Successful pilot program expected to be widely adopted

Some employers may be hearing from the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) about potential problems with new hire reporting.

That’s because OCSE plans to expand a pilot program to increase compliance with new hire reporting.

Under the pilot program, the OCSE sent letters to employers who hadn’t reported new hires to their state child support agencies, when it appeared from their quarterly wage reports they should have.

The letters reminded employers of their duty to report new hires within a certain number of days, and explained they may not be in compliance.

Increase compliance

Sherri Grigsby, manager of the employer services team at OCSE, summarized the preliminary results of the programs at the recent American Payroll Association (APA) Capital Summit in Washington, DC.

The results showed that:

12% of employers who hadn’t reported new hires in the past 24 months started reporting

9% of those who hadn’t reported new hires in the previous 90 days began reporting

30% contacted child support agencies to ask questions or follow up on the letter

21% of total companies contacted began reporting new hires and

One state, South Dakota saw a 63% rise in new hire reporting over the previous year’s levels.

Action steps

According to Grigsby, the next steps for OOCSE will be attempting to expand the program to other states, focusing primarily on employer s who haven’t brought any employees on for more than 90 days (or who haven’t shown any hiring).

One recommendation from Grigsby: Make sure you know who’s in charge of reporting new hires at your organization – and that they’re actually following through.

Many of those who received the letter said it was the first time they found out another department hadn’t been keeping track of their duties.