enforcement strategies for long term delinquent cases
TRANSCRIPT
Enforcement Strategies for Long
Term Delinquent Cases
Long-Term Delinquent Team(LTD)
Renee CruzSupervising Child Support Specialist
Ramona MitchellChild Support Specialist
Solano County
The Proposal
■Identify Enforcement and Interstate cases that have not received a payment on arrears.
■Develop a plan to obtain payments.
The Pilot
64%
36%
Interstate2 Journey CSS's428 cases/CSS
Interstate High Priority
79%
21%
Enforcement Team 1
2 Journey CSS (1 English & 1 Spanish)
499 cases/CSS
ENF 1 Non-Paying/Locate
InterstateHigh Priority Team Results
ICT/Ex-Parte Transfer
Tax Intercept
Current Payment
Closed
OEX/Contempt
Arrears Payment
0 50 100 150 200 250
21
34
49
53
105
224
856 Cases
October to April total collections: $67,674 As of September 2013
Total Collections: $285,268 76% increase in 6 months
Affect on Department Performance Measures
0.3% increase on current support (FPM 3)
1.7% increase on arrears payment (FPM 4)
InterstateHigh Priority Team Results
EnforcementNon-Paying/Locate Team Results
UIFSA
OSC Contempts
Incarcerated
Stipulations
COAP
R&A
Closed
Located
0 20 40 60 80 100120140160180
6
6
13
20
39
44
77
163
998 Cases
Total collections for FFY 2013: $3,162 As of May 2014
Total Collections: $150,420 76% increase in 6 months
Affect on Department Performance Measures
0.2% increase on current support (FPM 3)
1.1% increase on arrears payment (FPM 4)
EnforcementNon-Paying/Locate Team Results
The Long-Term Delinquent (LTD) Team
Current Statistics
As of Collections on Current
Collection on Arrears
October 2014 $28,351 $85,310
November 2014 $25,269 $52,940
December 2014 $28,646 $99,342
January 2015 $21,182 $32,954
February 2015 $21,417 $45,206
Total collections: $439,617
Miscellaneous
Desk Guide• Transfer cases between Units
Freeform Letters• Hand-Off • SLMS Offer • Manual Suspension
Outbound DialersPostcards
Know your case
Know the history of your case Review activity log Case type Payment history Account types
How can we move case forward? Have an action plan
Know your LTD NP
Learn as much as you can about NP
NP circumstances Call CP NP employment history NP earning potential NP license status Utilize all locate sources
Wake up your case
Reach out to NP Call NP Send a freeform letter Use outbound dialer Follow up with NP
Be a support person for LTD NP
Hold their hand
Always answer the telephone Provide direct contact information Respond to messages or inquiries ASAP Educate NP about their case Smile and be conscious of your tone Confirm and honor agreements Secure payments
Give NP incentive to pay
Win – Win Offer SLMS release Negotiate a lesser payment COAP candidate? Just Ask!
Renee Cruz, Supervising Child Support Specialist
Solano [email protected]
707-784-3685
Ramona Mitchell, Child Support SpecialistSolano County
Enforcement Processes
Jennifer Rexford
Child Support Services Supervisor
Sonoma County
Special Enforcement Review
What is a Special Enforcement Review (SER)?
■SER is a alternative enforcement action conducted within office or via telephone call✷ Formal appointment notice is sent to the
NCP✷ Interrogatories are attached to the letter
and reviewed during the scheduled appointment
Special Enforcement Review
Special Enforcement Review
During scheduled appointment✷ Caseworker will review with NCP reason for
delinquency✷ Agreement acknowledging court order
terms
Caseworker to monitor compliance with SER agreement
Special Enforcement Review
Sonoma County SER Highlights 2013/2014 FFY✷ December 2013 caseworkers began scheduling
appointments• 153 NCP’s appeared for appointments• 148 NCP’s conducted phone appointments
✷ Locate, asset and employment information was obtained
✷ Modifications were initiated to obtain appropriate orders
✷ $35,194 in first time payments were collected as a result of the SER appointment letters being issued
Order for Examination of Judgment Debtor
What is a Order for Examination of Judgment Debtor (OEX)?
■OEX is a enforcement remedy used to discover assets and income under oath when other routine discovery actions are unsuccessful✷ During the OEX hearing
• OEX is conducted by an LCSA representative under the supervision of an attorney
Order of Examination of Judgment Debtor
Sonoma County OEX Highlights 2013/2014 FFY
✷ Sonoma County had an average show rate of 27%
✷ Of the NCPs that showed 86% of them made a payment
✷ Sonoma County average monthly collection was $1,104
Project Urgent
What is a Project Urgent?
■Project Urgent is a strategy used to increase collections by implementing a special mailing that targets cases with 120+ days of delinquency✷ Caseworkers worked a report of cases that
were 120 days or more delinquent
Project Urgent
Jennifer Rexford
Child Support Services Supervisor
Sonoma County
Jennifer Rexford
Child Support Services Supervisor
Sonoma County
Example of envelope sent to NCP
Project Urgent
Sonoma County Project Urgent Highlights 2013/2014 FFY✷ April 2014 caseworkers were given an
initial report that contained 748 cases to be reviewed• Additional cases were identified during our
review period of April 2014 - September 2014 as a result 681 letters were mailed out
• 152 cases made payments
✷ $14,175 in first time payments were collected a result of this targeted mailing
Investigative Task Force
Team (ITF)
Shamara McFarlandSupervising Child Support Officer
Los Angeles
Enforcement and Collections
A general perspective of the enforcement and collection of child support is that Child Support agencies tend to function as a hybrid of services.
■The Hybrid of Services Model:
Customer Service Social Service Collections
LOCATE EFFORTS
A particular focus of collections is long term debt. Long term debt requires specific strategies to increase collections. These strategies include to a large extend Locate Efforts.
In general, the scope of the Locate Efforts falls into three categories:
Locate NCP (e.g. phone number, address)Locate Income (e.g. employer, self-employment)Locate Assets (e.g. retirement benefits, properties)
STRATEGIES
Two MAIN COMPONENTS to surmise the locate efforts:
I. Holistic Case ReviewII. Ongoing Staff Training
HOLISTIC CASE REVIEW
Thorough and comprehensive case review to guide the determination of
what actions to take in each case. This strategy maximizes the use of databases and applications.
HOLISTIC CASE REVIEW
METHODOLOGIES and components of Holistic Case:
A. Full case review on each case worked
B. Maximum uses of the existing locate tools
C. Completion of tasks
D. Utilize CMT
E. Teamwork
METHODOLOGIES…..Full Case Review
o Full case review on each case worked: no matter the reason for working or reviewing the case.
o Maximum uses of the existing locate tools:
CLEAR, Accurint, CITRIX, DMV, YODA, SOMS, MEDS, FACEBOOK, LEADER, CWS LITE, THE WORK NUMBER, and various city, county, and state websites.
o Completion of tasks: relating to CP contacting CSSD, deceased participants, change in earnings/income information for NCPs.
i. Types of Tasks: Tasks associated with
possible: CM126, CM124, PM023, PM025, CM104 and PM028.
ii. Purpose: to review for appropriate case closures, to clean up caseload and reduce the denominator (improve FPMs).
METHODOLOGIES.…….Tasks
METHODOLOGIES…...Case Management Tool
o Utilize CMT to monitor or follow-up and to
manage the caseload.
A. Specific examples of use of the CMT:
i. Sorting CMT by date of birth (oldest participants may be deceased).
ii. Sorting the CMT by date of birth to find cases where the NCP might be receiving SSA in order to send an Income Withholding Order.
iii. Sorting by the highest arrears balances or foster care to review the accounts to determine if audits are necessary because sometimes those balances converted incorrectly from the ARS.
METHODOLOGIES……..Teamwork
o Teamwork: help from each other. Each team member is encouraged to use each other as a resource.
Team members contribute to each other’s growth and development
through encouragement and sharing resources.
ONGOING STAFF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
GOALTo build the confidence, skills, and
knowledge of each CSO to maximize their implementation of
the child support policies and procedures in order to accomplish
their daily work.
ONGOING STAFF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Areas of focus for trainings:
I. Training staff on CSE and locate tools II. Negotiating TrainingIII. Team BuildingIV. Coaching and CounselingV. Processing Payments
ONGOING STAFF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
o Weekly trainings: COAP Referral, Audit Prep, Stipulations, CMT, Contempt, Locate Strategies, Social Security Benefits.
i. Results include: the CSOs are more
confident in communicating with the case participants and CSOs adjusted better to the new way of doing business.
TEAM BUILDING
A main strategy for staff training and development is TEAM BUILDING:
Evaluate the team as a whole and as individuals to determine current level of knowledge, skill sets, and individual professional goals.
TEAM BUILDING
Establish collaborative plans to determine how to meet the departmental goals, team goals, and project goals by setting short and long term goals.
TEAM BUILDING
Supervisor should continually evaluate staff’s knowledge and skills through quality control of daily work and observation.
Customized team trainings should be routinely developed and conducted based on the needs of the team members.
TEAM BUILDING
After department-wide or divisional trainings, supervisors should review the material in weekly briefings with staff
RESULTS USING THESE LOCATE EFFORTS
Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 May-14 Jun-14 Jul-14 Aug-14 Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-140
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
408
477
567596
628 630683
744774
825
892
Arrears Paid Cases
Paid Cases
RESULTS USING THESE LOCATE EFFORTS
2014-2015 (from 2/14 to 1/2015) Paid Cases
Paid Cases Paid AmountFeb-14 408 $ 83,835.13 Mar-14 477 $ 160,810.84 Apr-14 567 $ 258,644.07
May-14 596 $ 159,768.46 Jun-14 628 $ 168,223.53 Jul-14 630 $ 205,335.95
Aug-14 683 $ 112,727.38 Sep-14 744 $ 168,072.92 Oct-14 774 $ 142,500.02 Nov-14 825 $ 146,016.48 Dec-14 892 $ 156,202.20
Total arrears paid in 2014 (from 2/14 to 12/31/14): $1,762,136.98
QUESTIONS?
