is blank.
Backward Slash ( \ ) is used to denote the end of a Segment. There are no spaces between data element fields, and no blank space data element fields. Spaces can appear within a data element, for example: The
Case Identifier data element is an (AN) characters field, with a minimum field length of (1) and a
maximum of (20). This could be written as: 123 AB-## % 1123 (including digits, spaces, alpha letters,
characters).
Note: Federal agency questions concerning the contents of the ACH Vendor and Miscellaneous Payments Detail Record, or the ACH CCD+, 80 position addendum for child support payments may be directed to Faye Allen (faye.allen@fms.treas.gov), Project Management Division, (202) 874-7113 or Lauren Ray ( lauren.ray@fms.treas.gov), Kansas City Financial Center, Customer Assistance Staff, 816-414-2113 (see Appendix).
DED*CS*12345678*991203*20000*000010123*Y*HENRY,EDW*MD001\
Comments: Every data element field contains information except the last data element field, DED 09. The backward slash is placed after the last data element field that contains data, DED 08, and is used to indicate the end of the Segment.
DED*CS*BB1098U*991217*17550*445566779*Y\
Comments: The last three data element fields, DED, 07, 08, and 09 are blank data element fields. Thus, the backward slash is placed after the last character of the last data element field that contains data, DED 06.
DED*CS*AA3344*000127*35025*555667777*N*BROWN,JOH**Y\
Comments: DED 01 - 07 contains data. An asterisk is used to separate the data element field, DED 07, from DED 08. The second asterisk is used to indicate DED 08 is a blank, followed by DED 09, which contains 'Y' for termination of employment. The backward slash is placed after DED 09 to end the Segment.
Note: Office symbols listed below are used to identify the originating RFC processing payments and returns.
Austin Financial Center (AFC)
Office Symbol: 220
Glenda.Alvarado@fms.treas.gov
Telephone: (512) 342-7214
Kansas City Financial Center (KFC)
Office Symbol: 310
Lauren.Ray@fms.treas.gov
Telephone: (816) 414-2113
Philadelphia Financial Center (PFC)
Office Symbol: 303
Matthew.Helfrich@fms.treas.gov
Telephone: (215) 516-8022
San Francisco Financial Center (SFC)
Office Symbol: 312
Sandra.Young@fms.treas.gov
Telephone: (415) 817-7311