Giving Hope and Support to America's Children

This is a Historical Document.

INFORMATION MEMORANDUM

IM-08-05

DATE: May 05, 2008

TO: ALL AGENCIES ADMINISTERING CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT PLANS APPROVED UNDER TITLE IV-D OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES

ATTACHMENT: Understanding and Managing Child Support Debt (Adobe PDF, 228KB)

SUBJECT: The Story Behind the Numbers

BACKGROUND:OCSE urges managers at all levels of the child support enforcement program to continue to look closely at the data being generated around the program to learn more about what these numbers reveal. These analyses can reveal the program’s inner workings, causes and effects, what works and what does not, and can help all of us improve the outcomes of the program.

We in OCSE have also been conducting analyses of data on various important issues. This is the next analysis in a series of briefs summarizing our findings on these issues as we strive together to continue to improve program performance.

This brief discusses the results from the Urban Institute Report, Assessing Child Support Arrears in Nine Large States and The Nation. Increasing the collection of current support and preventing and reducing arrears was identified as a national initiative by State IV-D Directors and OCSE. This initiative, entitled PAID-Project to Avoid Increasing Delinquencies, renews our emphasis on areas that have been a priority since the start of the program. This study has provided much valuable information that can help OCSE and State Child Support Enforcement staff to gain better insights into managing child support debt, reducing its growth, and enhancing our ability to increase collections to children.

We thank everyone involved in the IV-D program for continuing to focus on accurate data collection and reporting. We continue to appreciate your willingness to work together on behalf of America’s children.

INQUIRIES: Questions about this brief should be directed to Dennis Putze at (202) 401-4030 or dennis.putze@acf.hhs.gov.

Margot Bean
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Enclosure

cc: State IV-D Directors
Tribal IV-D Directors
Regional Program Managers

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