Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 13, 1994 TAG: 9404130018
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If it would draw attention to the problems she has had getting her child support checks on time, so be it, Hall said.
The power company was threatening to cut off electricity. The landlord had issued an eviction notice.
"What would you do?" Hall asked.
She'd been to the support enforcement office in Roanoke, the Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement in Richmond, Gov. George Allen's office, as well as that of Sen. Charles Robb.
"I've just been pulling my hair out,"she said.
The problem was not in Hall's ex-husband's failure to pay. His payments have, for the most part, rolled in twice a month like clockwork. And she had verified with authorities in Evansville, Ind., where her ex-husband lives, that he sent a check for $250 on March 2 and one for $287.50 on March 15.
The problem, she contended, was with the state enforcement division - specifically, the division's conversion to a new computer system.
The $4.8 million project was so extensive that the division shut down the system - clogged with more than 300,000 cases - during the first week of March.
The division receives $3.5 million daily in payments and processes an average of 6,800 payments a day. The new computer system was designed to streamline the payment process, easing case backlogs.
The division never promised that problems would be eased overnight. One division official said last month that with a case volume as huge as Virginia's, relief would not be instant.
Hall's case was rare, officials said.
Ford Greer, program specialist with the western regional office of the enforcement division in Abingdon, said shutting the system down for a week may have caused a brief check delay. The department had received a few complaints similar to Hall's but "I don't think it's been any heavier than normal," Greer said.
But for Hall - a 30-year-old mother of two who relies heavily on child support payments - the absence or delay of checks means walking a fine line between self-sufficiency and welfare.
She receives food stamps. Federal housing assistance covers two-thirds of the rent. She tried working a $5-an-hour job but child care took too big a chunk of her paychecks.
Hall entered Virginia Western Community College full time several years ago, as a participant in Project Self-Sufficiency, a program of Roanoke's Department of Social Services that helps people who receive public assistance move into economic independence through education and job training.
To continue receiving her federal student loan, Hall can only earn so much, she says. And without her child support checks, she is literally cash poor.
Suzanne Bell, case manager for Project Self-Sufficiency participants, said that child support is the sole cash income for three of her 50 clients.
`'If they don't have it, it's really difficult for them," Bell said. "When it doesn't come in, they don't have anything."
Hall's child support is just slightly more than what she would receive were she on welfare. She says she has been told more than once in the past month to join the welfare rolls because she hadn't received her child support checks.
"They're telling me to just go down and get public aid," Hall said. "I don't want to. Why should a single mother of two leech off the public because [the Division of Child Support Enforcement] can't do their job?"
The child support enforcement office in Richmond did express-mail Hall a $250 emergency payment from its petty cash funds on March 25 after she made a desperate, last-ditch plea for her money.
The $287.50 check was located last week. The division reimbursed itself the $250 emergency payment it had made to Hall and sent her the remaining $37.50. Hall complained. The division gave her the full amount.
Division officials have been unable to explain the $250 check. It did turn up at the Evansville child support enforcement office last week - cashed, though not by Hall, she says.
"I know I can't be the only one," she said. "It isn't just me. I'm sure there are plenty of others. I am very assertive. I do not hold back. A lot of women are probably sitting there in silence."
The system is not perfect, says Leon Alder, regional administrator for the enforcement division's western regional office.
Alder would like to see improvement in payment turnaround time. And the division could use additional staff, possibly privatization, in which a private company would handle payment processing, he says.
"We don't want anyone falling through the cracks," Alder said.
by CNB