VIRGINIA

REVIEW AND ADJUST

Goal: To reconcile any disparity between the child support order and the noncustodial parent's current income.

Description: In October, 2002, the Abingdon District Office of Child Support Enforcement, an office with a caseload of 17,000, initiated a special review and adjustment project targeting child support cases in which the noncustodial parent's earnings appeared to warrant a much higher support amount than ordered. As of September 26, 2003, 111 special project reviews had been completed resulting in an annual increase of over $300,000 in current support.

In 1998, Virginia's automated child support system started exhibiting the National Directory of New Hires and quarterly earnings of noncustodial parents. DCSE Abingdon's wage withholding unit noted that there seemed to be a disparity between the noncustodial parent's quarterly earnings and the amount of child support ordered on many of the District's cases. Using the National Directory of New Hires, staff reviewed current support cases of noncustodial parent's with earnings over $8,000.00 per quarter. This amount was then compared with the child support order. Two hundred-ten cases were initially identified which appeared to have a significant discrepancy between earnings and the child support order. After identification, letters were mailed to the custodial parents notifying them of their right for a review of their child support order. On the bottom of the letter, a space was provided for the custodial parent to sign a request for review. A postage-paid return envelope was also included.

In a second effort, the district reviewed all cases in which the child support order was less than $150.00. By Virginia child support guidelines, a noncustodial parent earning minimum wage will typically have a child support order for $172.00 per month. Through ad hoc reports, paying cases with orders below $150.00 were extrapolated from the automated system and compared to the noncustodial parents' quarterly incomes. Seventy-five cases were identified (37 of which were TANF). Again, letters were sent to custodial parents on non-TANF cases. TANF cases were immediately referred for review and adjustment.

Results: Of the 248 letters mailed, 127 letters were returned by custodial parents requesting a review and adjustment. The cases were typical of the District's overall caseload distribution with one-third requiring a new administrative support order, one-third needing to be processed through the courts and one-third requiring a UIFSA petition for modification. Current support for the 111 completed reviews has increased from $19,643.16 to $46,036.25 per month. The average increase per case is $235.80 per month. If the 53 remaining cases continue to have an average increase of $235.80 per month for each case, then the final annual increase for these children will be $464,054.00 per year.

Funding: Federal IV-D funds were used.

Replication Advice: This project was labor intensive and would benefit greatly from automated support. As a result of the Abingdon District Office's success, the Virginia DCSE Information Systems team is testing an automated program that calculates a child support order based on the Virginia child support guidelines using the noncustodial parent's quarterly income data. The program then compares the calculated order with the existing order and provides the difference. Initial field-testing has been promising, being highly accurate, while reducing the countless staff-hours for reviewing cases.

Contact:

Pat Dubose-Lardy

Manager, Abingdon District Office

Phone: (276) 676-6751

Email: pad986@dcse.dss.state.va.us