October 2022 Child Support Report

COMMISSIONER'S VOICE: Increasing Safe Access to Child Support

Commissioner Tanguler Gray

Purple ribbon with Safe Access to Victim's Economic Security inscribed

Did you know that financial insecurity is the single biggest predictor of whether domestic violence survivors stay with or return to an abusive partner? It traps a survivor in a cycle of violence. Child support can give domestic violence survivors the ability to leave an abusive relationship because it can be a primary source of income for custodial families. 

This Domestic Violence Awareness month, we announced $11.2 million in grants to one tribal and 12 state child support agencies to increase safe access to child support and parenting time services. Recipients of the Safe Access for Victims’ Economic Security (SAVES) grant will implement comprehensive domestic violence safety policies, procedures, and outreach activities. This will enhance safety for domestic violence survivors already in the child support program and increase access to child support and parenting time services for those not receiving services due to safety concerns. It will help survivors get the financial support they need to establish safe, violence-free homes for themselves and their children. 

OCSE is also funding a SAVES Center, which will have two primary roles: 

  • Provide training, technical assistance, and evaluation for the demonstration projects
     
  • Create resources, provide technical assistance, and deliver training for child support professionals in all state and tribal programs nationwide  

The five-year SAVES project will increase the capacity of the national child support program to provide trauma-informed services that increase survivor safety and enhance their families’ economic independence.    

These grants are one more way we’re working to make safe access to child support a reality for the millions of parents who need our services. 

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Kentucky Hotline Answers Parenting Time Questions

Kentucky Child Support Program

Cell phone with state of Kentucky and question marks from callers

In 2017, the Kentucky Child Support Enforcement program used an Access and Visitation grant to help establish the Custody and Visitation Hotline, which helps parents and caregivers with parenting time and other family law questions. While parenting time and child support are legally separate, we believe they’re linked: a negative impact on one has a ripple effect on the other. 

The hotline is operated by our nonprofit partner Louisville Legal Aid and has helped nearly 6,500 Kentuckians. Callers speak with an intake worker who asks targeted questions to learn about their case and refers the caller to the appropriate service. Most callers speak with an attorney about their case, but the hotline is limited in helping with cases involving conflict of interest, dependency, neglect and abuse, active legal representation, and active criminal charges.

Callers can also get help with: 

  • Document preparation: Specialists can provide templates for client-specific petitions and motions fitting individual needs. This is helpful since Kentucky is made up of 120 counties, each with local rules and appointed Domestic Relations Commissioners in lieu of judges. 
     
  • Referrals: Specialists can refer callers for help with domestic violence, housing issues, substance abuse treatment, Veteran assistance, and economic stability counseling.
     
  • Legal advice: Specialists can escalate callers with more complex legal questions to family law attorneys who can provide legal advice and limited representation to pro se parties—those representing themselves—who need child support modification and enforcement help.  

Our hotline primarily helps single-income households. Only 15% of callers are married, and 95% make less than $40,000 a year. Without the hotline, those callers would likely go without parenting time assistance, having a direct impact on Kentucky’s future collections and establishment of child support. The hotline’s ability to provide parents with other critical resources like disaster relief, foreclosure prevention, local child support contacts, and benefits assistance was vital during the pandemic. 

We’re looking to build on the hotline’s success by hiring more staff to help callers and their families. 

For more information, contact IV-D Director Lily Patteson at 502-564-5778 or lily.patteson@ky.gov.

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Minnesota Beats the Escheatment Clock, Helps Hundreds Collect Child Support

Ike Anyanike, OCSE

Stopwatch with money background

This summer, the Minnesota Department of Human Services Child Support Division worked quickly to ensure clients received their unclaimed child support before time ran out and it was turned over to the state commerce agency. Under Minnesota law, unclaimed or abandoned property ends up with the state Department of Commerce through a process known as “escheatment.” This law requires that banks, insurance companies, and others forward unclaimed property to the Department of Commerce’s unclaimed property fund if there has been no activity or if it remains unclaimed for a set period. Some financial institutions are required to send money from accounts that have been inactive for three years to a state agency where the account holder lives. 

Some of these unclaimed properties include dormant bank accounts with child support collections that a custodial parent abandoned or doesn’t realize is there. Escheated child support collections may result from an unactivated U.S. Reliacard that stores child support payments, unreported change of address, death, forgetfulness, or lack of familiarity with the bank the child support program uses.

Before money is turned over, fund holders must do their due diligence to contact the owner via mail for property valued over $100. However, sometimes there’s no valid address for the owner or the amount doesn't meet the threshold. This is where proactive customer service by child support professionals makes a difference. 

In April 2022, U.S. Bank provided Minnesota with a list of more than 500 names with child support collection balances totaling over $550,000 that were going to be escheated in the fall. The Child Support Division’s State Disbursement Unit swung into action, calling clients to alert them to the money that was rightfully theirs. In 90 days, staff helped 247 clients collect over $165,000.

This success was because child support staff set up a method to track and contact clients about their funds before the three-year escheatment trigger. Here are a few of their takeaways to avoid escheatment of child support collections:

  • Develop and maintain a plan.
  • Actively update contact information for custodial parents and payees.
  • Familiarize your agency with your state escheatment laws and processes.
  • Build working relationships with state officials responsible for escheatment laws in your state (e.g., Treasury, Commerce, and Revenue).
  • Regularly get reports from your banking vendors on inactive cards or dormant accounts.

For more questions about this effort, contact Minnesota Child Support Payment Center Manager Teri Nielson at 651-478-8103.

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Iowa’s Student Parent Simulation

Iowa Child Support Services

In August 2020, OCSE awarded funding to eight state child support agencies through the Economic Mobility and Responsible Parenting Demonstration Grant. In July 2021, we awarded funding to an additional cohort of 7 states and 2 tribal programs. This article is the first in a series that features their efforts to leverage their child support program's responsible parenting expertise. For more information contact Michael Hayes at michael.hayes@acf.hhs.gov or Donna Steele at donna.steele@acf.hh.gov.

A baby doll and other items from parent simulation

In 2020, Iowa Child Support Services received a section 1115 grant to educate and motivate young adults to postpone parenthood until after they complete their education, start a career, and have a committed relationship. We partnered with Iowa State University to create “Parenting: It’s a Life” - a program to teach young adults how to access services to achieve economic mobility, develop responsible parenting skills, and have healthy relationships. The program also works to reach young adults through a College Simulation that ran at Iowa Central Community College and Southwestern Community College in fall 2021.

This simulation shows participants what it’s like to be a student parent and highlights college and community resources for student parents. It allows young adults to engage in activities that require decision-making, demonstrating how to successfully care for a child and attend college at the same time. Participants take on a student parent role with unique characteristics. They move around a room visiting different tables that provide information about college, health, and human services. There is also a table where students focus on 1) class: do a simple worksheet; 2) work: spend two minutes working on a puzzle; and 3) personal time: discuss relationships with peers, coworkers, and family. 

The program also evaluates what students learn during the simulation. Initial findings from the 2021 simulation suggest it successfully provided resources to support student parents. It also allowed students to experience what it feels like to be a parent during their college years. Participants said that being a student parent is challenging and reflected on the possibility of delaying having children. They said the simulation felt real, and they enjoyed the entire experience. 

Our findings also identified several ways to improve evaluation and programming. We’re implementing these improvements as we roll out this simulation again at the same community colleges in fall 2022. We’ll collect and analyze more data from students and publish the results.

If you’re interested in learning more, email pial@iastate.edu or check out the Parenting: It’s a Life website .

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Tips for Communicating With Payroll Teams

Cari Breitinger, CPP, Director, HRIS and Payroll, BELFOR Property Restoration, and APA Member

Thumbs up next to checklist

I got a call from a local child support program for some payroll information recently. The interaction reminded me what it takes for them to serve their clients and how employers can help. Payroll teams often communicate with child support agencies about a range of issues. This call got me thinking. How can we communicate more efficiently? Here are a few tips when reaching out to payroll teams that will help us help you:

  • Introduce yourself: This allows us to note your name and the reason for the call. Tracking this information is important if there’s ever a question on what personal or private information was released, why it was released, and to whom it was released.
     
  • Identify the employer: Employers with multiple Federal Employer Identification Numbers (FEINs) can only confirm data when the company FEIN and employee information match. If the employee is under a different FEIN, we can let you know so you can update the order.
     
  • Identify the employee: Include an identifying characteristic of the employee, like the last four digits of their Social Security number. Many times, I get a call about a John Smith and it’s difficult to determine which John Smith because there are several in our system. We don’t expect you to share their full SSN, but we do need some information besides their name. The case number won’t help us much at this stage because we need to find the employee first.
     
  • Explain why you’re reaching out: Understanding your issue allows us to help you faster. Are you missing payments? Can you tell us the last payment received? We might need to confirm the remittance address and the case number since employees can have multiple orders. Then we can confirm the last check date and amount.  

Payroll offices want to help! Using these tips will make communicating more efficient and allow us to better serve you.

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11 Things Every Child Support Professional Should Know About Domestic Violence

Michael Hayes, OCSE

October is Domestic Violence (DV) Awareness Month, and we’re reprinting an article with information that can help you better support parents in your caseload.

Scales with words surrounding domestic violence

Financial stability and support are at the very heart of our work in child support. By helping domestic violence survivors safely get this support, we can play an essential role in ending relationship violence and the damage it does to families. Here are 11 things you should know about domestic violence to better help parents in your caseload: 

  1. There’s a lot of domestic violence. 1 in 3 women and 1 in 7 men in the U.S. report experiencing domestic violence in their lifetime. This means that it’s likely affected many people you know. It’s even more prevalent in the child support caseload where 4 in 10 custodial parents report domestic violence with the other parent on their case. 
     
  2. It’s underreported. Only 1 in 10 custodial parents in the federal case registry have a family violence indicator marked on their case. In some states, it’s less than 1%.
     
  3. “Are you a victim of domestic violence?” is the wrong question to ask. Many survivors answer no to this question because they wonder if it will affect the services they’ll receive and who will get this information. Still, most state applications ask this question. OCSE worked with DV experts to create model screening questions (PDF).
     
  4. Financial security = the ability to leave an abusive relationship. More than two-thirds of survivors report staying longer in or returning to an abusive relationship due to financial hardship for themselves and their children. This is how child support can help!
     
  5. Domestic violence is not just physical. When many people hear the term domestic violence, they tend to think bruises, black eyes, and broken bones. The definition we use at OCSE is “a pattern of assaultive or coercive behaviors that may include physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, verbal, and economic attacks that are used against an intimate partner to achieve compliance from or power and control over them.” Think of an iceberg where physical abuse is the tip of the iceberg above the surface, and most of the abuse is all the non-physical behaviors below the surface.
     
  6. Survivors need public safety net services. More than 90% of victims report using some kind of public safety net resources to leave and establish a safe home for themselves and their children. TANF, Medicaid, SNAP, child care, and housing assistance are the primary safety net services — many of which have child support cooperation requirements. Survivors are likely to be part of those public assistance referrals you get from your partner agencies.
     
  7. Child support processes can retraumatize survivors. Paternity establishment, genetic testing, service of process, in-office negotiations, court hearings, review and adjustment, and case closing are all opportunities an abuser might use to continue to exert control over their victim. These processes could also trigger a trauma response from a survivor. 
     
  8. Ninety percent of survivors want child support if they could get it safely. However, data from one state survey indicated that as many as half of survivors don’t have formal child support orders and aren’t receiving any informal support. This means they’re going without.
     
  9. You need specialized knowledge and skills. Training is essential to working DV cases, and OCSE has provided training to child support professionals in more than 30 states and 40 tribes. But there needs to be more!
     
  10. Neutrality in child support doesn’t mean neutrality when it comes to violence. In fact, if child support agencies don’t build in safety measures and protections for survivors, they have unintentionally tipped the scale in favor of abusers. 
     
  11. There are domestic violence experts and organizations to help you. More than 100 national, state, regional, tribal, and local domestic violence experts and organizations can help you support survivors. They’ve contributed to and participated in child support trainings, developed public education materials for safer access to child support, reviewed child support agency policies and procedures, and presented at conferences. You don’t have to—and you shouldn’t—do this on your own. If you want to know who to talk to in your area, contact Michael Hayes (Michael.Hayes@acf.hhs.gov).

OCSE created domestic violence awareness tear sheet flyers in English and Spanish with information for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. There’s also a version for tribal communities that includes contact information for the StrongHearts Native Helpline.

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More Highlights from Child Support Awareness Month

Backpacks and other prizes

Each year, the Arizona Division of Child Support Services drafts Child Support Awareness Month proclamations that are endorsed by the governor, mayors, and County Boards of Supervisors. This year, fifteen proclamations were recognized statewide. Also, staff participated in a school supply drive by shopping from an Amazon list. Collectively, employees donated around $1,200 worth of school supplies. Finally, children of the families the Arizona program serves virtually participated in three creative activities for its 3rd Annual Child Support Awareness Month Contest: a scavenger hunt for k-5, ’First Day of School’ ad-lib for kids age 6-8, and short story about family for kids age 9-12. With staff donations, the program awarded every contestant with new school supplies!

In case you missed it, you can read what other states and tribes did during Child Support Awareness Month in our Sept. Child Support Report.

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Resource Alert: Children’s Bureau guidance that supports family reunification

A recent Children’s Bureau and OCSE joint letter highlights new guidance about removing financial barriers to help reunify families in the child welfare program. The Children’s Bureau policy notes IV-E programs must thoroughly review cases and be confident a referral to the child support program will not interfere with reunification.

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Policy Recap

OCSE issued recent guidance to help states and tribes develop and operate their child support programs according to federal laws and regulations:

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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                                                                               

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