EFT/EDI Child Support Payments

Teleconference

Minutes from the Federal/State Agencies EFT/EDI Child Support Payments Project Teleconference, November 17, 2004

Participants

The bi-monthly Federal Agency/State EFT/EDI Child Support Payments Project teleconference meeting was held on Wednesday, November 17 at 2 p.m., EST. The following Federal agencies participated in the teleconference: the Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS), the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE central office and Region VII), the Public Health Service (PHS), and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS). The following States participated in the teleconference: AZ, IA, ME, ND, OH, UT, CA, IL, MI, NE, OR, WA, CO, KY, MO, NM, PA, WI, HI, LA, MT, NY, TX and WY. Lovenia Murray of FMS facilitated the meeting and reminded participants to register in advance for each teleconference at FMS's Web site at http://fms.treas.gov/csp/confcall/index.html.

Status of SSN Removal from U.S. Treasury Checks

FMS stated that Social Security Numbers would remain on printed U.S. Treasury checks at least throughout 2005, at which time the situation will be reevaluated.

Federal Agency Update

FMS reported that 92% of federal payroll agencies identified for conversion have converted to electronic payments for child support.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts is working on a test file with Jesse Chavez of FMS's Kansas City Regional Finance Center (RFC) and hopes to complete this by December 2004. They were instructed by FMS to provide the Federal Employer Identification Number in field 4 of the Company/Batch Header Record.

The Department of Interior's National Business Center (NBC) and the Department of Agriculture's National Finance Center (NFC) have completed case reconciliation with MD.

CA State Disbursement Unit (SDU) Update

A representative from the CA SDU reported that CA has decided on a vendor, who will begin work in December 2004. The scheduled target date for CA's SDU implementation is September 2005, beginning with non-IV-D payments and then phasing in IV-D payments. CA is also in the process of updating case IDs on a county-by-county basis. Case IDs will change for the remaining 11 counties now converting to the Computer Assisted Support Enforcement System (CASES) consortium, which is scheduled for completion July 2005.

Employers will have to change the case IDs for those counties not yet converted to CASES; however, they should not have to change case IDs once CA implements CASES. The CA SDU will be capable of receiving cost-recovery payments from states like UT that practice cost recovery.

OH's Request for Additional Application Identifiers

A representative from the OH SDU asked when states would begin using the already approved application identifiers for financial institution data match payments. States responded that they were not using these identifiers, and some suggested that OCSE should set a deadline for states to begin using them.

The representative from OH also suggested that OCSE add application identifiers for the following kinds of payments:

• Lump sums or bonuses
• Unemployment insurance (UI) income-withholding attachments
• Worker's compensation (WC) income-withholding attachments
• Financial institution (FI) income-withholding attachments

OH explained that having application identifiers for these payments would help OH prevent overpayments from being distributed to pay fees and/or future payments (overpayments). The OH state legislature recently passed legislation requiring the OH child support enforcement agency (CSEA) to use state tax offsets of custodial parents' income tax refunds to recoup overpayments to custodial parents.

There was some discussion including the point that most states do not hold future payments. A representative from PA commented on the burden to employers to have to use more than the "CS" (for child support) application when remitting electronically. OCSE will discuss the issue with policy and have an independent discussion with OH.

Please respond to Nancy Benner at nbenner@acf.hhs.gov if your state sees a use for new application identifiers for lump sums, UI attachments, WC attachments, or income-withholding attachments sent to financial institutions.

Identifying Federal Agencies Using the Company/Batch Header Record

A representative from Hawaii (HI) is developing a chart to identify federal agencies by the data they enter in fields 3, 4, and 5 of the Company/Batch Header Record. FMS will assist in collecting this information, and then the chart will be shared with the states. The chart will apply to DFAS and other federal payroll agencies processing child support payments by EFT/EDI, including the payroll providers (e.g., the General Services Administration (GSA), NBC, and NFC.)

Voluntary Allotments from DFAS Sent Electronically

Some pay branches of DFAS are sending voluntary allotments electronically in the CTX 820 file format but with a RMR (Remittance) segment rather than the DED Child Support Deduction segment. A representative from KY asked for assistance in getting these electronic payments returned to paper checks because the KY SDU has to post them manually.

Next Teleconference on EFT/EDI Child Support Payments

The next EFT/EDI teleconference is scheduled for Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 2:00 p.m. EST. States are reminded to register for the teleconference at http://fms.treas.gov/csp/confcall/index.html to ensure enough lines is allocated. The participants will be given a new teleconference access code that is to be used throughout the New Year, 2005.