December 2022 Child Support Report
COMMISSIONER'S VOICE: Wrapping Up a Productive Year
Commissioner Tanguler Gray
It’s that time of year when we take stock of where we’ve been and chart a course for where we’re headed. I can hardly believe I’m wrapping up my first year as OCSE Commissioner -- it’s been wonderful, productive, and a whirlwind.
I started the year emphasizing my theme of engagement, and I’ve been fortunate to meet and collaborate with colleagues across the country. I’ve attended nine state conferences, seven tribal conferences, and 10 stakeholder engagement events. These gatherings gave me a chance to see the inspiring work you do to make our program so successful.
I also talked about engagement through my 3Ps: People, process, and performance. We hit the ground running and have accomplished a lot in each of these areas:
- People: We’re supporting those in uniform with our updated Handbook for Military Families, celebrating and uplifting fathers, helping families around the world through international collaboration, increasing support for domestic violence survivors, and supporting healthy relationships for youth.
- Process: We’re bringing stakeholder voices into important decisions through our Lived Experience Toolkit, streamlining portal communication with our Communication Center, and advancing equity in child support.
- Performance: We published our first ever tribal infographic, and then updated the infographic with FY21 data (PDF). We also published our FY21 national infographic (PDF), and developed materials to promote these impressive statistics.
Priorities
In addition to the 3Ps strategy, OCSE has three priorities that align with the vision for increased engagement. Here are just a few ways we’ve made important progress on these priorities:
- Extend flexibilities to programs during public emergencies: We published the Paternity Establishment Percentage Performance Relief Final Rule to provide targeted and time-limited relief from penalties in the wake of the COVID-19 public health emergency. This rule is effective May 27, 2022.
- Improve our collaboration with tribal programs: We’ve been working to improve support to our tribal child support programs using human-centered design principles.
- Reinvest in programs that support fathers and further employment: We’ve continued to host Knowledge Works webinars to support child support-led employment services programs.
I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished this year, but there’s more work to do to support children and families across the country. Let’s use this momentum to keep engaging stakeholders and working to improve our program.
Alaska Automates Return Mail Updates
Alaska Child Support Services Division
In 2020, our Alaska Child Support Services Division averaged 150 pieces of returned mail each day—about half the mail we received. We had to process this mail manually, which meant staff had to open and review each piece and update the address in our system based on the USPS information on the envelope. This process required a lot of effort and valuable staff time.
How to automate with USPS
We researched how to reduce returned mail on the USPS website and discovered the Address Change Service with Secure Destruction. The Address Change Service helps you quickly update addresses in your system for returned mail, and Secure Destruction automatically shreds the mail. There are no start-up, monthly, or annual costs for these services. Just follow these steps:
- Register for a USPS Business Customer Gateway
account, which provides you a Customer Registration Identification number and a Mailer Identification number. If you already have a business account and need to request a new Mailer Identification number, submit a request online
or email postalone@usps.gov.
- Enroll in Address Change Service
and Secure Destruction
.
- Request access to your Electronic Product Fulfillment account
. This will allow a designated person(s) in your agency to access daily electronic files of your returned mail so you can update information in your system.
- Create an Intelligent Mail barcode to allow USPS to sort and track mail and know what programs you’re enrolled in.
Preparing to receive USPS data
You’ll also need to prepare your system to receive and process the data from USPS. Our office discussed what criteria, filters, and testing we needed to best fit our needs. Here are some questions we had to answer:
- Do we need a code for whether cases are open or closed?
- Do we want the file to update the address automatically or are there instances where we should put the new address on a temporary hold?
- Will the code that lets us know mail was returned go on all cases or are there exceptions?
- How many people should we assign to testing and for how long?
We decided the code for our returned mail would include the following information: Member ID or Business ID, form number(s), date the form originated, address that the mail was returned from, the reason for the return, and the new or forwarding address. USPS will not always have each piece of this information in the file they send. Our system will update only information included in the return file.
Improved process
It’s been a long journey, but after almost two years and a lot of work, we’re able to process returned mail electronically. Some of our mail now has an Intelligent Mail barcode above the mailing address that USPS can use to track it. If the mail is undeliverable or has a new address, USPS will add the available information to our daily return file so that we can update our system. They also shred the physical mail. This has saved us time and shredding costs.
This process was implemented in February 2022, and returned mail decreased by 67% in the first six months! This has freed up valuable time to serve children and families in other ways.
Learn more about the Address Change Service and Secure Destruction . For more information, email ACS@usps.gov or dana.benfield@alaska.gov.
Charting a Course for Responsible Parenting in Missouri
John Ginwright, Deputy Director, Missouri Department of Social Services, Family Support Division
In August 2020, OCSE awarded funding to eight state child support agencies through the Economic Mobility and Responsible Parenting Demonstration Grant. In July 2021, OCSE awarded funding to an additional cohort of 7 states and 2 tribal programs. This article is part of a series that features grantee efforts to leverage the child support program's responsible parenting expertise. For more information email michael.hayes@acf.hhs.gov or donna.steele@acf.hhs.gov.
Missouri has two programs that teach youth responsible parenting through various strategies, including public service announcements, class presentations, experiential learning, and peer discussions. Our Future Leaders program teaches middle school students to think about the choices they make about relationships, finances, and parenting. The Parenthood Can Wait program provides activities and curriculum designed for at-risk youth in high school and youth in the custody of the Division of Youth Services.
The overall curriculum for these programs draws from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and introduces students to topics like friendships, basic human needs, self-esteem, conflict and anger management, time management, financial responsibilities of parenting, and child support. It covers six units on personal development, six units on financial literacy, and one unit on child support information. The activities help young adults gain the knowledge, skills, and access to resources that can help them in their pursuit of life goals, economic mobility, and responsible parenting. You can visit www.pathtomysuccess.com to learn more about these programs and access resources.
Program sustainability
We formed partnerships to extend the scope of services provided through the programs. Below are a few projects we created as part of the collaborations:
- Mental Health Care Toolkit in collaboration with University of Missouri: This project includes a team of students with strong skills in analytics, health service innovation, and evidence-based, community-level health delivery. The team will develop a mental health toolkit for use by teachers, instructors, program facilitators, and counselors. The toolkit will accommodate modular teaching and outline best practices in mental health care delivery. It will provide educational materials to use across grade levels and all levels of literacy. The project focuses on adapting materials and strategies used in clinical care delivery to the needs of social care delivery.
- Sustainability Project in collaboration with Missouri Valley College: This project will develop a plan to address 3- to 5-year sustainability of grant programs beyond the end of the funding period. It will identify and address sustainability concerns like program access and outdated materials. The project will also develop an assessment plan that tracks usage and effectiveness of course materials. This will ensure continued program expansion in educational after-school and other youth related settings.
To learn more about these efforts, email John.B.Ginwright@dss.mo.gov.
Start the Year Off Right and Ensure Children and Teens Have Health Coverage
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
You can take steps now to ensure children and teens have the essential health coverage they need to stay healthy in the new year. While millions of children and teens nationwide are enrolled in free or low-cost health coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), there are many eligible families who don’t have coverage. In fact, there are 2.8 million uninsured children who are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP, according to a 2021 Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.
Enrollment is open year-round, which means families with eligible children can find coverage today . It’s also a good time for current beneficiaries to make sure their mailing address, phone number, and email are up to date with their state program so they don’t miss out on important information. States will soon be required to restart Medicaid and CHIP eligibility reviews. According to some estimates, up to 15 million people could lose their current Medicaid or CHIP coverage through a process called “unwinding” (PDF) when these eligibility reviews resume. Important renewal information will be coming by mail, so it’s crucial to make sure contact information is up to date.
Comprehensive Coverage for Children and Teens
The Connecting Kids to Coverage National Campaign wants to remind parents and caretakers that routine check-ups, immunizations, vision care, dental care, mental and behavioral health services, and more are covered by Medicaid and CHIP.
Eligibility depends on household size and income and varies by state. For example, children up to age 19 with family income up to $50,000 per year (for a family of four) may qualify for Medicaid and CHIP. Find coverage for your family using the map on InsureKidsNow.gov to access information in your state or call 1-877-KIDS-NOW (1-877-543-7669).
The Campaign has many resources to help you connect kids to coverage and spread the word about Medicaid and CHIP, including fact sheets, tear sheets, posters, social media, and public service announcements. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also has resources for organizations to help prepare for the unwinding.
Together, we can help ensure children have a healthy and bright new year.
Earned Wage Access and Child Support
Alice P. Jacobsohn, Esq., Government Relations, American Payroll Association
Recent studies show almost one in five households report that expenses regularly exceed their income, and nearly 80% of workers live paycheck to paycheck. These financial issues impact child support. One way employees can better manage expenses between pay periods is with a tool called earned wage access (EWA). EWA allows employees to tap into their wages as they earn them rather than waiting for their regularly scheduled payday. These programs have moved from the early adoption phase to a more established business practice that’s part of an employee’s benefits package. When EWA programs are used effectively, employees can gain greater financial security.
Employer considerations
Prior to offering an EWA benefit, employers should consider several things:
- Employee financial awareness: Do employees have the knowledge and skills to manage their finances effectively, like creating a budget? Do employees have access to and the ability to engage with financial institutions, products, and markets? EWA is most effective when users have the skills and ability to leverage its benefits.
- Payday schedule: EWA does not change regularly scheduled paydays. For example, EWA is not the same as a one-day pay period, such as for an employee who works for a temp agency.
- Vendor options: There are many EWA options, and employers should carefully consider child support obligations when selecting a vendor. Employers remain responsible for child support withholding and, if a shortfall occurs on a payday because of a vendor miscalculation, employers want to have a “no recourse” provision and hold the vendor responsible.
- Employer-integrated EWA: If an employer provides employees with EWA benefits, real-time payroll data is used to identify disposable earnings at the point of distribution to employees. In general, this is done by either calculating exact disposable earned wages that account for the legal withholding of child support or by only allowing employees to receive a lesser percentage of their earned wages at the earlier date, such as up to 50%. Employers can then manage child support withholding on its determined pay period schedule and in accordance with the OMB-approved Income Withholding for Support order.
Looking ahead
As a future consideration, if an employee receives early pay, should child support be provided early? This can create a significant administrative burden on state child support agencies and employers. In some EWA programs, an employer may not know when an employee requests and receives early pay. This is between the EWA vendor and the employee. Similarly, state agency systems and personnel would need to receive and process off-schedule disbursed wages and may not know in advance when payments will be received.
You can learn more about Earned Wage Access on the APA website .
Resource Alert: On Demand Knowledge Works Webinars
The Knowledge Works initiative helps child support agencies implement or enhance noncustodial parent employment programs. Watch previous webinars on demand that facilitate peer-to-peer learning and knowledge transfer about these programs.
About Child Support Report
Child Support Report is published monthly by the Office of Child Support Enforcement. We welcome articles and high-quality digital photos to consider for publication. We reserve the right to edit for style, content and length, or not accept an article. OCSE does not endorse the practices or individuals in this newsletter. You may reprint an article in its entirety (or contact the author or editor for permission to excerpt); please identify Child Support Report as the source.
| January Contreras Assistant Secretary for Children and Families | Tanguler Gray Commissioner, OCSE |
| Crystal Peeler Director, Division of Customer Communications | Andrew Phifer Editor, CSR.Editor@acf.hhs.gov |