Government Law Newsroom

The Story of the Child Support Enforcement Agency

The Warren County Child Support Enforcement Agency is a division of the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office which provides for the financial needs of children by helping to make parents adequately support their children when they do not live together. The Agency, in conjunction with the Domestic Relations and Juvenile Courts, facilitates the establishment of child support and health insurance orders, establishes paternity, locates absent parents, enforces child support orders, and assists the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services in the processing and distribution of child support payments.

While child support payments have been sporadically paid through the courts for decades, the Bureau of Support, under the auspicious of the Common Pleas Court, was organized in the 1970's to routinely process and maintain payment records for cases with child support orders. During that time period, a small unit was also established within the Prosecutor's Office to provide enforcement services for a limited number of cases, focusing on public assistance cases. The services provided by the Bureau and the Prosecutor's Office gradually expanded but staff remained small and services were limited until the late 1980's. In 1987, the Ohio General Assembly enacted legislation establishing the present day Child Support Enforcement Agency. As a result, the Bureau of Support and the Prosecutor’s Office enforcement unit were combined into one agency under the control and management of the Domestic Relations Court. In 1989, control and management of the Agency was transferred to Tim Oliver, the Warren County Prosecuting Attorney. Mr. Oliver managed the Agency until March 2003, when Rachel Hutzel, the current Warren County Prosecuting Attorney, assumed management of the Agency.

The Agency is directed by Assistant Prosecutor, Mitch Bonham, and employs approximately 50 staff members, including three additional assistant prosecutors. The agency provides services for almost 11,000 active cases. Enforcement and customer service are now the predominant focus of the Agency. Over 70% of the staff is assigned investigative and legal duties with another 20% providing direct customer service assistance to the public. The remainder of the staff serves in fiscal and administrative positions.

All child support enforcement operations were administered at the county level until October, 1998 when federal and state mandates required that all C.S.E.A. cases be entered onto a state-wide centralized payment tracking and data collection system called SETS. Additional mandates implemented in October, 2000 required that the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services assume payment processing and distribution functions. The Agency retains all enforcement responsibilities and has enhanced its customer service staff to respond to problems relating to state-assumed functions.

The majority of child support orders the Agency enforces are generated from divorces and dissolutions of marriage filed in the Domestic Relations Court. However, in those situations where the parents of a child are not married, or are married but not divorced or legally separated, it is the responsibility of the Agency to establish paternity in order to create an enforceable child support order when properly requested to do so. The establishment of paternity is accomplished by administrative and judicial processes with genetic testing being generally used to verify paternity. The Agency also creates a health insurance order for the children in all cases where it initiates a support order.

Once there is a support order, the Agency can enforce it in many ways. Child support can be taken from the income or bank account of the obligor. This process is called income withholding and is the predominant collection mechanism used by the Agency. Support can also be taken from an obligor's workers' compensation, unemployment, pension funds, or other sources of income.

If an obligor has a past due support obligation, additional enforcement mechanisms are available. The state-wide centralized payment computer tracking system (SETS) reports delinquent obligors to the Internal Revenue Service so that federal and state income tax refunds can be intercepted. Lump sum payments and bank accounts can also be seized through the cross-referencing of employer and financial institution data bases. SETS also reports delinquent obligors to credit bureaus.

In circumstances where obligors are at least one month past due and ignore warning letters, the Agency can request that the Court issue an order adding on an additional monthly payment, obtain seek work orders, suspend professional and operator’s licenses, and file motions to have the obligor found in contempt of court. In circumstances where obligors have very large arrearages and all other enforcement techniques have failed, the Prosecutor’s Office pursues indictment against obligors for criminal non-support of dependents.

While the courts are an integral part of these processes, most of the establishment, enforcement, and modification actions mentioned above are conducted administratively by the staff of the Agency.

With the conversion to a centralized payment processing system in Ohio, the fiscal responsibilities of the Agency have changed. The Agency now acts as a customer service unit for the State in answering obligee's questions regarding payments and assisting obligors and employers so that payments are promptly and accurately sent to the payment processing center in Columbus. The Agency also assists the State in identifying payment processing errors, reissuing checks, and recouping misapplied payments. The Agency has retained case audit responsibilities and conducts over 5,000 audits per year in order to maintain accurate up-to-date account balance on its active cases.

Collections and enforcement activities have dramatically increased since the inception of the C.S.E.A. In 1990, the Agency collected $9,200,000 in support. In 2004, the Agency collected $30,000,000, a 225% increase over a fourteen year period. The number of enforcement actions initiated by the Agency has also continued to expand over the years. The Agency schedules over 2000 court hearings per year, including more than 900 contempt hearings for failure to pay child support. Including all judicial and administrative actions, the Agency initiates or participates in approximately 4,000 hearings, conferences, reviews, and orders involving the collection of support during the course of a year. In addition, the Agency issues over 8,000 enforcement notices per year.