"Chirps" from OCSE Commissioner Turetsky
“Did You Know Chirp” from OCSE Commisioner Vicki Turetsky
8-18-10: Did you know… The Department of Health and Human Services wants your input on how to develop the standards that will guide new health insurance Exchanges. Starting in 2014, health insurance Exchanges—competitive, consumer-centered health insurance marketplaces—will offer eligible individuals, families and businesses “one-stop-shopping” where they can compare and purchase health insurance coverage. Comments are due Oct. 4, 2010. Read the complete request for comment. HHS also announced available grants to help states begin work to establish Exchanges.
8-12-10: Did you know… The FPLS returns annual wage data from SSA, helping state child support agencies find people whose wage records are not in the National Directory of New Hires (i.e., self-employed and farm workers). State directors can request—by the end of August—to participate in the annual “sweep” of the SSA data file, conducted each year when most W-2 records have been received for the prior calendar year. The director (or designee) can send the AWR Data Election form to the state Technical Support Liaison. (The SSA wage data is considered to be federal tax information, so the standard IRS safeguarding rules will apply.)
8-4-10: Did you know… With increasing use of debit cards to disburse child support, states can determine the primary markets and merchants where custodial parents use their child support debit cards. One bank provider for 14 states determined the top 3 market categories where child support debit cards were used in 2009: supermarkets, fuel and fast food restaurants (58 percent of all transactions). More than a million cards have been issued in those states. One of the states using this bank provider broke the data down further and identified the top 3 merchants for the child support debits: Walmart, Safeway and King Soopers. This information can help reassure the noncustodial parent that their payments really are being spent on the kids.
7-29-10: Did you know… As required by the Affordable Care Act, HHS recently launched www.HealthCare.gov. It’s the first central database of health coverage options. It combines information about public programs, from Medicare to the new Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan, with information from more than 1,000 private insurance plans. You can enter information about an individual or family, by state, and find a range of coverage options. The site will grow over time in response to consumer feedback and new information (price estimates for health insurance plans will be added in October). The site has become the complete source for information about health reform implementation, and even includes personalized health tips.
7-22-10: Did you know… The majority of states have recognized the cost savings from electronic disbursement and issue child support payments via direct deposit or a debit card. It can cost a dollar per check versus less than a dime per electronic deposit. Now, 47 states offer debit cards and 4 are in the planning stage. The recent trend shows that 24 states have opted to mandate electronic disbursement. Among those that don’t have statutory authority to mandate electronic disbursement, some are promoting its use; even states without authority report its use at 80 and 90 percent.
7-15-10: Did you know… Certain federal agency payments are exempt from federal administrative offset, either by law or by the Secretary of the Treasury. Before submitting the payment to Treasury for issuance, the federal agency—not Treasury or OCSE—is responsible for coding the payment as exempt to prevent interception for past-due child support. Treasury’s Financial Management Service posts a list of payments exempt from federal administrative offset on its website.
7-9-10: Did you know… Louisiana implemented OCSE’s Query Interstate Cases for Kids (QUICK) system in May, Kansas in June and Oklahoma in early July 2010. Now 25 states are on board with QUICK! Kansas was the first state to access QUICK using OCSE’s new State Services Portal.
7-7-10: Did you know… The Eastern Shoshone Business Council in Wyoming is the newest comprehensive tribal child support program, bringing the national total to 38. The Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin is the latest tribe to qualify for start-up tribal child support funding. The growth in tribal programs in the past several years is an exciting time for the national child support program, and an important opportunity to serve children and their families living in Indian country.
6-2-10: Did you know… The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) can reduce taxes for parents in your state child support program caseload. EITC is one of the largest antipoverty programs and lifts more than 5 million individuals out of poverty every year. IRS estimates that 20 to 25 percent of qualifying workers miss out on thousands of dollars in refunds every year because they fail to claim their EITC. For more information, see the EITC page on the OCSE Web site and IRS's EITC toolkit.
5-25-10: Did you know… OCSE is continuing to play our part in Secretary Sebelius’s Challenge to enroll all eligible uninsured children in CHIP and Medicaid within 5 years. See the Insure Kids Now! widget (in English and Spanish) on the OCSE website. The widget links to information about programs by state and to another widget that links to the Children’s Health Insurance Toolkit. (Toolkit materials are available in Spanish, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Vietnamese.) You can customize these materials to distribute in your community.
5-17-10: Did you know… State child support agencies are eligible to compete for HHS demonstration grants that address teen pregnancy prevention. Up to $25 million is available for research and demonstration grants to develop, replicate, refine, and test additional model and innovative strategies for preventing teenage pregnancy. In addition, a total $10 million is available to implement and test innovative strategies using funds through the Personal Responsibility Education Program provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010. The HHS Office of Adolescent Health and the ACF Administration for Children, Youth and Families will manage the grants. The deadline for applications is June 8.
5-11-10: Did you know…You can search for federal, state and tribal child support program information through a search engine on the OCSE Web site called The National Electronic Child Support Resource System (NECSRS). The system has been recently updated to index child support program materials from federal and state websites using Google Custom Search. It also includes a glossary of child support related terms and state and tribal contacts.
5-4-10: Did you know… In FY 2009 the child support enforcement program distributed more than $26 billion in collections. Of that amount, about $24 billion was sent directly to families. That means that nearly 92 percent of all collections distributed actually went to children and families.
4-30-10: Did you know... In FY 2009, the national IV-D Paternity Establishment Percentage (PEP) was around 98 percent, an increase of nearly 3 percentage points over FY 2008. At 95 percent, the Statewide PEP is down about 1 percentage point from what was reported in FY 2008. This change is indicative of a national trend extending over the past 10 years where the IV-D PEP has continued to increase and the Statewide PEP has declined.
4-26-10: Did you know… The Census 2010 public awareness campaign “Children Count Too” offers promotional videos in English and Spanish to remind parents to count their babies and young children on the 2010 Census forms. See the Toolkit for Parents and Child Care Providers for more information. As census results can impact funding for children’s programs, ACF is an active partner in this campaign.
4-12-10: Did you know... You can find correct addresses for sending income withholding orders (IWO) and National Medical Support Notices (NMSN) to all federal agencies posted quarterly on the OCSE Web site. Use these addresses to ensure you deliver prompt services for families. On the list, you’ll see four major payroll providers, but there are exceptions. And usually the NMSN address is different than the IWO address. (Remember, you needn’t send any notices for active duty and military retirees.)
4-1-10: Did you know... States collect almost $58 million for children every month through income withholding on SSA Title II disability benefits? That’s almost $700 million per year. But there’s more… Children may be eligible, as “auxiliary beneficiaries,” to receive their own SSA benefits. And the child’s benefits might result in the noncustodial parent owing less child support. For more information, contact your State Technical Support Liaison.
3-25-10: Did you know... The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R.3590) amends the Internal Revenue Code to require that the parent who claims the child as a dependent on their federal tax return - usually the parent with whom the child resides for more than half of the year - is responsible for demonstrating that the child has acceptable health care coverage. The new law says: “An applicable individual shall for each month beginning after 2013 ensure that the individual, and any dependent of the individual who is an applicable individual, is covered under minimum essential coverage for such month.” § 1501. (b), new Subtitle D of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Chapter 48, § 5000A (a). Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code defines “dependent.”
3-24-10: Did you know... In The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R.3590), acceptable health care coverage is private, public or publicly subsidized. Parents can meet their responsibility to cover their children through eligible employer-sponsored plans, subsidized coverage purchased through a new health insurance exchange, Medicaid, CHIP, TRICARE and other coverage.
3-23-10: Did you know... The President signed The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R.3590) into law today. This legislation includes new guidelines, enforced by the IRS, for whom will be responsible for covering themselves and their children. Effective 2014, the parent who claims the child as a dependent on their federal tax return is responsible for showing that the child has acceptable private or public health care coverage or else paying a tax penalty. Those who cannot afford coverage are exempt.
3-22-10: Did you know... Last night the House passed The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R.3590). This national health reform legislation makes quality, affordable health care coverage available to 95 percent of all Americans - through their employers, insurance exchanges, and public coverage programs - and brings a host of new consumer insurance protections.
3-17-10: Did you know… TANF emergency funds authorized under the Recovery Act can be used to pay a benefit to a noncustodial parent to reduce or pay off child support arrearages owed to the family? Other examples of services that may be provided to either parent or other adults under the fund include jobs skills training or retraining activities, employment placement services, subsidized employment, employment counseling services, mentoring and tutoring services, premarital and marital counseling, parental counseling or mediation services, teen pregnancy prevention services, and financial counseling services. See the new OFA policy guidance.
3-16-10: Did you know… OCSE has announced a new Special Improvement Project (SIP) grant opportunity titled “Creating Family-Centered Approaches to Improve Child Support Enforcement Outcomes”? Applicants should demonstrate strategies that educate and involve both parents in child support enforcement processes, and coordinate referral of both parents to needed non-child support services, such as workforce development and employment. The closing date for applications is May 17. See the announcement on the Grants.gov Web site.
3-1-10: Did you know... when the federal government in D.C. closed for four days due to record-breaking snowstorms, the FPLS operated without interruption? We re-routed our customer service lines, and data processing continued for federal tax offset, passport denial, the National Directory of New Hires and other systems, with staff monitoring via “VPN access” from their homes—despite the blizzard conditions. Staff also continued with conference calls and provided technical support to states. Rest assured that even when the federal government closes, the FPLS keeps operating.
2-23-10: Did you know...that the Federal Offset Program collected over $2 billion for America's children in 2009? Sources for these collections included noncustodial parents' federal income tax refunds, administrative non-tax payments and the special one-time $250 Economic Recovery Payments issued as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That’s nearly 8 percent of the total child support.
2-5-10: Did you know…Feb. 4, 2010, was the first anniversary of the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA)—one of the first bills President Obama signed? CHIPRA provides new tools and significant funding to increase CHIP and Medicaid coverage for uninsured children, including those in the IV-D program. More than 4 out of 5 uninsured children in custodial mother families are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP. To find out more about CHIPRA and health insurance for children in your state, please visit the Department of Health and Human Services’ newly revamped Web site www.InsureKidsNow.gov.
1-19-10: Did you know … Hispanics are the largest and youngest minority group in the United States? Research has shown that 1 in 4 newborns and 1 in 5 schoolchildren are Hispanic. Among families receiving child support services, nearly one-fifth are Hispanic. Find out how to conduct effective outreach to the Hispanic community on the OCSE online Hispanic Child Support Resource Center and the Hispanic Toolkit DVD materials. Will you be the first to get the TV or radio PSA spots aired?
1-13-10: Did you know … that a 2008 survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found that the Number 2 unmet need of homeless veterans is legal assistance with child support? OCSE is proud to be partnering with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the American Bar Association, and others in a new initiative to help eliminate veteran homelessness in 5 years. Look for more details in the January Child Support Report newsletter!
1-6-10: Did you know…that you can make life easier for the noncustodial parent who has paid to get his or her passport? OCSE’s new online Passport Denial screen is at your fingertips! Not only can you enter the release, but you also can report the dollar amount of the lump-sum payment. You can see whether another state needs to take action, too. Online releases are submitted to the Department of State daily.
12-17-09: Did you know…1 in 4 children in the United States participates in the child support program, and the program serves half of all poor children? The child support program lifts 1 million people out of poverty each year and provides about 30 percent of income for the poor families who receive it.
12-4-09: Did you know … beginning in January 2010, the Federal Offset Program will start sending CSE staff weekly tax refund and administrative offset collections, instead of biweekly? This will help OCSE and the states keep the data in sync. More importantly, it will allow CSE staff to disburse offset collections to families more quickly!
10-13-09: Did you know...the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pays billions of dollars in crop subsidies? And now, for the first time, we are able to intercept these subsidies for past-due child-support obligations. USDA sends out millions of payments annually, with most of the checks being issued in October. You can ensure your families’ share of these payments by submitting obligors for administrative offsets through the Tax Offset Program. As a reminder, States’ participation in the Administrative Offset is voluntary. This is time sensitive, so don’t miss out on this excellent source of collections!
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