“We are talking about errors by the state equaling billions of dollars and affecting hundreds of thousands of Missourians,” State Auditor Susan Montee said. “This affects families. This hurts children. This system is badly broken and the Department of Social Services needs to fix it.”

(JEFFERSON CITY, MO) – Today, Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee released an audit of the Department of Social Services, Family Support Division, Child Support Delinquencies. The audit identified serious problems in the tracking of child support payments.

The Department of Social Services, through its Family Support Division, oversees the collection of child support owed to custodial parents, and tracks the amount of unpaid child support. As of June 30, 2006, the division's computerized system showed approximately 240,000 child support cases had arrears totaling approximately $2.2 billion.

Incorrect arrears balances existed on approximately 27 percent of child support cases with arrears over $1,000, as of June 30, 2006. In addition, incorrect arrears balances existed on 22 of 35 cases reviewed that had arrears greater than $100,000 on that date. Overstatements ranged from approximately $1 to $455,000, and understatements ranged from approximately $10 to $55,000, on 79 of 244 cases reviewed.

Our review disclosed incorrect arrears balances occurred due to numerous possible factors including: a judgment had not been recorded accurately, or not at all; the obligation amount, or amount due, had not been recorded correctly; division personnel had made errors when previously making adjustments to account balances on the Missouri Automated Child Support System (MACSS); the pay history recorded on MACSS was incomplete or non-cash credits had not been recorded; and the 10-year statute of limitations made some large amounts of arrears uncollectible. In addition, incorrect account balances also occurred because of errors at conversion to a new computerized case management system. The new computerized system transferred account balances but the pay history detail remained on the old system. Therefore, the misstated balance would have been transferred to the new computerized system, and would have remained misstated until personnel reviewed the case file and records on the old computer system, and made corrections. If the amount of unpaid child support reported is incorrect, it could affect the state's eligibility for incentive payments.

Report Summary