csr9112.htm

12-1991

Child Support Report

Paternity Establishment at Birth -- Capturing the Happy Hour

The chances of establishing paternity are greater at the time of a child's birth than at any other time says Jane Clements, Policy Section Chief of Virginia's IV-D office. This propitious moment for obtaining voluntary paternity acknowledgements has been referred to as "the happy hour," the moment when the father is bursting with pride and is most willing to accept his paternity and its obligations.

Capturing a child's legal paternity at this opportune time seems to many to be common sense. Enforcement personnel have long known that, as the child grows and the parents' relationship weakens or deteriorates, the chances of establishing legal paternity progressively worsen. From a programmatic perspective, and in the wider social sense, high numbers of nonmarital births mean growing welfare dependency and growing IV-D caseloads. The backdrop to this picture is often a costly and time-consuming paternity establishment process through overburdened courts.

Benefits of Paternity

Apart from the possibility of the father's immediate care and support of the baby, legal paternity confers a multitude of other rights and benefits which new parents may not know. With paternity established:

183 The child has a right to the father's name and such support that is based on his work history, such as Social Security and other survivor's benefits, veteran's benefits, and workman's compensation.

183 The child can receive any inheritance, life and health insurance, and a right to access family health information.

183 The father now has a legal right, though not married to the mother, to establish and maintain a relationship with his child.

183 In the developing bonds of care and support, the child stands to gain a whole family, reaching to both the mother's and father's sides.

The Programs

Mindful of these considerations, several states have passed legislation and instituted programs for establishing paternity in the hospital at the time of the child's birth. Child support enforcement programs in Virginia,Washington, and Michigan, for example, have voluntary consent processes in which the father and mother can acknowledge and sign a document that legally establishes paternity.

Washington State, Kent County (Grand Rapids), Michigan, and Virginia have had hospital-based paternity efforts for about a year. Washington, the first state to establish such a program, currently has 80 participating hospitals and expects 7,000 sworn paternity affidavits to be signed by the end of 1991. Averaging 88 affidavits per hospital, this represents 80 percent of the fathers who were given the opportunity to acknowledge paternity when their babies were born.

Kent County (Grand Rapids), Michigan, has one large participating hospital and expects to have 791 affidavits signed by the end of a 14-month period. This represents 52 percent of fathers given the chance to establish their paternity in the hospital. Virginia has five hospitals participating in its paternity establishment program and is expecting to add four more, moving toward a statewide program in its 35-40 birthing hospitals. According to Jane Clements, one invaluable ingredient has been the endorsement of the Virginia Hospital Association, which has promoted the program in its newsletter.

How They Work

The three state programs share several similar practices. In Washington State, hospital personnel, e.g., the doctor, midwife, social worker, or an administrative employee, "provide the opportunity" to the father and mother to acknowledge paternity, and medical records personnel obtain the acknowledgments as part of the birth registration process. In Virginia, a social worker presents the opportunity and the hospital's medical records clerk who prepares the birth certificate, obtains the paternity acknowledgments. In Grand Rapids, the medical records clerk performs both functions, with some of the groundwork laid by a social worker.

All three programs provide training to hospital personnel involved in paternity establishment--medical records clerks, vital statistics registrars, and supervisors. Also, the usual practice is for state CSE programs to pay the hospital a nominal fee of $10 to $20 per acknowledgment, which is eligible for federal financial participation. Clements points out that the fee can in no way compensate for the time the hospital spends with the patients,basically donated time.

Questions of Law

The programs include carefully informed consent, providing the mother and father with information which explains the benefits of paternity establishment and the availability of support enforcement services. Kent County has a resource person available at the agency for the hospital to refer any additional questions to, particularly of a legal nature. How is legal paternity formalized? In Virginia and Washington, paternity is finally established when the hospital-notarized affidavits or declarations of paternity are filed with the state vital records departments. In Washington, the father has several opportunities to later contest the acknowledgment or the support order that results. In Grand Rapids, paternity is legally established when the affidavits are filed with the court.

Community Outreach

Kent County has done a lot of outreach with pregnant, unmarried women, so they and the fathers will be prepared when they enter the hospital. It distributes brochures to doctors' offices, health clinics, hospital-run prenatal clinics, and schools with unwed mothers. The hope is that if unmarried fathers have information and have had time to discuss and think about the benefits of paternity to their child, they may be more receptive to acknowledging it when they come to the hospital. In Virginia, posters placed in the hospitals encourage employees to obtain training in the hope that they can help "market" the program.

Cost Savings

In operational terms, the cost savings to state IV-D program can be substantial. Virginia estimates that in-hospital paternity establishment saves about $440 per case over the cost of getting paternity processed through the courts. In one year, the Virginia CSE program has realized an estimated savings of $126,700 for 288 hospital-established paternities.

The true benefits of "happy hour" paternity establishment are, of course, for the children. Says Nancy Sterk, District Manager with the Office of Child Support in Kent County, Michigan, "The children can leave the hospital with two legal parents instead of one, starting life on a positive basis." And, with paternity established at birth, and a support order entered soon after, the mother has earlier access to child support enforcement services, if and when she and her child need them.

For further information about these in-hospital paternity establishment programs, contact: Kent County, Michigan: Nancy Sterk, 616-247-6230; Virginia: Jane Clements, 804-662-7469; and Washington: John Hoover, 206-586-3555.

Date[12-1991] Source[Child Support Report]

Title[$521 Million Collected Under Federal Income Tax Refund Offset Program in 1991]

In 1991, the Federal Income Tax Refund Offset program collected over $521 million in past due child support, an increase of over $39 million from 1990.

HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., praised the collections and added, "We still have to do more to ensure that non-custodial parents meet their obligations to help care for their children."

Approximately 667,000 parents who owed over $150 in child support, and whose children receive AFDC had their federal income tax refunds withheld in 1991. Nearly $392 million was collected from these parents, a seven percent increase over 1990. These collections reimburse state and local governments for the public assistance provided to the family. Of the 194,000 families who do not receive AFDC, and who were owed more than $500 in 1991, the tax offset program collected nearly $130 million, an 11 percent increase over the previous year.

"The Tax Refund Offset Program is a simple means of collecting past due child support," said Jo Anne B. Barnhart, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families. She added, "The process can also help identify the location,the employer, and the assets of parents not meeting their legal obligation to their children, so that further enforcement action can be taken."

The Federal Tax Refund Offset program was mandated by Congress for AFDC families in 1981, and expanded in 1984 to include offsetting refunds to pay support debts owed to non-AFDC families. States with an income tax must also be able to withhold tax refunds for child support debts.

Date[12-1991] Source[Child Support Report]

Title[California Family Support Council a Strong Advocate for Medical Support]

The California Family Support Council has had an active medical support committee since 1988. Originally formed to address federal requirements in medical support enforcement, the committee is made up of county and state IV-D administrators, attorneys and caseworkers. It has been a strong advocate as well for health insurance coverage for poor families and their children. The committee has helped draft legislation, fostered improved communication among state agencies with medical support responsibilities, and worked to simplify reporting procedures between them.

For example, working with the state Medicaid agency, the medical support committee was instrumental in drafting recent legislation prohibiting California employers and insurance companies from denying health insurance coverage to children who do not live with the primary insured parent. The legislation also requires employers to enroll dependent children immediately instead of waiting for open season enrollment periods.

In past years, the Family Support Council's medical support committee has worked with the California Departments of Social Services and Health Services, and with ACF Region IX staff to develop a medical support handbook for use by IV-D staff. It has also simplified the form used to report health insurance information to the Medicaid agency.

On the legislative front, the committee helped draft legislation and regulations to implement the medical support program. It also drafted a health insurance coverage assignment law which has been used as a model in other states.

To enhance communication among state agencies, California Medicaid agency staff have met with medical support committee staff to discuss such issues as:

. Medicaid regulations on the referral of Medicaid-only cases to the child support program;

. The transmittal of health insurance information from IV-A and IV-D to Medicaid; and

. Improving interagency communication in monitoring and notifying the Medicaid agency of changes or lapses in a parent's health insurance coverage.

In the near future, the medical support committee will address continuing concern over the number and types of Medicaid-only cases to be referred to the child support program. The committee will also focus on developing criteria to identify the most appropriate referrals. The committee will also continue to provide informationand assistance to appropriate state agencies in their efforts to fully implement the federal medical support enforcement requirements .

For more information about the Family Support Council's medical support committee, contact its chair, Lawrence Silverman, Los Angeles County Family Support Bureau, 5555 Ferguson Drive, Commerce, California 90022, phone 213-725-5091.

Date[12-1991] Source[Child Support Report]

Title[Medical Support -- Model Legislation and Incentives]

OCSE has released an Information Memorandum containing model laws enacted in fifteen states to address the 1988 federal requirement for the IV-D child support agency to petition for the inclusion of medical support in child support orders.

The 1988 regulation expands the universe of cases from new cases and those requiring modification for reasons other than the inclusion of medical support to cases which must be modified for purposes of medical support only.

Topics covered by the model state laws include employer responsibility, requiring courts to include medical support in child support orders, allowing signatures other than the obligor/policy holder as authorization to process medical expense claims, and providing for collection and enforcement of medical support utilizing remedies available for child support enforcement. The model statutes are designed to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of medical support enforcement.

Also included in the document are examples from Minnesota and Wisconsin of incentives provided the IV-D programs by Medicaid. Copies are available from the OCSE Reference Center.

Date[12-1991] Source[Child Support Report]

Title[Colorado's Planning Pays Off]

To double child support collections in five years is the goal of a long-term workplan developed by Colorado's IV-D program. Total collections projected at the end of 1991, the fourth year, will already more than reach the goal. By December 31, 1991 of this year, collections are expected to reach $63 million, and if this pace continues, to reach $74 million by the end of the fifth year, 1992--$12 million over the $62 million target amount.

The State has accomplished this feat by implementing the workplan and its incremental goal of increasing collections 16 percent each year. In fact, the program more than achieved this rate of expansion, with collections increasing at the rate of 19.6 percent at the end of two of those years.

How the Plan Was Developed

Colorado's is a state-supervised, county-administered child support program. The State has 63 counties. The five-year collection goal and the long-term workplan were developed by a IV-D task force which has met at least quarterly to date, beginning in January 1988. Six subcommittees-- one for each of the six goal areas of the five-year workplan--carry out the work of the task force, with each subcommittee co-chaired by a county and a state task force member and staffed by volunteers from the county and state child support enforcement offices. Colorado's IV-D Director, Kathryn A. Stumm, believes that for an undertaking such as this, it is essential to identify all the people who have a stake in the program's success. Accordingly, regional meetings are held in nine different areas of Colorado to involve state line workers, supervisors, county directors, and county commissioners in both developing and revising the workplan.

At least annually, the IV-D task force prioritizes the 20 to 30 goals contained in the five-year workplan, based on changes in state and federal law. It also periodically reviews and revises it in order to: 1) eliminate goals that have been accomplished, 2) update progress on remaining goals, and 3) add new goals to reflect legislative changes. The goals are further broken into objectives and activities, which are, in turn, periodically revised.

What The Plan Does

The 20 to 30 goals in the workplan fall under the following "goal areas": (1) Training (consistently the highest priority), (2) Standardization, (3)Automation, (4) Collection Techniques, (5) Public Relations, and (6) Program Management.

Kathy Stumm believes that the comprehensive nature of this longterm approach to planning and goal setting has been responsible for the impressive collections Colorado has netted thus far. She asserts further that, "Long-term planning gives a IV-D program away to focus its energy on important objectives; to motivate the people in the program; and to educate all the external forces the program has to interact with in order to move the program forward, such as the legislature and the private sector."

Because of Colorado's great success with long-range planning, the IV-D agency now has a Year 2000 Plan in the offing and intends to follow the same processes in developing updating the plan.

For further information or to obtain a copy of the original or current version of Colorado's five-year workplan, contact Kathryn A. Stumm, 303-866-5992.

Date[12-1991] Source[Child Support Report]

Title[From the Deputy Director]

By Allie Page Matthews

It's about the treatment of people--it always is. Whether it's in the highest negotiations for world peace or in simply asking for a glass of water in a restaurant, how you treat people tells a great deal about you. A long time ago when I worked in the office of then Congressman George Bush, I was struck with the simple kindheartedness that prevailed in that office.

I felt a part of a team. I was included because the idea was the thing that brought you to the table, not rank or position. There were no territorial battles, we were all treated equally, and our business was about solving problems.

And I could get help if I needed it from the people around me. There was none of this "Use them up and toss them away" attitude that seems to be prevalent today in a lot of places.

Every management book in the world will now tell you that the way I was treated is plain good management, but to me it's more a matter of how you live your life. Do you display kindness or rudeness? Do you offer help or criticism? Do you bring hope or despair? I pray child support offices all over this country will choose to treat people at every level as I was treated in the Bush office. I want us to be what government should be.

Date[12-1991] Source[Child Support Report]

Title[OCSE Proposes Extending Federal Income Tax Refund Offset Process]

On November 18, 1991, OCSE published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register (FR 56, No. 222, 58205) to extend indefinitely the use of the federal income tax refund offset process in non-AFDC cases. The proposed rule implements three section's of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1990 (P.L 100-508) revising section 303.72.

The proposal would also allow use of the federal offset for non-AFDC cases where support is due (1) on behalf of certain disabled adults with a current support order and (2) on behalf of a spouse when the custodial parent is living with the child, and spousal support is included with child support in the same order.

Finally, the proposed rule revises 303.21 governing the safeguarding of information. It would permit disclosure to the appropriate agency or official information about an applicant or recipient of IV-D services that involves known or suspected instances of mental or physical injury, sexual abuse or exploitation, or negligent treatment of a child receiving AFDC.

Date[12-1991] Source[Child Support Report]

Title[Vermont Passes Omnibus Child Support Legislation]

Vermont has a comprehensive new law addressing many features of its child support enforcement program to conform to federal law and add specific enhancements.

In effect since July 1990, the law addressees such issues as acknowledging parentage at a child's birth and requiring affidavits of child support compliance for those applying for professional and occupational licenses. The law also includes an unusual requirement that support arrears continue to be withheld from wages even after the child attains majority or is emancipated.

Universal immediate wage withholding is also the law in Vermont, and notable increases in collections have been the result. Total collections from wage withholdings in 1991 were 40 percent higher than in 1990. For more information, contact IV-D Director Jeff Cohen, 802-241-2319.