State of Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services
Don Jordan, Secretary
Integrated Service Delivery - Candy Shively, Deputy Secretary (785) 296-3271
Economic and Employment Support - Bobbi Mariani, Director (785) 296-3349
....Enriching lives today and tomorrow

MEMORANDUM

In October, 2009 Central Office notified staff of changes in child support budgeting and issued an implementation memo on September 17, 2009 instructing staff on how to count child support arrears.

Staff had also been advised a report would be generated on TAF cases due for a review or an IR review. We now have the capability to create this report and are re-issuing the implementation instructions previously provided on September 17, 2009.

This report will be sent to the regions each month.

Report Overview:

The report will be generated on TAF cases where at least one actual payment was forwarded to the customer during the most recent prior three months. Cases where all child support payments during this time period were retained by the state will not be included on these reports. This report will be available the 3rd week of the month.

The report is titled “TAF cases due for (review month) with child support sent to family, CS amounts listed were dispersed in XX/10, XX/10, and XX/10”. Information will be sorted by caseload number and AR name. Payments will be organized by child, dispersal month, and collection date. Collection type will be listed after each payment type. Collection types include the following:

AFC – State retained, current support
NAC – Sent to family, current support
AFA – State retained, arrears
NAA – Sent to family, arrears

Child support retained by the state is only used in prospective budgeting. Current support and arrears payments are budgeted using guidance from KEESM sections 6220, 6410 and 7125.

Food Assistance, Successful Families and Child Care

1. Because of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, Child Support Enforcement was instructed to begin distributing past due child support (arrears) to the TAF customer. Assignment of child support continues, however, the state will no longer retain collected past due support owed to the custodial parent prior to TAF approval. Current support will be retained by the state, and current child support budgeting policies have not changed.
   
   This policy change is effective on all TAF cases opened/approved October 1, 2009 and after. Case workers will need to budget arrearage payments as per KEESM sections 6220, 6410 and 7125.
   
   TAF Application:
   
   When a TAF application is received, the EES case manager explores current child support payments via the KANSAS AUTOMATED ELIGIBILITY AND CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM (if there is an open SRS child support case). Any child support payment made in the month of application prior to approval is counted in its entirety, with a code of CS RE on the UNIN screen. Any current support anticipated for the remainder of the month is counted as CS EX on the UNIN screen. If an arrearage payment is anticipated, code it separately on UNIN on a separate line as CS CO.

   
   Example: Jenny B. Jones and her three children apply for TAF and food assistance on October 4, 2009. Jenny receives current child support of $75 a month, and receives $25 a month for the $10,000 arrears that is owed. The EES case worker receives all verification and is ready to approve the TAF and Food assistance case on October 15. The case manager reviews the PACC screen and notes Jenny received $50.00 on October 8th and usually receives the second child support payment on the 22nd of the month. Since there has been a child support payment made prior to TAF approval, the case manager budgets the $50.00 on UNIN as CS RE. The second payment is anticipated and is budgeted as CS EX. The past due support is averaged for the last 3 months and is budgeted as CS CO on the second line on the UNIN screen. Future months will budget current support as CS EX and averaged arrears as CS CO. Once the arrears are averaged, this projected amount can continue to be budgeted until the next IR (if there is a food assistance case) or review. During the next IR or review, average the arrearage payments (provided there are three full months of child support to average).
   
   Example: Kathy has an open food assistance case with her two children. Kathy lost her job and is applying for TAF in October 2009. The boys’ father pays current child support and arrears. This income has been averaged and budgeted for food assistance. Kathy has been on TAF previously. When TAF was approved, a bi-weekly child support payment had been made. Code this payment as OO so it will be counted for the TAF benefit and change the current CS CO coding to OF so the food assistance case will not be adjusted. Code the expected second bi-weekly child support payment CS EX. Because Kathy has received TAF assistance previously, contact with CSE will be required to determine if the arrears payment will continue to be paid to Kathy or will be assigned to the state. If Kathy continues to be owed the arrearages, average the last three months of payments and code them separately as OO in the month of application.

   On-going cases, Reviews and IR’s:
   
   TAF customers are to report if the amount of unearned income being counted increases or decreases by more than $50 per month. Once a customer reports receipt of child support arrearages, the case manager will need to determine if this income will continue, and if so, will prospect anticipated arrears payments for TAF and food assistance. Contact with CSE may be required.
   
   During all TAF reviews and IR’s (when there is an open TAF assistance case), a report will be sent to each region of any child support arrearage payments received in the preceding three months. This report will contains payments by child, date disbursed and the amount sent. The EES case manager will need to explore if the payment is a countable payment by reviewing PACC and PAYR via the KANSAS AUTOMATED ELIGIBILITY AND CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM. Child support arrearage payments can be identified by the following on PACC: Distribution code (ACS), Distribution method (warrant), debit ($ amount), and warrant number. Occasionally, some payments identified as ACS will need to be excluded from the arrearage average. These payments may be debt set-off payments and can be identified by a ‘S’ or ‘F’ on the PAYR screen. This process is being enhanced to provide staff information on TAF cases that may be receiving child support arrearages.

Please address any questions to Judy Kennedy, at 785-296-2968 or Judy.Kennedy@srs.ks.gov.