Massachusetts and California are two additional states that are focusing on the issue of undistributed collections. Some of the strategies they are implementing are included below.
The newly created California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) established a UDC Initiative in mid-2000 to determine the accurate undistributed collections amount for each of its 58 local agencies and to direct efforts to reduce monies owed families. This included conducting sufficient research necessary to identify nine categories of undistributed collections, beginning local agency ad hoc reporting of undistributed amounts by category in March 2001, and issuing instructions and requirements for working each category. Monthly ad hoc reporting continued thorough June 2002 permitting DCSS to monitor trends and progress by agency in working each category. Since July 2002, undistributed collections reporting by category occurs through automated systems using a monthly supplemental reporting form to the OCSE 34A. As a result, local agency staff focused attention on undistributed collections and have reduced amounts owed to families.
When California began its UDC Initiative, it also allocated funding to its 58 local child support agencies necessary to work the categories of undistributed collections. A total of almost $20 million was allocated beginning in State Fiscal Year 2001-2002 to establish local agency Program Improvement Teams to provide an ongoing and ready resource to address issues such as reducing undistributed collections. Over time, the Program Improvement Teams have also addressed other program performance improvements including uniform implementation of case closure policy, elimination of duplicate cases, and data reliability.
California recently issued its Strategic Plan for 2002-2005 for the statewide child support services program and included a specific objective to address undistributed collections. The objective is to timely distribute collections ensuring that no more than one percent of total collections due to parents and families are undistributed at any time. The Strategic Plan was developed in collaboration with child support professionals, customers, and other stakeholders. Involving stakeholders in development of the Strategic Plan, as well as the UDC Initiative, has been a key element in the success of the California effort.
In addition, California has integrated oversight of undistributed collections into its Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) – the statewide approach to performance oversight and improvement. A key element of QAPI is management of performance through data, and statewide undistributed collections data are included in quarterly comparative reports issued to all local agencies by the State. This approach has served to keep focused attention on the management of undistributed collections.
California has added aging by six time periods to its undistributed collections categorical reporting process. The categories of undistributed collections are agency by 1-30 days, 31-60 days, 61-90 days, 91-180 days, 181 days to 2 years, and over 2 years. The aging of undistributed collections permits better monitoring and early identification of problem areas. Automated reports by local agency are available monthly on the DCSS secure website, permitting state oversight and local agency comparisons.
In order to be able to efficiently work undistributed money, staff needs to know the reasons that money is being held. When Massachusetts undertook its undistributed collections project, it found that it needed better reports to more clearly understand the reasons that money was not disbursing. With about 40 different codes that identified various reasons that money was being held, it had the information on the system that it needed, but the information wasn’t organized into a useful format.
One of the state’s Undistributed Collection Team’s first tasks was to create reports that organized this information and helped team members see the areas that needed work. As a result of this work, staff can tell how many cases are in each category and the amount of undistributed collections in each category. The reports can also show staff how long undistributed collections have been held.
About a year ago Massachusetts set up an interdisciplinary team within its Child Support Enforcement (CSE) section to reduce undistributed collections. Team members included staff from a cross section of CSE’s organization, including field operations, customer services, IT, and central office management and finance staff. It also added new staff and assigned several staff members to work full time on this project.
The team has begun to make progress in reducing undistributed collections. Undistributed collections for custodial parents have been reduced by $4 million. The reason for its success is that it has taken a methodical and structured approach toward solving this problem. Team members set specific goals and assign tasks to meet these goals. They meet regularly to assess progress assign tasks. Weekly and monthly reports help them measure how well they are doing. Involvement of both central office and field staff on the team has been crucial to the progress made so far.
As described above, Massachusetts has set up an interdisciplinary undistributed collection team to reduce these collections. The team’s success has been based on establishing goals, measuring the progress made toward achieving the goals, and constantly evaluating the work that has been done and needs to be done. Management focus on these goals and communicating this focus to staff at all levels will determine the future success of this undertaking.
States have used the internet to make it easy for custodial parents to enroll in direct deposit. Massachusetts has even made it possible for customers to apply for direct deposit online. Customers may set up, change, or cancel direct deposit simply by logging on to the system and providing the information requested. Massachusetts hopes to make 20 percent of its payments through direct deposit by the end of this fiscal year.