Child Support Report XXIII, No. 9, 20010901

Child Support Report

Vol. XXIII, No. 9, Sep 2001

Child Support Report is a publication of the Office of Child Support Enforcement, Division of Consumer Services.

CSR is published for information purposes only. No official endorsement of any practice, publication, or individual by the Department of Health and Human Services or the Office of Child Support Enforcement is intended or should be inferred.

New Mexico eChild Support Enforcement Website

Acting Commissioner Addresses NCSEA Conference

A Snapshot of Child Support in the United Kingdom

OCSE Launches Leadership Training Course

Virginia's Interactive Web Application Provides Customers with Additional Access to Case Information

Wisconsin's W-2 Program Found to Benefit Payment and Receipt of Child Support

Minnesota Child Support Program Reaches Out to Incarcerated Parents

North Carolina Amnesty Week Brings in More than $278,000

New Mexico eChild Support Enforcement Website

New Mexico's Human Services Department has partnered with a contractor to develop an Internet-based solution to the challenge of providing quality case management services to a growing child support population in the face of limited office hours and staff ceilings.

The State's eChild Website enables parents and employers to perform tasks and exchange information that until recently could only be handled on the phone or in person with agency staff.

Using the Website, http://childsupport.hsd.state.nm.us, New Mexico's child support customers can:

Apply for child support services;
Inquire about child support payment status;
View payment history;
View child support owed on the case;
Provide address updates;
Provide locate "leads" on the whereabouts of the noncustodial parent;
Have payments automatically deposited into their bank accounts;
Arrange to pay for child support electronically;
Update employment information; and
Update asset information.

The new system:

Improves Customer Service

eChild Support puts information in the hands of parents when they need it, including nights, weekends, and holidays; and customers can access the Internet for information from a number of different places, such as home, work, or libraries.

Improves Case Management

As parents use eChild Support for routine information exchange, agency staff can devote more time to complex cases.

Improves the Existing Information System

eChild Support provides a window on an agency's existing Information System, making it easier to understand and tailor to specific audiences' data requirements.

For more information, contact Richard Quillin, Chief Information Officer, New Mexico Human Services Department, at (505) 827-7752.

Acting Commissioner Addresses NCSEA Conference

Speaking to an audience of more than 1,500 child support professionals, OCSE Acting Commissioner Frank Fuentes praised achievements in collections, paternities established, and persons served, but said there is still too much unpaid child support.

"The regular payment of child support reduces families' poverty and increases children's hopes for a better life." ...OCSE Acting Commissioner Frank Fuentes

"Child support workers," he said, "must be clear about how critically important child support is in this time when more and more people are moving from welfare to work. Increasing collections must continue to be a priority because the regular payment of child support reduces families' poverty and increases children's hopes for a better life."

Mr. Fuentes pledged continuing OCSE efforts in support of fathers through demonstration projects, Special Improvement Project (SIP) grants, Access and Visitation program grants, and collaborations with Head Start and others.

"Our commitment," he said, "in this new century is for the child support program to become a key component in helping fathers reconnect with their families."

He reminded his listeners that research has shown that children do better when they are part of a family structure, and that families are better off when there are two parents. In closing, Mr. Fuentes challenged conference participants to join with OCSE in a commitment to encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.

A Snapshot of Child Support in the United Kingdom

On August 21, OCSE staff had the privilege of hearing Michael Isaac, Deputy Chief Executive for child support in the United Kingdom (UK), discuss child support in England, Scotland, and Wales. Mr. Isaac is the director of operations, with responsibility for front-line service delivery across the UK. The motto of the UK child support program is: "Work for those who can; support for those who cannot." The UK government has made a commitment to eliminate child poverty within 20 years.

The UK's program is administered through a single national agency with 11,500 staff serving 1.1 million clients, collecting $1.4 billion per year, and operating on the basic principle of parental responsibility.

The program's emphasis is on "natural compliance," as opposed to enforcing payment by threat of punitive measures. In 20 percent of the cases, payment is made directly by the nonresidential parent to the residential parent. Current UK initiatives include fatherhood, family formation, and marriage.

The agency is currently undergoing a three-year "modernization agenda," which will simplify program complexity, speed up case processing, and enable more effective action against those who default on payment of support. The modernization, which will affect all staff, will cost about $700 million and require new legislation, procedures, and computer systems.

If you would like to learn more about child support in the United Kingdom, contact OCSE's Anne Benson, who recently spent a year in England working with the UK child support program. Anne can be reached at (202) 401-1467.

OCSE Launches Leadership Training Course

By: Jack Shaw

OCSE's new leadership training course, "In novative Leadership Practices in Child Support Enforcement," was piloted in July in Washington D.C. to a group of child support directors and other senior CSE staff. The course draws on academic studies of leadership "best practices" of prominent corporate and government leaders and uses behavior models to demonstrate principles of effective leadership.

The principles are discussed in an interactive forum and played out experientially in case studies applied in a child support enforcement context.

The course draws on academic studies of leadership "best practices" of prominent corporate and government leaders and uses behavior models to demonstrate principles of effective leadership.

"The seminar's primary goal," says Yvette Hilderson Riddick, chief of OCSE's National Training Center within the Division of State, Tribal and Local Assistance, "is to improve the performance of CSE organizations by enhancing CSE managers' leadership skills and abilities."

Participants will:

Better understand contemporary leadership principles and practices and how they can be applied in the child support environment;
Have increased awareness of their leadership strengths and areas for improvement;
Develop a personal improvement plan;
Understand the dynamics of organizational and personal change; and
Be able to prepare CSE staff and the work environment for change.

Still under discussion as an optional part of the course curriculum is a 360-degree feedback tool. In this approach, participants are asked to provide the names of peers, staff, and others who can give feedback regarding their management styles. This feedback is then analyzed for trends in terms of the participants' management strengths and weaknesses.

The target audience is experienced child support directors and their executive staff.

Riddick emphasizes that this course is not for everyone. The target audience is experienced child support directors and their executive staff. The child support directors, who are encouraged to nominate themselves and one other person, handpick participants.

"Innovative Leadership Practices in Child Support Enforcement" will be field tested again in early October, with a follow-up delivery in January of 2002. Following final adjustments in curriculum and formatting, the course is to be made available through OCSE's National Electronic Child Support Resource System and by classroom delivery.

For more information about this course, as well as other courses available through OCSE's National Training Center, contact Jack Shaw at (202) 401-5144.

Jack Shaw is a Training Specialist in OCSE's National Training Center, Division of State, Tribal, and Local Assistance.

Virginia's Interactive Web Application Provides Customers with Additional Access to Case Information

Virginia's Child Support Enforcement Program, which serves 558,000 children, now has an interactive Web application to give customers fast and accurate information about their child support cases. The interactive Web application is statewide and monitored centrally by child support and communications staff in the headquarters office in Richmond, Virginia.

It provides customers with the same information provided by the State's automated voice response telephone system, which handles approximately 700,000 calls each month. This information consists of the last six payments made, as well as selected case information such as court dates and enforcement actions.

The minimal costs involved in installing the system were absorbed within existing operations.

Provides customers with . . . the last six payments made, as well as selected case information, such as court dates and enforcement actions.

The interactive Web application was placed on the Internet without announcement in early May 2001, in order to test the application. The public began to access the site almost immediately. Child support staff were encouraged to visit the State's Web page to familiarize themselves with its contents and to note any problems in the application. Minor technical difficulties encountered were quickly resolved.

The new application was publicly announced in late June through a Gubernatorial press release and related press conference. Immediately after the formal announcement, visits to the site tripled, and the numbers steadily increased.

Initial feedback from child support customers has been very positive, with expressions of appreciation for this additional way to access case information.

An important key to success in launching this initiative was early and continued involvement of appropriate staff.

An important key to success in launching this initiative was early and continued involvement of appropriate staff. Staff who worked on this project included internal child support, communications, and audit staff, as well as information technology professionals from within the Department and from the State's IT agency.

The Office of the Attorney General also provided valuable information that was incorporated in the approach as staff worked through design, technical, systems security, privacy, and confidentiality issues. In particular, issues related to privacy, confidentiality, and systems security, are crucial to the integrity of this kind of Web application and must be resolved ahead of time to everybody's satisfaction. Equally important in avoiding customer frustration: the capability to ensure connectivity, as well as the ability to handle capacity and volume of visitors.

If you would like more information about this application, contact Phyllis Sisk, Program Manager in Virginia's Division of Child Support Enforcement, at (804) 692-1501.

Wisconsin's W-2 Program Found to Benefit Payment and Receipt of Child Support

By: Daniel R. Meyer and Maria Cancian

With the introduction of Wisconsin Works (W-2) in 1997, Wisconsin initiated a new approach to public assistance for low-income families. W-2 replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the program that previously offered cash to low-income, primarily single-parent families.

W-2 participants are placed into one of four tiers of a "self-sufficiency ladder." Two tiers, Unsubsidized and Trial (subsidized) Jobs, provide case management and associated programs, but no cash payment. Two other tiers, Community Service Jobs and W-2 Transitions, provide a cash payment in return for participation in work-like activities.

Recent welfare reforms have increased the potential importance of child support as an income source for low-income single-parent families. Time limits, work requirements, and the lack of an entitlement to cash assistance have made nonwelfare sources of income essential.

In Wisconsin, relatively stringent work requirements have been combined with a uniquely generous approach to child support. Among most mothers participating in W-2, any child support paid on behalf of their children is passed through to them and is disregarded in the calculation of their W-2 cash payments. In contrast, in most other states, child support paid on behalf of children receiving cash assistance is kept by the government to offset welfare costs, and the family receives no additional income.

To evaluate the impact of the full pass-through, the W-2 child support policy was implemented as a random-assignment experiment. This report presents the results of the first phase of the Child Supprt Demonstration Evaulation (CSDE). It includes results for cases that entered the program during the first three calendar quarters of the experiment.

Most W-2 participants received a full pass-through of child support, but a randomly selected control group received a reduced amount. Because assignment to the experimental (full pass-through) and control (partial pass-through) groups was random, any differences in outcomes between the two groups can be attributed to the difference in the treatment of child support.

We find substantial evidence of the expected direct effects. In 1998, mothers eligible for the full pass-through received about $150 more in child support than did those in the control group. . . . We also find significant increases in the percentage of nonresident fathers paying child support.

The CSDE was designed to evaluate a variety of impacts of this new approach to child support, beginning with the direct effects of the new policy on child support paid and received. We have also tried to measure a wide range of potential secondary effects--on mothers' and fathers' employment and earnings, on parents' interactions, and on the well-being of their children. To evaluate these effects, we use the State's administrative records and a survey of W-2 families.

We find substantial evidence of the expected direct effects. In 1998, mothers eligible for the full pass-through received about $150 more in child support than did those in the control group. Among those initially in a lower tier, and thus subject to a reduced pass-through if they were in the control group, the difference was about $200.

Although these differences in amounts of child support received by mothers are due in large part to the mechanical effect of the full pass-through, we also find significant increases in the percentage of nonresident fathers paying child support. These differences are statistically significant but fairly small in the full sample: 52 percent of fathers of children in the experimental group and 50 percent of fathers of children in the control group paid child support in 1998.

We also find significantly higher rates of paternity establishment for those in the experimental group in 1998.

However, among those more likely to be new to the child support and welfare systems, the differences were more substantial. Among those cases in which the mother had not received AFDC in the two years prior to entering W-2, 58 percent of fathers with children in the experimental group, compared to only 48 percent of fathers with children in the control group, paid child support in 1998. The differences remained significant and in many cases increased in 1999.

Finally, we also find significantly higher rates of paternity establishment for those in the experimental group in 1998, although the difference declined and was not statistically significant for most groups in 1999.

We find less consistent evidence of secondary effects, although in selected areas there is substantial evidence that the experiment had the expected impact. We hypothesized that an increase in child support received would reduce the need for cash payments. We find evidence of this effect in 1998, with significant and larger differences among those mothers who received a W-2 cash payment and among mothers with a history of higher child support amounts.

In other areas we find little consistent evidence of an experimental impact. There were few significant impacts on mothers' employment or earnings, and few consistent impacts on child well-being, although there was some evidence of fewer health limitations and improved educational outcomes for children in the experimental group.

Finally, while we find significant differences in some of the components of total government costs, we find no difference in overall government costs. Although more child support is passed through to those in the experimental group, not all of this is at the expense of the government, since some consists of additional support that would not have been paid in the absence of the full pass-through. More important, the reform also generated cost savings in other areas, especially W-2 cash payments.

In summary, the results of the CSDE presented here demonstrate that Wisconsin's full pass-through has been able to increase child support amounts received among an economically vulnerable population, to increase child support collections, and to have a variety of other positive effects. These benefits have come at little cost to the government.

The full text of the report can be found at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/csde/phasel-tocs.htm.

Executive summaries are available at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/csde/phase1-voll-es.htm.

Daniel R. Meyer is a Professor and Director of the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Maria Cancian is an Associate Professor of Public Affairs and Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Both are Affiliates of the Institute for Research on Poverty and the Center for Demography and Ecology, also at Wisconsin-Madison.

Minnesota Child Support Program Reaches Out to Incarcerated Parents

Most Minnesota child support offices routinely include noncustodial fathers in their outreach. Reaching out to these fathers who are in jail or prison, however, is a new effort that State and county staff are undertaking. Last year, almost 6,400 adults--94 percent male--were incarcerated in Minnesota State prisons.

"We estimate that half the inmates are involved with the child support system," said Mike Caris, coordinator for the Child Support Enforcement Division's (CSED) incarcerated parent outreach. "With average sentences lasting 39 months, we're looking at significant arrearages accruing for parents who have little or no income," he said. "Many of these men are not aware that they can request a modification of their order."

"The key is to make child support information available to prisoners when they first come into the system. This is when county outreach is critical." .................Barb Jorgenson, Anoka County Supervisor

Barb Jorgenson, Anoka County child support supervisor, recently joined State staff for a presentation at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Lino Lakes. "The key is to make child support information available to prisoners when they first come into the system," she said. "This is when county outreach is critical."

After recent exchanges between CSED and the State's Department of Corrections, child support materials are now provided to incarcerated parents at intake interviews early in their sentences. Inmates receive the parent handbook, a sample modification request letter, and tips for navigating the system and staying connected to their kids.

CSED also is targeting incarcerated fathers by using a portion of a federal grant to assist low-income dads. By funding three Hennepin County child support officers, this 17-month, $300,000 Special Improvement Project (SIP) grant will also serve noncustodial parents who have recently established paternity, as well as those with substantial public assistance arrears. Each officer will be assigned to a group of parents and a research project. And each will be expected to contact about 100 incarcerated parents and assist 50.

Another effort is the Sentencing to Service Homes Project, managed by Hennepin County Community Corrections. Through this project, noncustodial fathers serving time in prison learn construction skills. Their earnings are put into escrow so they can start paying child support and help their children leave welfare.

State legislation is pending to allow the court to retroactively modify a child support obligation and order the cessation of interest while a parent is incarcerated.

This article, in slightly different form, originally appeared in the Minnesota Child Support Program's Child Support Quarterly, Spring, 2001. Used with permission.

North Carolina Amnesty Week Brings in More than $278,000

From May 7 - 11, 2001, 43 North Carolina child support offices participated in the State's 2nd annual amnesty week.

For the convenience of the parents, child support offices stayed open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Amnesty week gives noncustodial parents the opportunity to contact their local child support office to pay off arrears, or make arrangements to do so in lieu of legal action.

For the convenience of the parents, child support offices stayed open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and a variety of community resources were available to assist parents with job searches and educational/training opportunities.

Harnett County, with $30,741 in collections and Pender County, with $28,172, together made up more than 20 percent of the statewide total of $278,808.