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State Stashes Child Support Checks Because Of Errors, Clunky System

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 26, 2008

Over the last nine years, Florida's Department of Revenue has banked about $31 million in child support payments never delivered.

And despite a recent federal audit, there appears to be little sense of urgency for getting the money to the kids who need it. Instead, the department says that when a new computer system is installed in three years, the problem should get solved.

Come on, folks. Children need the support now.

Much of the banked money - more than $18 million - came from child-support checks never cashed. The rest came from case-management confusion - a common surname, a missing case number - that keeps payments in limbo.

After the audit by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the department got to work on finding people and delivered about $3 million to the rightful owners. The department is addressing the backlog, says Ann Coffin, the state's director of child support enforcement.

Yet the agency is so bogged down by bureaucracy that it appears incapable of solving problems when automated systems fail.

Currently, the department's computer system scans state databases for names that match those on the unclaimed child-support list. But when it finds a match, rather than picking up the phone, it turns to another bureaucracy - the U.S. Postal Service - to confirm the address is valid.

One can only imagine how much time is wasted with all this paper shuffling. One time, when the automated generation of letters to the postal service broke down, no one even noticed.

When we asked why the department doesn't simply contact families itself, department officials said they hadn't thought of that.

People who think they might be due money can check the list themselves online at http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/childsupport/.

Unfortunately, they will have to navigate the customer service center, which is a mess. The Daytona Beach News-Journal recently reported that it can take extended waits and multiple disconnections to reach someone by telephone, hardly a family-friendly process. The revenue department promises customer service will improve, too, when the new computer system arrives.

Florida should make it a priority to get child support payments to the families that deserve them. It could begin by demonstrating more initiative and more detective work.

Since Florida made itself the middleman in delivering child support payment, it has an obligation to deliver.

Instead, it has allowed complacency to get in the way. And children are paying the price.

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