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from the Federal Child Support Report of August 1996

New Hire Update

President Clinton's June 18 Executive Action on child support (see July '96 CSR) prescribed a method of tracking parents across state lines using new hire data being reported in 25 states. Under this pilot, which will enable states and OCSE to prepare for welfare reform, participating states with existing new hire reporting systems will send the information to OCSE.

Systems specialists and programmers in ACF are preparing for the new data, scheduled to arrive in OCSE early in August.

The data, which by conservative estimates could amount to more than seven million new hire records being received, will be compiled and crossmatched with existing cases in the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) and the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program.

States will be sent data matches and use the information for the establishment and enforcement of child support orders and for the establishment of paternity.

How valuable is new hire data? Many states using it have significantly increased their collections. Massachusetts, for example, reported an increase $15.4 million as a result of new hire reporting, while Iowa attributed an additional $5 million to it.

Interstate cases currently make up about 30 percent of the child support caseload, so there is considerable opportunity for new hire reporting to have an impact on collections and the establishment of support orders and paternity. In addition, it shows promise in aiding location efforts.

When an individual leaves a job and goes to another state, location can be far more difficult. Crossmatching with new hire data can sometimes make a difference, so to take advantage of this one-time-only crossmatch, states are being encouraged to submit new locate cases to FPLS as close to September 1 as possible.

In a recent match of 9,000 cases by New York's new hire reporting program, 4,000 cases were located in which no order had been established. Other states using new hire data report successfully tracking individuals who change jobs and states frequently and thus being able to reopen cases once considered hopeless.
 


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