OH - More state child support snafus

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County: More state child support snafus By Mike Rutledge, Post staff reporter

Gov. Bob Taft announced Friday that the beleaguered Ohio Department of Job and Family Services had mailed out $1.14 million that was improperly withheld from child support payments in 8,300 cases statewide.

But county officials say many of those payments are going to the wrong people.

''They are going to make payments to people who don't really deserve it,'' said one area county official who did not want to be named. ''This is all about speed rather than accuracy,'' the official said, adding records are in disarray and many are inaccurate.

''Certainly, we can't guarantee that it's 100 percent (accurate),'' Job and Family Servic es spokesman Jon Allen said Friday.

''They've told us they are erring to the up-side,'' said Geraldine Jensen, president of the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support. ''If there is a doubt, they're giving it back.

''Wouldn't it just be wonderful if they could do it both quickly and accurately?'' she said , adding that she remains concerned that many people who are due the payments will not receive the m.

The department has been plagued with problems from the start of the federally-mandated centralized child support system instituted statewide in October. Parents and county officials have complained of late or incorrect payments, lack of response to problems and inaccurate payme nt records. The problems led to the resignation this month of department head Jacqui Romersensky.

The payments announced Friday are to welfare recipients from whom the state improperly withhe ld a portion of their child support checks. The state faces a sizeable federal penalty for the mistake.

State officials conceded Friday that its computers will continue to over-withdraw money from the accounts of former Ohio Works First welfare recipients until repairs are completed later thi s fall.

''Today's mailing of arrearage checks gets $1.14 million in child support payments to the fami lies and children entitled to them,'' Taft said in a statement announcing the mailings.

''I am pleased that we are making progress in correcting the system.''

The checks cover money the state withheld from families in 8,300 cases from October through January. Late next week, the state intends to mail checks to families owed money from February.< p> Ms. Jensen's organization has sued state officials for withholding too much money for state coffers.

Roughly $5 million more will be returned once the state determines which families are owed money from October 1997 to September 2000.

''That's the next thing that we're working on,'' Allen said. He said a team of state offi cials, county Child Support Enforcement Agency workers and child support advocates will identify which families are owed money from that period.

The state in September also will send checks for interest people would have earned on the mone y, at a rate of 8 percent for 2000 and 9 percent for 2001, Allen said. Checks will be sent only to those owed $10 or more in interest.

Anyone who does not receive payments they feel they are owed can call (800) 686-1556, Allen said.

Ms. Jensen doesn't want poor families who live paycheck-to-paycheck to have to repay the mo ney if it is inappropriately mailed to them: ''People will buy groceries and people will eat the groceries. You can't really repay that.''

http://www.cincypost.com/2001/mar/10/sets031001.html

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), March 10, 2001


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