OH - Child support checks late

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Child support checks late

By ED BALINT Repository staff writer

CANTON — Some Stark County residents still are receiving late child support checks and erroneous bills. Just ask Judy Albright and Marcy Rogers.

Last week, Albright panicked when she received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service saying she owes $23,600 in back child support.

Albright, 54, says she doesn’t owe a dime. She said she’s never had to pay support.

But if she doesn’t pay, the IRS can withhold her tax refund next year, the letter said.

“Who wants to get involved with the IRS?” Albright said. “I’m a nervous wreck. It’s like I really need this in my life, and, of course, it came before Christmas, so happy Christmas.”

Rogers, meanwhile, said she’s been waiting for her child support check since mid-December. The payment is at least a week behind schedule, she said.

“I have a mortgage due,” said the mother of four, “and I’m sure there’s tons more people around Stark County in the same boat, and I’m sure they’re even worse off than I am.”

Angry complaints are nothing new for Robert McDonald, deputy director of the Stark County Child Support Enforcement Agency.

For about a year, the agency has weathered the calls as it has converted child support cases to the federally mandated Support Enforcement Tracking System.

SETS and the state’s new centralized payment system are to blame for at least some of the problems, McDonald said.

Glitches have been occurring throughout the state, according to Jon Allen, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

“Two months into the centralized project, we are feeling as directors that things should be running more smoothly than they are at this time,” McDonald said. “There’s still problems ... that need to be corrected.”

But some of the snags may be preventable, McDonald said.

The Stark County agency no longer mails support checks. Payments should be mailed directly to Columbus, which routes the checks to recipients.

What once took a few days locally, McDonald said, now takes a week or more at the state level.

Allen said he believes the federal government has tried to use “a one-size-fits-all solution ... when there’s a problem in other states, but not here in Ohio.”

Obliges or employers that withhold child support also have to send the proper information to Columbus, McDonald and Allen said.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services tries to track glitches for local agencies, Allen said.

Meanwhile, residents like Albright have been shocked to receive letters saying they owe a load of child support.

The state sends the letters to anyone who is behind on child support by $150 or more. The IRS sends letters to those who owe at least $500 in back support, according to Allen.

During the SETS conversion, Stark County reviewed, cleaned up and re-entered about 25,000 child support cases. In the process, some incorrect balances and arrearages resulted.

In some instances, the Child Support Enforcement Agency has corrected the balances, but the state has used old information and sent letters with inaccurate arrearages, McDonald said.

“SETS is a good system,” McDonald said, “but we have a lot of work to do to adapt to it.”

Anyone with questions about erroneous balances or payments should contact the Child Support Enforcement Agency, McDonald said.

Residents with questions about balances should call (330) 451-8950.

Questions about child support payments should be directed to (330) 451-8994.

To check on the status of a payment, residents also can call an automated line at the Columbus SETS office at 1-800-860-2555.

McDonald said it can take several days for his staff to identify a problem.

Rogers and Albright say they’ve tried contacting the local and state offices, but have been left frustrated.

“We’re forced to use a system that’s not functional,” Rogers said, “and what bothers me is no one takes the responsibility to make the system functional.”

http://www.cantonrep.com/newstemplate_main.php?ID=50298&r=6

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), December 29, 2000

Answers

For about a year, the agency has weathered
the calls as it has converted child support
cases to the federally mandated Support
Enforcement Tracking System.


-- spider (spider0@usa.net), December 29, 2000.


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