EFT/EDI Child Support Payments

Teleconference

Minutes from the Federal/State Agencies EFT/EDI Child Support Payments Project Teleconference, July 21, 2004

Participants:

The bi-monthly Federal Agency/State EFT/EDI Child Support Payments Project conference call was held on Wednesday, July 21 at 2 p.m., EST. The following Federal agencies were represented on the teleconference: the Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS), the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), the Public Health Services, and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS). The following states were represented on the teleconference: AL, CO, SD, IA, IL, GA, MT, MO, LA, KY, KS, AZ, ND, SD, NE, NM, WY, PA, MS, NC, TX, MI, WA, FL, OR, HI, OH, VA, DC. Lovenia Murray of FMS facilitated the teleconference and reminded participants to register for each teleconference at FMS's web site at http://fms.treas.gov/csp/confcall/index.html.

Federal Agency Conversion Update

• DFAS reported that they have fully converted the Civilian and Retired caseload to EFT/EDI and are partly finished converting the Active Duty and Reserve pay. They are finishing up on case reconciliation.
• Public Health reported that California is the only state they have not converted (due to lack of an state disbursement unit). Public Health is not able to send payments at the county level.
• FMS reported on behalf of the following agencies as noted:
• Interior (National Business Center) has completed converting its current child support payments to the CTX820 format for all states. NBC is now conducting case reconciliation for NASA, a new client agency migrating as a result of the OPM e-payroll consolidation effort.
• GSA has completed its conversion except for Maryland, which is in the case reconciliation phase. GSA has implemented the capability to provide the non-custodial parent's name in the DED Segment Addendum Record and will be issuing payments with this added Data Element in the near future.
• NFC is well into case reconciliation with states and will be able to process EFT/EDI payments in Pay Period 14 (payment date August 2). NY and MD will not be included at this point.

Benefits Agencies Conversion Plans

• FMS reported that SSA is developing a new garnishment database and upon completion, child support payments from new orders will be sent electronically. FMS will continue to work with SSA to send current child support payments by EFT/EDI. However, success in this area will require commitment to this end from SSA. Latest reports are that SSA will request a waiver to extend the date for removal of the SSN from checks. OCSE stated that the SSA file is at least 10 or 12 times larger than any file yet reconciled and that states will need sufficient time to reconcile cases.
• FMS meets with OPM benefits representatives weekly. Currently OPM is providing FMS with its most current child support case information.
• VA Benefits is also working with FMS and is attempting to determine the current number of child support orders it processes.
• FMS Philadelphia Regional Finance Center reports that the Railroad Retirement Board is "moving in the right direction" but EFT/EDI conversion will require extensive programming. Although good progress is being made, RRB is likely to ask for an extension to keep the SSN on the checks until they are fully implemented.
• FMS reported that the four major payroll systems, NFC, NBC, GSA and DFAS are expected to be fully converted to EFT/EDI by December 2004, in time to meet the SSN removal deadline, assuming they remain on schedule. These four processors including the benefit agencies' represent approximately 90% of the federally administered child support orders.

There was a brief discussion of the DFAS twice a month payment issue in which some of the states' systems are not designed to process efficiently. OCSE is aware that this continues to be a problem for some states and are working with DFAS and the states to resolve the issue.

Considering the on-going agency EFT/EDI conversions, the states reiterated the importance of Federal agencies providing prior notification of their schedule for reconciliation. It is also important for the states that will not be included in an agency's reconciliation to receive prior notification of this as well.

Next Teleconference

The next teleconference has been scheduled for September 15, 2004 at 2:00 p.m., EST.