dcl9895.htm

DCL-98-95

Office of Child Support Enforcement
September 9, 1998

TO ALL IV-D DIRECTORS

RE:New Hire Reporting Benefits

Dear Colleague:

October 1, 1998 marks the first anniversary of the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH). During the past twelve months, many States have realized results from this new enforcement tool. NDNH results, when combined with those of long-standing State New Hire programs, provide a picture of the benefits that America's children and families receive from these efforts. All of us have worked very hard on New Hire issues. It is important that we document the benefits of New Hire reporting to ensure continued support for programs assisting our nation's children. Therefore, I ask for your assistance and cooperation with a telephone survey that we will conduct approximately one week after you receive this letter.

The Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) is assessing the economic impact of New Hire Reporting. Earlier this year, OCSE contacted your State regarding the benefits of New Hire Reporting. We asked you to provide any preliminary results recorded by your State since October 1, 1997. Despite the newness of New Hire Reporting, most States provided match rates, and many pointed to increases in collections and other benefits from both State and National Directories of New Hires.

We will continue to track the benefits of New Hire Reporting. With that goal in mind, and with Office of Management and Budget clearance, we will periodically conduct brief phone interviews with your staff. Over the next few weeks we will conduct the first round of these calls to update and expand on the results collected earlier this year. This data collection effort will consider both economic benefits achieved since October 1, 1997, as well as other results, from both the NDNH and your SDNH, that are available from your State.

With this letter you will find two attachments:

1.A list of "talking points" that we will use when contacting your State. Please use them to prepare for the phone call.

2.A list of State contacts used during our previous survey. We will telephone these individuals as "designated State Contacts." If there is a more appropriate person to whom we should speak, please have the contact person refer us to him or her when we call. [NOTE: We will accept information gathered from the designated State contacts as the States' response. No further verification (from State IV-D directors, for example), will be attempted.]

Thank you for participating in this important endeavor. Once again, I am delighted by the cooperative efforts of State and Federal child support enforcement programs to ensure that America's children have the opportunity for a brighter future. I wish you luck and pledge my support in all of your future endeavors.

Sincerely,

David Gray Ross
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Enclosures

cc: Economic Analysis Contacts
Regional Program Managers

Follow-up Survey Instrument

Questions

1.Introduction and background for survey

Purpose of follow up survey - Collect and publicize State success with NDNH and SDNH information, collect State methodologies for benefit estimation. Use results to extrapolate national collections.
Match information includes both NDNH locate requests as well as SDNH - SCR matching
149Note State's returns from NDNH from MI reports, SDNH data from previous survey

2.Is your State currently matching its SDNH data against any other State databases? Which ones? (Note previous survey results)

3.Does your State intend to match its SDNH data with any other State databases in the future? Which databases? (Note previous survey results)

4.Has the State used either NDNH (Cite MI Reports) and SDNH match information for:

Locating Putative Fathers in interstate cases?
Locating Non-Custodial Parents in interstate cases?
149Establishing support orders in interstate cases?
149Enforcing support orders in interstate cases?
149Other child support enforcement actions?

5.Can you estimate the percentage of locate requests submitted for paternity establishment? For location of NCPs? For enforcement of orders? Other actions?

6.What statistics or reports do you have available that track the success of the NDNH and SDNH? Please provide any statistics or reports that illustrate the value of the NDNH and SDNH. Monthly data or reports are especially useful. (Note previous survey responses if applicable)

7.What statistics or reports regarding NDNH and SDNH data do you plan to track in the future? 8.What efforts, if any, has your State made to track the increase in collections attributed to NDNH and SDNH information cases?

If none, Question 9

If yes, please provide any reports that note these New Hire collection figures as far back as they exist. Please also include the total collections for the same time period. Go to Question 10

9.Has the State CSE office received any anecdotal evidence from caseworkers to the value of the information?

10.How is the returned NDNH locate information processed? How long before the returned information is available for child support caseworkers? How soon do they typically act on the information? How does this compare to other information sources?

11.Approximately how much sooner is the New Hire data available than the Quarterly Wage?

12.What efforts, if any, have you made to track the corresponding benefits (such as reductions in TANF payments) associated with the increase in collections?

13.Has your State developed, or is in the process of developing, a methodology to track the benefits associated with the NDNH and SDNH data? If New Hire collection estimates were provided, how were they estimated? Please provide any material describing the methodology.

14.Some percentage of cases in which New Hire-provided employer information contain NCPs who would have paid voluntarily (i.e. they would have made the support order known to the employer). Has your State even looked into this or estimated the percentage of voluntary payors?

15. Would your State be interested in utilizing an economic model that was developed by OCSE to estimate the economic impact of the NDNH and SDNH data in your State?

16. Does your State have any plans to track the results from the proactive FCR matching?

Note: The list of State contacts mentioned above as an attachment is not included in this Internet version of this document.

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