DCL-9853 Proposed New Financial Reporting Forms

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Administration for Children & Families
Office of Child Support Enforcement

DCL-98-53

TO ALL IV-D DIRECTORS

Re: Proposed New Financial Reporting Forms

Dear Colleague:

We are pleased to send you our proposed new financial reporting forms with their accompanying instructions. Form OCSE-396A, the "Child Support Enforcement Program Financial Report" including Part 1, the "Quarterly Report of Expenditures and Estimates," replaces Form ACF-396 (which had previously replaced Form OCSE-131). Form OCSE-34A, the "Quarterly Report of Collections," replaces Form OCSE-34. Subject to approval by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), it is our intention that both forms will become effective with the quarter beginning October 1, 1998. States will first use these new forms to report expenditure and collection information for the first quarter, fiscal year 1999, with the reports due no later than January 30, 1999.

These new forms were designed to meet the requirements of welfare reform and to include any necessary revisions and clarifications to the reporting instructions. Some of the specific changes include:

Recognition of the new requirement to process some non-IV-D collections;
Inclusion of an entry to claim newly-available FFP at the 80 percent rate;
Elimination of the need to identify the case category upon receipt of a collection;
Replacement of the AFDC, Non-AFDC, and Foster Care case categories with Current IV-A Assistance, Current IV-E Assistance, Former Assistance and Never Assistance cases.

The revision of the financial reporting forms is the result of a State and Federal partnership and was accomplished in coordination with the recent revisions to the OCSE statistical report, Form OCSE-157 (See Dear Colleague letter 97-80, dated 11/14/97) to assure standardized definitions, instructions and format, where applicable.

The Financial Reporting Work Group representative from your Region should have already provided you with copies of these forms and offered you the opportunity to comment on their content. OMB will shortly publish these forms in the Federal Register, with a 60-day public comment period. Interested persons will be invited to submit formal comments through our Reports Clearance Officer.

While we encourage you to respond to the OMB request for comments, we suggest that, for expediency, any comments also be submitted directly to this office. Submit your comments to Michael Bratt via mail, fax, e-mail or by phone:

Address:	ACF/OA, Division of Grants Policy 370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W., Washington, DC 20447
E-mail:	mhbratt@acf.hhs.gov
Fax:	202-401-5450
Phone:	202-401-4629

Sincerely,

David Gray Ross

Commissioner

Office of Child Support Enforcement

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