February 9 and 10, 2005
Participating States
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Purpose of the call
On February 9 and 10, 2005, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) conducted conference calls with the states to discuss the results of the one-time match between the OCSE Debtor file and the SSA State Verification and Exchange System (SVES). The agenda for the calls included the following topics for discussion:
- Status of income withholdings
- SSA expected processing timeframes
- Documents SSA has received other than income withholdings
- Economic analysis and evaluation of the data
- State progress on processing the match results.
Status of Income Withholdings
OCSE has received approximately 7,800 income-withholding documents to date. Approximately 1,000 - 1,500 income-withholding documents are received per week at the central collection post office box that was set up specifically for this one-time match.
SSA Expected Processing Timeframes
Once SSA receives the income-withholding notices, payments are generally sent to the requesting state within two months. At this time, SSA is not able to transmit collections electronically, so each payment will be a paper check. In answer to a question about changes in the entitlement amounts, the SSA representative reported that SSA benefit amounts increased approximately 2.7% at the beginning of 2005.
Documents SSA has Received other than Income Withholding
Some documents, other than income-withholding notices, are being sent to the post office box. States should take steps to prevent this, as these documents are not processed by SSA and states will experience a delay while the documents are returned to them or forwarded to an SSA District Office. Furthermore, states should not staple their income-withholding documents or use highlighter pens. Both actions cause problems in SSA’s automated processing of documents.
Economic Analysis and Evaluation of the Data
OCSE’s Economic Analysis (EA) team discussed efforts to gather data and analyze the results of the match. The EA team would like to work with any state able to provide information on the number of matches received, the number of income withholdings sent to SSA and the amount of the collections. During the calls, representatives from Washington, Iowa, Wisconsin, Alaska, and Oregon volunteered to work with the EA team. Other states will provide data to their respective State Technical Support Liaison as it becomes available.
State Progress on Processing the Match Results
States representatives shared their progress to date in processing the SSA garnishment match data. The following matrix provides information on each state’s progress.
State | Progress | State | Progress | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | Distributed lists to counties with results from three. 30 IWNs sent. Several of these to Responding states. | Montana | Received 84 matches. 29 IWNs sent. 39% of matches were open interstate cases. | |
Alaska | Had 288 matches. 234 IWNs sent. 30 sent to Responding states. | Nebraska | Still researching. | |
Arizona | No results to report. | Nevada | Distributed to counties. Second largest office already sending IWNs. | |
Arkansas | New Hampshire | 19% under order. 1 died. State gets SVES through TANF. | ||
California | Distributed to counties. One consortia system will process automatically. Not sure about the other. | New Jersey | IWN’s will begin being sent in about 1 month. | |
Colorado | 44% were already paying cases. 38% eligible for IWNs. 34% IWNs sent. | New Mexico | ||
Connecticut | No results to report. | New York | 98% are new reports of income for IWN. | |
DC | Working cases and researching interstate. | North Carolina | 54% resulted in IWN. Some cases were already known as SSA recipients. | |
Delaware | No results to report. | North Dakota | 54% already have IWNs in place. | |
Florida * | Already sending some. Should begin sending most IWNs in one month. | Ohio | ||
Georgia | Oklahoma | |||
Guam | Oregon | Centralized operation. 9 cases with existing IWN. 33 new IWNs for $9600. | ||
Hawaii | No results to report. | Pennsylvania | 3 to 4 weeks before IWNs will be sent. | |
Idaho | No actions taken. | Puerto Rico | Distributed to counties last week. No actions yet. | |
Illinois * | 54% completed. Sent 2,200 IWNs. | Rhode Island | Process beginning. Hampered by being a totally judicial state. | |
Indiana | South Carolina | 109 referred to Courts. 38 garnishments sent so far. | ||
Iowa | 36% already under withholding. IWNs sent on others. Doris has details. | South Dakota | ||
Kansas | No actions taken yet. | Tennessee | 1,223 IWNs submitted. Maintaining a report. Of 78 cases, 23 IWNS resulted and 9 CPs referred to SSA. | |
Kentucky | No results to report. | Texas | In process of developing method to handle matches. | |
Louisiana | Utah | 39 matches. They already had IWNs in place. | ||
Maine | Vermont | |||
Maryland | Virgin Islands | |||
Massachusetts | Have begun the process. No results to report. | Virginia | ||
Michigan | IWNs will begin going out within the next two weeks. | Washington | Completed the project. 162 IWNs. 50% are getting payments. | |
Minnesota | Completed the project using automated system process set up for SVES. | West Virginia | Central Process. No results to report. | |
Mississippi | Have sent 150 of 1,300 IWNs. | Wisconsin | Completed Project. 800 IWNs. | |
Missouri | Wyoming | Sent reports to district offices. No results to report. |