Employers & the Child Support Program; A Partnership that Benefits our Nation’s Children

1. Speaker: Sherri Grigsby, Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement Employers & the Child Support Program; A Partnership that Benefits our Nation’s Children

2. Sponsored by:

3. This is an APA & HRCI approved program for 1 (one) RCH credit • You must attend the entire 1-hour course. • Within 30 calendar days of today, you will be sent a certificate with the program course code upon completion for your file folder. RCH CREDIT

4. A Child Support Story

5. Contents at a glance • Child support program background and statistics • New hire reporting • Standard response to Verification of Employment (VOE) • Income Withholding for Support Order/Notice (IWO) • Electronic Income Withholding (e-IWO) • Lump sum reporting/Debt Inquiry Service • Electronic payments (e-Payments) • Employer services website update

6. Once Upon a Time, there were two mice who were in love….

7. The Happy Family Ricky Mouse loved his wife Winnie so much that he used to bring her flowers and chocolates. They had three children, triplets, Harley, Larry and Darrell.

8. The Break Up After the break up, Ricky was hitting the cheese pretty hard and lost his job. Unfortunately, not all fairy tales have a happy ending. For Sale by Owner

9. Applying for Child Support How could Winnie be sure Ricky would pay child support? She found lots of information about the child support program on OCSE’s website.

10. The Child Support Program • Established under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act • Charged with locating noncustodial parents, establishing paternity and child support orders, enforcing child and medical support orders • Partnership between the public and private sectors

11. Roles and Responsibilities • Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) • State Child Support Agencies • Employers

12. Why is the child support program important? • The poverty rate for children under age 18 increased to 22% from 20.7% from 2009 to 2010 • The number of children living in poverty increased to 16.4 million from 15.5 million during the same period • Children comprise 36% of people living in poverty but only 24% of the general population

13. Largest source of payments? Employers/income withholders! • In FY 2011 • Accounted for nearly 70% of the child support collected • Reported 48.6 million new hires • Enrolled millions of children in health insurance plans

14. Ricky Finds a New Job Ricky got the job and his new employer reported the new hire to the State of Florida. • Ricky saw an ad in classified section looking for a stunt double for a very famous mouse actor and the worksite was none other than the Magic Castle.

15. New Hire Reporting Requirements • Mandatory elements • Employer Name • Employer Address • Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) • Employee Name • Employee Address • Employee Social Security Number (SSN) • Date of Hire • Some states may require additional elements

16. New Reporting Requirements • Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011 amended section 453A(a)(2) of the Social Security Act, effective April 21, 2012 • Changed the definition of Newly Hired Employee to an employee who— • (i) has not previously been employed by the employer; or • (ii) was previously employed by the employer but has been separated from such prior employment for at least 60 consecutive days

17. Independent Contractor (IC) Reporting • 14 states and 1 territory require IC reporting • AL, AK, CA, CT, GU, IA, MA, ME, MI, MN, NE, NH, NJ, NV and OH • Information to report • Most states require the same information on the W-4 form (name, address, TIN - some states require additional data) • Accounts payable may have this information

18. Establishing the Child Support Order information necessary to establish the child support order. When the Florida Child Support Agency received the new hire record for Ricky, they sent a Verification of Employment to the employer to gather Verification of Employment VOE

19. Verification of Employment (VOE) • Why must states send VOEs? • Obtain wage information when establishing or modifying an order • Obtain health insurance information • Standard response to VOE • See our website http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/newhire/ employer/publication/forms/voeform.pdf

20. Which states accept the standard VOE response form? • Accepting the form • Not accepting the form • Other states undecided

21. Income Withholding time he was hitting the cheese, he got behind on some other payments including his student loans and his credit cards. Using the VOE, FL established a child support order based on Ricky’s income. FL issued an IWO to the employer. Unfortunately for Ricky, during the

22. Income Withholding Order • Income withholding is the most effective means of collecting child support • Revised IWO approved by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) May 2011

23. IWO Changes* • Checkbox for employer to return IWO to sender for following reasons • Payment is not directed to a State Disbursement Unit (SDU) • Form does not contain all information for employer to comply with order • Form is altered or contains invalid information • Amount to withhold is not a dollar amount • Sender has not used the OMB-approved form (effective May 31, 2012) • Copy of underlying order is required and not included *Does not reflect all changes to the revised IWO

24. Need More IWO Information? • Action Transmittal 11-05 provides guidance to employers • IWOs issued on or after 05/31/12 (i.e., new IWOs) • Payment not directed to SDU • Use of OMB-approved IWO • IWOs issued before 05/31/12 (i.e., IWOs already processed by employer)* • Payment not directed to SDU • Use of OMB-approved IWO * Exceptions

25. How do employers process IWOs when… • there is already an IWO in place from another state for the same children? • there is already an IWO in place for another family? • there are other garnishments from creditors and/or government entities? • the IWO is from a state other than the employer’s state? • the IWO directs payment to the CP?

26. Employers’ Best Practices for Redirecting Payments • Contact the SDU – see matrix: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/ newhire/employer/contacts/contact_map.htm • Provide copies of all orders to the SDU • Problems? Contact Cindy Holdren cynthia.holdren@acf.hhs.gov or 240-676-2808

27. IWO Training Presentation • Visit http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/newhire/employer/ publication/training/iwo_training.pdf

28. Remitting Payments Once the employer started withholding child support from Ricky’s wages, the fastest, most efficient way to get the money to the child support agency was to send the payments electronically.

29. Payments • Federal law requires all employer-withheld payments (with a few exceptions) be sent to the SDU • Contact the SDU to redirect payments for a private, non-IV-D order • See our website for SDU contacts http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse Click on “Employer Information”

30. Electronic Payments • Cheaper, faster, safer, more accurate • Most large employers and payroll service providers remit e-Payments through the ACH network • Most payroll software supports EFT for child support • e-Payments from employers to SDUs are increasing 200920102011 46% 53% 56%

31. 16 States/Territories Requiree-Payments for Child Support California, Florida, Guam, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia

32. Web-based Payments • 38 states have web-based payment services • AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, ND, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI and WV • Designed for small to mid-sized employers

33. Tribal IWOs Winnie moved on with her life and decided to move back with her tribe on the reservation. She closed her child support case in FL and opened a case with the tribal child support agency. The tribal CS agency issued an IWO to the employer.

34. Processing Tribal IWOs • Do tribes have their own child support programs? • Yes. 42 tribes operate their own federally-funded child support programs. • Should I honor an IWO from a tribe? • Yes. You are required to honor an IWO sent from a tribal IV-D agency just as you would if it were sent from a state IV-D agency.

35. More on Tribal IWOs • Do tribal IV-D agencies use the standard, federal income withholding order form? • Yes. IV-D tribal agencies are required to use the standard, federal form. • Where should I send payments for an order that comes from a tribe? • Send them to the payee identified on the order.

36. Fast Forward—2 Years in the Future Winnie decided to move back to Orlando to be closer to the Magic Castle where she was able to find a job as a double for a famous mouse actress. She reopened her case in FL and FL issued an e-IWO to Ricky’s employer.

37. What is e-IWO? • States electronically send and employers electronically acknowledge IWOs • One “point of contact” • Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) is key • Handles terminations, lump sum payments

38. 24 States Using e-IWO—Represents over 70% of the child support caseload! • Arizona • California • Colorado • District of Columbia • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Massachusetts • Michigan • Missouri • Nebraska • New Jersey • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Tennessee • Texas • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia

39. Want more information about e-IWO? Contact: Bill Stuart william.k.stuart@acf.hhs.gov 518-399-9241 e-IWO presentation available at Ascentis.com, under Resources and 2012 Webinar Archive. Or click here

40. Ricky Gets a Bonus! After returning to work and performing exceptionally well in a feature film, he was eligible to receive a bonus! His employer used the Debt Inquiry Service to notify FL about the payout. Last year, Ricky suffered an injury which prevented him from working for several months and he got behind in his child support payments.

41. Debt Inquiry Service (DIS) • Enables employers to notify child support agencies prior to awarding a lump sum payment • One-by-one or batch file reporting • Contact us if interested in participating DIS -Success Story- An employer received a response in 45 minutes!

42. 30 States participating in Debt Inquiry • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • District of Columbia • Florida • Guam • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Maine • Minnesota • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Dakota • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Puerto Rico • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Virginia

43. The Kids Are All Grown Up! In June, the triplets graduated from high school and Ricky’s employer received a termination notice for the child support order since all of Boys were also 18. The triplets were accepted to Mouse University where they would study graphic design with a focus on character animation.

44. Visit our Website! www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/newhire/employer/home.htm

45. Preview of new OCSE website

46. Employer Service Contacts Sherri Grigsbysherri.grigsby@acf.hhs.gov202-401-6114 Nancy Benner nancy.benner@acf.hhs.gov 202-401-5528 Lynnetta Thompson lynnetta.thompson@acf.hhs.gov202-401-6982 Bill Stuart (e-IWO) william.stuart@acf.hhs.gov 518-399-9241 Cindy Holdren cynthia.holdren@acf.hhs.gov 240-676-2808

47. Thank you! The End.

48. Q&A

49. RCH Credit • If you attended this webinar for the full hour you will receive a certificate for credit • 1 (one) RCH Credit – APA & HRCI • Certificate emailed by July 25th.

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