COLUMBUS — After illegally withholding millions from child support recipients over three years, the state's troubled child support computer system will begin correctly calculating and distributing payments next week.

        The state will work around the clock beginning this weekend to make the system comply with federal laws by Oct. 5, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services announced Monday.

        “If we can get it done sooner we will, but we're also trying to be realistic about the time line because this affects a lot of people,” said Jon Allen, the department's spokesman.

        The state and county child support enforcement agencies use the system, called the Support Enforcement Tracking System, to calculate and distribute $1.82 billion in payments in about 900,000 cases annually.

        The state admitted in February that it did not reprogram the system in accordance with a 1996 federal welfare reform law. As a result, the state illegally withheld overdue child support payments from former welfare recipients.

        The programing changes should be finished on Oct. 1, but the system will be shut down for most of next week for testing, meaning child support payments received after Friday will be delayed a week, Mr. Allen said.

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