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The bonus is the highest amount earned
by Illinois in the history of the program. The incentive money will
be spent on upgrading the division's high-tech tools, with a focus
on continuing improvements to customer service and cracking down on
deadbeat parents. "This is a
clear sign that our efforts to upgrade child support enforcement are
getting results," the governor said. "But the great news here is
that these funds will be invested right back into the program,
allowing us to achieve even more progress in the years ahead."
Illinois earned $7.1 million in
federal incentive funds for recording more than a 5 percent gain in
the number of child support orders established.
Officials in the Child Support
Enforcement Division plan to use a portion of the incentive money to
upgrade the division's database, which will give front-line child
support workers the tools to answer questions more quickly and be
more responsive to client needs. In addition, the funds will be used
to purchase new telephone system hardware. This will expand the
division's capacity to receive and route calls and should reduce
wait times even further.
In the last year, the unit has
successfully transitioned over 15 toll-free numbers throughout the
state into a single 800 number where child support customers can
promptly receive answers to basic questions via an automated voice
response system. Questions that can't be answered through the
automated system are channeled to live operators. The switch has
resulted in more customers being served by customer service
specialists, while freeing caseworkers to focus on getting cases
ready for establishment or enforcement of orders.
In addition, this fall the agency
unveiled a secure, online service option that gives customers access
to basic information about their cases, such as account balances,
income withholding information and appointment dates. This service
will soon be enhanced so that customers can input information, such
as address changes.
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"Our goal is to harness high
technology so we can do a better job of serving our customers," said
Public Aid Director Barry Maram. "The new system we have put in
place, and the planned upgrades, will make it easier for customers
to obtain basic information about their child support case. And they
also enable child support workers to do their jobs more effectively
and efficiently."
The Child Support Enforcement
Division has also been mounting an aggressive crackdown on deadbeat
parents.
The division's Collection and Asset
Recovery Unit recorded a 40 percent increase in collections in
fiscal 2004. The unit employs an aggressive approach to collecting
delinquent child support, imposing liens on real and personal
property. It collected $2.4 million more in fiscal 2004, seizing
more than $7.5 million in delinquent child support payments. The
gains have continued in fiscal 2005, with the unit's receipts up by
almost 18 percent.
Earlier this year, the Child Support
unit announced that it collected a record $950 million in payments
in state fiscal 2004, a 10 percent gain from the previous year and
$27 million more than it had projected.
"Thanks to the leadership of
Governor Blagojevich, IDPA's Child Support Enforcement Division has
made major gains in the last two years," said Maram. "We intend to
continue to build on these gains. We intend to leverage this federal
incentive money so that we can do an even better job of delivering
critical economic support to families."
For more information about IDPA's
Child Support Enforcement Division, go to
www.ilchildsupport.com.
[News release from the
governor's office]
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