HHS ANNOUNCES NEW CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT RECORDS AND AWARDS NEW INNOVATION GRANTS TO STRENGTHEN ENFORCEMENT PROGRAMS

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced that 2.8 million parents delinquent in child support payments were found in fiscal year 1999 through the National Directory of New Hires, more than double the number found during the previous year. Secretary Shalala also announced the award of more than $2.2 million in new grants and demonstrations to states, tribal organizations, non-profit organizations and a university to further strengthen the nation's child support enforcement program.

The new figures were released by Olivia A. Golden, HHS assistant secretary for children and families, at a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Under the new child support reforms enacted in the 1996 welfare reform law, HHS launched the National Directory of New Hires in October 1997, which matches all employees, both newly hired and those already holding jobs, with parents who owe child support listed on the Federal Case Registry. In its first year of operation, the directory found 1.2 million parents who were delinquent in their child support payments, a figure that more than doubled to 2.8 million in its second year of the operation. As delinquent parents are employed, states automatically implement wage withholding to deduct child support from their paychecks. In many cases these parents live in states other than where their children reside, and without the national directory, they might never have been found.

The 1996 law also established the Passport Denial program, which denies U.S. passports to non-custodial parents with child support debts of at least $5,000. Since the program was implemented jointly by HHS and the Department of State, it has collected more than $2.25 million in lump sum child support payments and is currently denying 30 to 40 passports per day.

"We have made tremendous strides in child support enforcement, thanks to the strongest ever enforcement measures that were signed into the new welfare law by President Clinton," said Secretary Shalala. "In addition, the enforcement grants we are awarding will provide a source of creative new ideas for the nation's child support partnership to continue to improve their child support programs to meet the needs of children."

The demonstration grants will support innovative demonstrations and projects to:

• improve interstate case processing by using automated systems to initiate income withholding in interstate cases and testing automated administrative enforcement in interstate cases using expanded data matches and interstate lien pilot programs to identify assets, real and personal property, and real estate;
• enable tribal organizations to establish tribal child support programs;
  
  
• test the child support assurance program directed toward unemployed non-custodial parents so that they can provide monthly support for their children;
• train juvenile and family court judges in the child support provisions of welfare reform so as to effectively implement them; and,
  
  
• conduct studies and special initiatives to enhance the effectiveness of the nation's child support program, such as developing a statewide customer satisfaction survey.

HHS also approved eight demonstration projects to five states that will allow these states to use federal child support administrative funds to test new methods of increasing child support collections. Colorado, Virginia and Washington State will test new methods to collect past due child support by analyzing cases and determining new collection activities. Maryland will invest in an enhanced training certification program to establish standards for child support workers. Massachusetts will improve collaboration between child support and public assistance agencies to improve cooperation with parents on child support requirements. Three of these states will also receive a second demonstration grant. Colorado will develop a program to collect child support from incarcerated and paroled delinquent parents. Virginia will test in one county a model partnership program with various local agencies to help non-custodial parents obtain services thereby enabling payment of child support. Washington State will develop a centralized lien registry on a secure Internet site to allow other state and local government agencies and private companies to learn before a person claims funds whether or not child support is owed.

"We are shaping the child support program for the future through these innovation grants," said Golden. "We expect to learn from these demonstration projects new ways to enhance the entire federal/state child support enforcement program to ensure that children get the support they need and deserve."

The 1996 law also established grants to states and territories to support and facilitate non-custodial parents' access to and visitation with their children. In 1997, HHS awarded $10 million in grants to all states and territories. Today, HHS released a preliminary report on the state child access and visitation programs. Based upon preliminary information from 28 states and 2 territories, the program served almost 20,000 individuals with the most individuals receiving parenting education, assistance in the development of parenting plans, and mediation services.

"What we do in child support is to help children have better lives," said David Gray Ross, commissioner, HHS office of child support enforcement. "We are committed to not stand still in the child support program. We want to learn new ways to help children, especially now as the child support caseload is changing so no child is deprived of the basic necessities to grow up healthy and strong."

In 1998, federal and state child support collections increased to $14.3 billion, an 80 percent increase over the 1992 amount of $8 billion. A record 1.45 million paternities were established in 1998, a more than three-fold increase from 1992.

The grant and demonstration recipients by project area are:

Improved interstate case processing

Florida $79,495
Massachusetts $544,500
Rhode Island $149,380
Wyoming $140,000

Development of tribal child support enforcement programs

Lummi Indian Nation $129,181
Port Gamble S'Klallam $50,400
Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux $50,000

Child support assurance demonstration

Larimer County, Colorado $170,244

Studies and special initiatives

University of New Hampshire $49,668
Louisiana $50,000
National Child Support Enforcement Assn. $48,548
National Women's Law Center $50,000
National Conference of Juvenile &
Family Court Judges $36,125

Waiver demonstrations

Colorado (past due support) $75,000
Colorado (incarcerated/ex-offenders) $80,000
Maryland $127,000
Massachusetts $80,000
Virginia (past due support) $96,396
Virginia (county project) $80,000
Washington (past due support) $75,000
Washington (Internet registry) $80,000

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