A solution for child support payment mail

Processing child support payments and disbursing funds to families is important, time- sensitive work requiring proven automated processes and an experienced project team. In January, ACS State and Local Solutions completed the implementation of the largest child support payment processing project startup in the country in Ohio. The Child Support Payment Central project will handle more than $1.8 billion in collections and mail about 10 million checks and 2 million direct deposits annually for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The federally mandated centralization of child support SDUs (State Disbursement Units) requires rapid turn around of all support payments. As the premier provider of these services, Dallas-based ACS now operates 16 SDUs and processes about 55% of all the support payments in the country. Unlike the retail processing of coupons, child support is noted for the non-standard character of the mail received for processing. Because of the large number of payments made by employers through income withholding (about 70%) and the fact that most payments come from the accounts payable system of the employer, the mail received for processing can be considered 75-80% non-standard. Beginning in the mail room, the equipment and processes must be oriented to the exceptional character of the mail.