Legal Authority:
- 43 O.S. § 112 A.3. Care, Custody, and Support of Minor Children
- OAC 340:25-5-140. (d) & ITS 5. Past support
- OAC 340:25-5-140.1. (m) & ITS 11. Interest
CSS conducted an Arrears Reduction Campaign (ARC) 24 month pilot in the Central Region to compromise state debt balances which began in April 2018. After review of the ARC pilot results, CSS Standing Management Team concluded that the pilot was successful and state debt compromise is now available to all offices.
Existing law and policy authorize this practice of state debt compromise. Refer to Legal Authority above.
A brief Training Guide of our criteria and process is in development and will be coming soon.
PILOT SUMMARY:
The pilot was hosted by the Ponca City and the South OKC offices which gave non-custodial parents a financial incentive to make agreed-to payments. This is sometimes known as the dollar-for-dollar matching project. Both offices used the same agreed-upon criteria for NCP participation.
The general goals of the project were:
- NCP becomes a regular payer.
- NCP’s debt is paid in full.
- CP becomes less dependent on public assistance.
- If the NCP is unemployed or underemployed, he/she will participate in a jobs development program. In Ponca City, the office will use Workforce. In South OKC there is a specialized staff member skilled in Workforce-type activities for their customers.
Types of cases to be targeted (efforts will be made to have equal representation of cases from each category):
- CP currently on state benefits or has been on state benefits in the past
- NCP is employed, but not paying the full payment plan amount. If the case does not have a payment plan, one will be established.
- NCP employment is not known or he/she is self-employed and he/she is not currently paying regularly.
- The only payments being received are from tax offsets or FIDM actions.
Payment matching guidelines:
- Match dollar for dollar on any lump sum payment from NCP’s in the program.
- Match dollar for dollar on payments made from NCP’s in the program during an agreed period of time (normally 6 months) on arrearages. If current support is owed, NCP must make both current and agreed arrears payments for the duration of the agreement. At the conclusion of the period, the arrearage payments will be matched dollar for dollar.
All matched funds will be from state arrears unless there is a signed agreement by the CP to match funds owed to her.