Child support enforcement agency to lose $8 million in funding in ‘07

Kris WiseDaily Mail staff Tuesday September 12, 2006
The state agency charged with enforcing child support payments in West Virginia will lose $8 million next year from the federal government, further tightening the belt of an office already facing an increasing caseload and static staffing levels.

Changes in the way child support recipients receive their payments -- they now come through automated debit card accounts -- have increased the number of questions and phone calls the Bureau for Child Support Enforcement gets on a daily basis, although the number of employees hasn't moved much above 450 in the past six or seven years.

The number of active child support cases in West Virginia also is on the rise from the past decade, with the state helping process payments for about 117,800 families this year. More than 130,000 families receive some sort of help from the office, and child support collection rose last year to $178 million, up $13 million from 2004.

The state also helped administer 5,170 paternity tests last year for families who were looking to secure child support payments but needed genetic confirmation about a parent.

The funding formula changed for those tests, too, and the state's portion increased this year. The federal government once paid 90 percent of the cost of genetic testing; it now pays less than 67 percent, and the state has to pick up the rest of the tab.

The formula change adds an extra $50,000 to the state budget this year.

Starting in 2007, the federal government also is revoking one source of extra money that the bureau has counted on for several years to make up almost one third of its annual budget.
The bureau's $30 million budget consists of one-third state funds and two-thirds matching money from the federal government.

Next year a $4 million performance-based bonus that the government typically awards to the West Virginia bureau no longer will be eligible to receive matching federal funds.

Usually the state can count on drawing down an extra $8 million in matching money from that $4 million bonus, for a total of $12 million. With the federal government trying to shave spending in certain sectors, it's no longer going to match the bonus pot.

Jacobs said the $8 million budget loss next year would likely send bureau officials to the state Legislature to ask lawmakers to look at funding changes.

The money goes into the bureau's regular budget, helping pay staff salaries, operate child support programs and upgrade office equipment.

"We're in the initial stages of trying to figure out what affect it will have and what we will do," said Garrett Jacobs, deputy commissioner for the bureau. "No decisions have been made about cutting back on positions or services at this time."

The federal funding cuts were part of a nationwide $1.6 billion savings measure passed by Congress in December.

The move will shrink a budget that was already reduced by $1 million on the state level this year because the bureau renegotiated some program contracts to try and trim expenses.
"We are definitely not an agency that is overstaffed," Jacobs said Monday. "There are improvements we could make with more staff, and whether the state feels that would be beneficial or not is up to them. We are always getting more calls than we have customer service agents. We don't have enough staff to handle the magnitude of calls we get."

Less than two years ago, the state for the first time began processing child support payments through debit accounts.

The bureau received a spate of criticisms from some of the families they served, who called the new payment process confusing and less efficient.

Jacobs said the bureau's state and county offices were temporarily flooded with calls about the program, but the pace of questions has slowed.

"The biggest issue we had when we rolled it out...was a lot of people just weren't used to using a debit card," Jacobs said. "They were either unbanked or they didn't have a debit card. Once we got them used to it, it was a smoother transition."

Funding changes for the bureau take effect in July. The Legislature will approve next year's budget in March.

Contact writer Kris Wise at kriswise@dailymail.com or 348-1244.