BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- It is supposed to help track parents across Ohio who fail to make child support payments. But just a few weeks into a trial run on a statewide computer system for support payments, Warren County officials worry it will leave them, and their clients, hanging out to dry.
In what could be a sign of problems to come for other counties, Warren County employees have caught three major errors in the system, called the Support Enforcement Tracking System (SETS).
In the first batch of 200 Warren County cases to convert to SETS, three checks had been written to the wrong people, one person was overpaid $8, and the county had been underpaid some $600 in operating costs.
County employees caught those mistakes by chance as last-minute information was entered into the system. Now officials worry what might happen in the next week when all 7,000 county cases -- worth $20 million in annual payments -- switch over unchecked from the county to the state computer system.
"We didn't know whether this was the tip of the iceberg or part of some bigger problem," said County Prosecutor Timothy Oliver, who oversees the county's Child Support Enforcement Agency. "One $8 problem is not a major thing, but if it's in anticipation of things to come, we all better watch out."
When Warren County switches over next week, it will become one of about two dozen Ohio counties to fully convert to the federally mandated system. Eventually, all counties must get on board. Right now, 16 are fully using it. Warren and four others are currently switching, and the rest have at least some cases online. No other Greater Cincinnati counties are completely plugged into SETS. Hamilton County says it will begin fully moving its nearly 74,000 cases in March.
Aside from the computer glitches, Mr. Oliver worries about the new system's impact on people at the receiving end of child support payments. He predicts the switch could cause a delay in the arrival of their next round of checks by up to 10 days.
"A lot of these people live check to check," he said. "They need to put milk and cereal on the table. We don't need to have a system that bogs down."
He plans to meet with state officials today.
Meanwhile, other parts of Ohio are reporting problems.
After Licking County switched over in March, the software printed the same checks twice, said county director Kim Buckley. About $80,000 in double payments were made. The county had to fork that much over into the bank account to assure future payments would not bounce.
The state has paid the money back and so have some child support recipients. But county officials still are trying to recover $64,000 in overpayments from residents.
Other problems included payments being mailed to the wrong places, she said.
Jon Allen, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Human Services, urged county officials to be patient. "Nothing is 100 percent, especially in the world of computers," Mr. Allen said.
