DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-04-08

DATE: February 26, 2004

TO: ALL STATE IV-D DIRECTORS

RE:  Conversion to Electronic Funds Transfer/Electronic Data Interchange by Federal Agencies

Dear Colleague:

This letter is a follow up to a recent Dear Colleague letter (DCL-03-46) in which we provided information about the Department of Treasury’s Financial Management Service’s (FMS) decision to extend the deadline for removing the Social Security number (SSN) from U.S. Treasury checks.  In that letter, we informed you about an aggressive campaign launched by FMS to have Federal agencies convert to Electronic Funds Transfer/Electronic Data Interchange (EFT/EDI) for child support payments in 2004.  

The SSN will be removed completely from Treasury checks on December 31, 2004.  To avoid a significant problem with the identification of paper Treasury checks, it is imperative that Federal agencies be converted to EFT/EDI by that time.  Federal agencies have advanced their conversion schedules, so close coordination between states and Federal agencies is essential to complete the conversion by December 2004.  

Here are some suggestions to help ensure a smooth conversion:

• States are encouraged to assign one point of contact for Federal agencies to use.  Please e-mail Karen Anthony at the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), using the address below, to provide information for each point of contact, including address, phone number, and email address where available.  If there is no response from a state, Federal agencies will be given the contact information previously provided by IV-D Directors.

• OCSE will provide Federal agencies the list of state bank routing numbers (RTN) and account numbers collected from the State Disbursement Unit (SDU) contacts.  These numbers are needed to build the necessary tables for EFT/EDI transmissions.  OCSE’s distribution of the numbers to the Federal agencies will eliminate the need for each agency to contact every state.  If you have questions or concerns about this, or wish to validate your banking information, please contact Karen Anthony by March 1d, 2004.  After that date, OCSE will share the banking information with the Federal agencies.

• States are asked to respond as soon as possible to Federal agencies when they receive case information for reconciliation.  The conversion process thus far has required numerous follow-up calls, which has slowed the process.  

• OCSE is asking Federal agencies to send all child support garnishment cases involving a particular state to that state for reconciliation, not just the ones going to the SDU.  Two Federal agencies that recently completed case reconciliation reported that over half of their child support cases required some clean up.  Most of the clean-up involved fixing case numbers and redirecting checks from local offices to the SDU.  When you are in contact with the Federal agencies, we suggest you reiterate the need to receive all child support cases involving your state.

 States may receive calls directly from a Federal agency or from an FMS Regional Finance Center (RFC), which provides technical assistance and support for Federal agencies’ use of EFT/EDI.  The RFC will, in some instances, play the primary role in case reconciliation.  

To facilitate communication between states and Federal agencies, OCSE and FMS conduct  bi-monthly calls to discuss EFT/EDI.  These calls are often general in nature and cover EFT/EDI issues affecting both private and public employers and interstate payments.  Beginning in January, these calls have focused entirely on Federal agencies and state EFT/EDI issues.  A separate call for states to discuss interstate and private employer EFT/EDI issues will be conducted in the alternating months.  Your state EFT/EDI contact receives notice of these conference calls.

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions regarding the Federal agency conversion to EFT/EDI, please contact Karen Anthony at 202-690-6275 or kanthony@acf.hhs.gov.  We would also appreciate your comments and feedback on your experiences with the reconciliation process.

Thank you for your continued efforts on behalf of our nation’s children.

Sincerely,

Sherri Z. Heller, Ed.D.
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

cc:  State EFT-EDI Contacts
     Regional Program Managers
     ACF Regional Administrators