Expand direct deposit statewide and increase the number of custodial parents receiving child support through direct deposit.

Direct deposit provides child support payments to be electronically credited to a custodial parent's checking or savings account. In mid-1998, following close collaboration with banking institutions, a carefully crafted marketing campaign, and a successful pilot in two areas of the State, Virginia's child support direct deposit initiative expanded statewide. The initiative proved highly successful but the number of enrollments had predictably flattened out over time.

The events of September 11 thrust onto the national landscape a heightened sensitivity to and concern about disruption in child support payments and prompted Virginia's Division of Child Support Enforcement (VDCSE) to redouble efforts on this initiative. Subsequent Anthrax scares throughout the Nation then led to the closure of Virginia's Treasury Building in October 2001. The evacuation of the building resulted in a delay in the issuance of over 19,000 child support enforcement payments totaling $2.2 million. For two days, child support checks were not printed or mailed and child support offices were deluged with calls regarding the posting and status of checks.

VDCSE took this opportunity to step up its recommendation of direct deposit and, in mid-October 2001, mailed letters and applications encouraging this option to 80,567 customers who were receiving paper child support checks. The letter emphasized the convenience and security of direct deposit and provided customers with the application form and a self-addressed return envelope.

Within the first month after sending these direct deposit encouragement letters to customers, VDCSE received 12,329 applications for direct deposit and the applications continue to come in. In September 2001, Virginia's child support electronic payments represented 36% of total payments. By January 2002, 45% of all disbursements were electronic. VDCSE is in the process of developing a second mass mailing encouraging direct deposit, citing the continuing threat to service delivery, and emphasizing the convenience and security benefits to customers.

The Direct Deposit Program is funded through 66% Federal funds and 34% general State funds.

The large volume of new applicants provided many examples of how the standard form could be interpreted. VDCSE took note and made appropriate form revisions. For example, customers are now asked for the custodial parent's name as opposed to the previously used "Name." VDCSE also received a predictable number of rejected customer letters due to incorrect addresses, and those were used to perform routine case clean-up functions.

The VDCSE Web address now appears on the form and application and a link to the form has been placed on the VDCSE WebPage at: www.dss.state.va.us/family/dcse.html

To solve the problem of undistributed collections, set a goal for an acceptable limit for undistributed collections and move money to families as quickly as possible .

Undistributed collections are a very visible, national child support program issue. There are many reasons why child support collections are not distributed. Unidentified payments are a part of the overall problem. In Virginia, resolving unidentified payments is the responsibility of the state-operated State Disbursement Unit. The resolution of other reasons for undistributed collections is primarily the responsibility of staffs in child support district offices.

Resolving Unidentified Payments

One key reason Virginia is a leader in maintaining a low unidentified payment balance is the work done by the Payment Processing team members to ensure that only necessary payments ever make it to the "Suspense Account."

Since 1997, Virginia has steadily improved its processing timeframes to meet the 48-hour processing requirement. A potential negative impact is an increased unidentified payment balance as the focus shifts to disbursing money that can be easily identified. Early in 1998, the balance in Virginia's Suspense Account (unidentified payments) reached over $300,000. Management in Virginia recognized this as a problem and set goals to reduce the balance.

Activities to improve and maintain low balances include:

Some reasons for undistributed collections are a normal part of doing business while others need to be researched and resolved. The following activities to reduce undistributed collections are performed at the child support district office through focused management and a multi-level, measured approach.

Addressing the issue of undistributed collections requires the capability to portray "the real story." Virginia is able to categorize, through automation, the reasons for its undistributed collections from data provided from the State's daily UDC report. The following is a sample of those results.

Currently, the balance in Virginia's unidentified payment account averages $30,000 at any one time . Virginia's total undistributed collections represent no more than 3% of total collections during a month. The undistributed collections balance rarely exceeds the total of two days worth of collections.

Statewide

Funded by 66% federal and 34% non-general state special funding.

Make undistributed collections a management priority. Clear goals and routine monitoring provide the keys to success. Daily reports and regular management level reports provide tools to measure performance.

For unidentified payments, performing the up-front work is critical and reduces the time-consuming effort of manual corrections once the payment has already been posted. Maintaining information on frequently received payments with insufficient information and contacting those payers can improve the quality of incoming receipts and eliminate erroneous or incomplete data.