The Federal Case Registry (FCR) is a national database that includes all child support cases handled by state child support agencies (referred to as IV-D cases), and all support orders established or modified on or after October 1, 1998 (referred to as non IV-D orders). It assists states in locating parties that live in different states to establish, modify, or enforce child support obligations; establish paternity; enforce state law regarding parental kidnapping; and, establish or enforce child custody or visitation determinations.
When a state sends the FCR information about persons in a new case or child support order, this new information is automatically compared to existing person information in the FCR. If matches are found, the FPLS notifies all appropriate state child support enforcement agencies of the record match. In this way, a state will know if another state has a case or support order with participants in common with them, and can take appropriate action. The data in the FCR is also compared to the employment data in the National Directory of New Hires.
FCR automatically provides unsolicited locate information on both NCPs and CPs included in IV‐D and Non‐IV‐D cases to other states. The case and each person may be “accepted,” “rejected,” “pended,” or “deleted.” A case must have at least one adult’s verified SSN to be “accepted.” A person must have at least a complete name and date of birth to be “accepted.”
Cases are referred to FCR automatically at case initiation and when certain data is updated. This new and updated information is passed on to states on a daily basis. Some returned information updates screens in OSIS automatically, but much information received through FCR must be viewed for manual updates to a case.
When you check the FCRL screen (IMS): Type code of any field that has a recent ‘Dte of Data’ entry. Each time you check this, select “F5” to reset for flag. The CSML screen will show if new FCR info has been received since you last reset the flag.
- NH – New Hire List from employers
- QW – Quarterly Wage List from employers
- UI – Unemployment
- DEF – D.O.D. Locate Response List
- FBI – FBI Locate Response List
- FED – Federal Agencies Locate Response List
- IRS – Internal Revenue Service Information (never print)
- SSA – Social Security Information
- VA – Veterans Information
- OS – Other State response
- FIDM – Bank Account Data Match
- PSN – Prison/Jail match (may not be current)
- WCC – Worker Compensation Claim information
- PI – Personal Injury Claim information
It is important to routinely check the FCR screen, and especially when no SSN has been recorded on a case. This screen will show whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) has verified a SSN shown for any party on the case.
When a SSN is verified through the FCR/SSA matching process, you will see the message “VERIFIED AS SUBMITTED” in the FCR SSN STATUS field. You may see different SSNs in the OK SSN and FCR SSN fields with this message. This is an indication there are multiple SSNs on DCHG for that person. (See the NOTE below.) If the match is not exact, the FCR SSN STATUS field will display “COULD NOT BE VERIFIED.” This occurs more frequently for females who are more prone to name changes due to marriage or divorce. In instances where no SSN is shown for a party, the person was accepted with a name and date of birth and SSA finds an exact match, the SSN appears in the FCR SSN field and the FCR SSN STATUS message is “IDENTIFIED BY ESKARI.” These numbers must be manually added to the case.
Two reports that aid in assuring SSNs are accurate on cases are available on CMOD. These are the FCR Errors and Warning Report (CX486R01) and the Corrected FCR SSN Report (CX487R01).
- The FCR Errors and Warnings Report (CX486R01) includes, but is not limited to, the FGNs submitted to the FCR that do not contain a SSN.
- The Corrected FCR SSN Report (CX487R01) is produced to alert workers to the presence of duplicate SSNs for case members on OSIS. When FCR returns a new or different SSN for the person than shown in OSIS, there is a possibility the SSN returned is already assigned to another person on the system. This report will display the situations where that occurs.
These reports both run weekly, are organized by office and worker, and are sorted by NCP’s last name. Because correct SSNs impact most of the automated processes in OSIS, it is very important to check these reports regularly.
When death information is received from FCR (see DT OF DEATH field in screen print above), OSIS automatically updates the DATE OF DEATH field on DCHG and posts a case log message, “DEATH RECORD RECEIVED FOR FGN.” Since FCR receives death information from the Social Security Administration on all “accepted” members of a case, check the DATE OF DEATH field on the FCR screens for a date corresponding to the case log posting to determine which participant is deceased. 99/99/99 in the DATE OF DEATH field is an indication that SSA has rescinded the death record.
If you want to learn more, see the CS Quest article Locate Procedures, or the case registry article on the AFS website.