New Web site will improve child support collections

Millions more in child support to be collected under new system

The Missouri Department of Social Services is using a new website to make it easier to collect child support payments from non-custodial parents.

The website can be found at www.missouriemployer.dss.mo.gov.

"Every Missouri child deserves to be cared and provided for," said Department of Social Services Director Ron Levy. "When a parent fails to meet their basic financial responsibility, we must make sure we're using the best tools available to get those resources to the child. By making it easier for employers to collect child support from a paycheck, we can help those parents with custody put food on their child's table and a roof over their heads."

When a Missouri company hires a new employee who owes child support, that company is required by federal and state law to report that person's employment to the state within 20 calendar days. Previously, this reporting process relied heavily on paperwork and manual data entry. This process was complicated by the fact that little outreach was made to those employers who had hired people owing child support.

This new system aims to eliminate redundancies, reduce paperwork, avoid errors, speed up withholdings processing and allow employers to more easily notify the state of new hires and terminations. It is estimated that this new system will increase child support collections by $7.8 million by the end of fiscal year 2012.

The company hired to facilitate this new website, Policy Studies Inc., will be locating in Missouri and hiring local workers.

"Employers are a vital partner in child support enforcement because nearly 70 percent of all child support nationwide is collected through income withholding," explains Mike Henry, a senior vice president at Policy Studies Inc. "Based on our experience processing nearly 40 percent of the nation's new hire reports, PSI designed the Missouri Employer Reporting Services Web site to facilitate faster and easier communication between employers and the state's child support agencies."

New hire reporting is mandated by the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act and by Missouri statute. New hire information received from employers is entered into a statewide registry and transmitted to the National Directory of New Hires. This data is then used to locate non-custodial parents who have been ordered to pay child support and to direct their employers to withhold money from their paycheck for child support.