EFT/EDI Child Support Payments

Teleconference

Minutes from the Federal/State Agencies EFT/EDI Child Support Payments Project Teleconference, November 15, 2006

Participants:

Federal agencies: Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS): Washington, DC; Social Security Administration; National Finance Center; Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE). States: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, DE, DC, FL, HI, ID, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, TX, UT, VA, WV, WI

The bi-monthly Federal Agency/State EFT/EDI Child Support Payments teleconference call was held on Wednesday, November 15th at 2 p.m., ET. Lovenia Murray of FMS facilitated the meeting and reminded participants to register in advance for each teleconference on the FMS web site at http://fms.treas.gov/csp/confcall/index.html.

Federal agency updates:

National Finance Center (NFC): The NFC is working with California (CA) on its IV-D cases that had been going to the counties. It is working on a test file for CA. It has not yet begun to identify its private, non-IV-D orders because those reside at NFC's client agencies rather than with NFC.

The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) hopes to begin reconciliation with the states in January 2007. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will probably not be able to send electronic payments for child support until 2009 when they migrate to a new financial system. The Department of Labor (DOL) hopes to begin sending its worker's compensation payments (attached for child support) by the end of 2007.

Social Security Administration (SSA): SSA has begun sending its child support payments electronically to IL and MI (MI's new cases). It is also doing case reconciliation with CA, VA, TX, and FL and hopes to begin sending electronic child support payments to those States by early 2007. SSA prefers to work with States that use the Social Security number (SSN) of the beneficiary rather than the case ID as the primary identifier. They plan to convert approximately four to five states every other month. Interested states may contact Gary Sievers at gary.sievers@ssa.gov. SSA estimates that it is sending 200,000+ child support paper checks per month from beneficiaries' payments.

California's State Disbursement Unit (SDU) Implementation:

The CA SDU has a dedicated phone line for federal agencies and is interested in converting federal agencies' child support payments to electronic checks. The agencies that have been converted or in the process are: DFAS, SSA, NFC, Coast Guard, and Postal Service. Federal agencies interested in beginning the conversion process are encouraged to contact Rick Barto at rick.barto@ftb.ca.gov or Mike Clements at mclements@fdgs.com.

SDUs and the courts: improving the relationship

A representative from the FL SDU who serves as a liaison to the FL Association of Court Clerks spoke of the need for improved communication between the courts and the SDU. The FL SDU uses a 13-character case ID, and if employers, including federal agencies, do not use this case ID when remitting payments, it can cause problems identifying the payment and posting it correctly.

Update on TR3

Byron Warren of the ASC X12 Finance Subcommittee and now working with the CO SDU gave an update on the TR3, which is a technical document that gives information on how to use the CTX 820 to send child support payments. There was considerable discussion. The TR3 could be given to employers, software companies, and banks that are interested in using the CTX 820 electronic file format to send child support payments. FL commented that some online banking services are not set up to send child support payments electronically and send paper checks instead. The next meeting of the ASC X12 Subcommittee is in December, and Bryon would like to submit the TR3 for their approval at that time. Send all corrections/comments to Craig Goellner at craig.goellner@state.co.us.

Reversals: OCSE reminded the States of their informal agreement NOT to reverse interstate payments. Make sure your vendor is aware of this policy. As soon as you know you have sent an incorrect or duplicate payment, please call and e-mail your EFT/EDI State contact.

EFT/EDI Interstate Exchange: OCSE asked the States to update their State on the EFT/EDI Interstate Exchange, which was sent to the States as an attachment to the October EFT/EDI meeting notes. Send the updates (in red) to Nancy Benner at nancy.benner@acf.hhs.gov.

Next Federal Agency/State EFT/EDI teleconference:

The next EFT/EDI teleconference is scheduled for January 17, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. ET. There will probably be a new number or new password to be used in 2007, and that number will be provided to the federal agencies and states before the teleconference. States are reminded to register in advance for the teleconference at http://fms.treas.gov/csp/confcall/index.html to ensure enough lines are allocated.