The Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998 enacted significant changes in the way federal incentives are paid to states. The methodology changed from being based on cost-effectiveness only, to five federal performance measures implemented over a three year period, beginning October 1, 1999. The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement’s (OCSE) Action Transmittal 01-01, dated January 3, 2001 contains the federal regulations that govern the system. Since Federal Fiscal Year 2000, states are evaluated for federal incentive funds based on five performance measures:
Paternity Establishment Percentage
The IV-D Paternity Establishment Percentage (PEP) measures the total number of children in the IV-D caseload in the fiscal year (or, at the option of the State, as of the end of the fiscal year) who have been born out-of-wedlock and for whom paternity has been established, compared to the total number of children in the IV-D caseload as of the end of the preceding fiscal year who were born out of wedlock, expressed as a percent;
OR
The “Statewide Paternity Establishment Percentage” measures the total number of children born out-of-wedlock for whom paternity was acknowledged or established in the fiscal year compared to the total number of children in the state born out-of-wedlock during the preceding fiscal year, expressed as a percentage.
Percent of Cases with a Child Support Order
This data element measures cases with support orders as compared with the total caseload. Support orders are broadly defined as all legally enforceable orders, including orders for medical support only, and zero orders, expressed as a percentage.
Current Collections Performance
This performance standard measures the amount of current support collected as compared to the total amount of current support owed, expressed as a percentage.
Arrearage Collections Performance
This performance standard measures the number of cases with child support arrearage collections as compared with the number of cases owing arrearages during the federal fiscal year, expressed as a percentage.
Cost Effectiveness Performance Level
This measure compares the total amount of distributed collections to the total amount of expenditures for the fiscal year, expressed as distributed collections per dollar of expenditure.
Data Reliability
In addition to meeting these performance goals, for purposes of incentives and penalties, data must meet a 95% standard of reliability beginning in the fiscal year 2001. Reliable data means the most recent data available found by the Secretary to be reliable for the purposes of computing each of the Federal performance measures. Data must be found to be sufficiently complete and error free to be convincing for their purpose and context. Federal auditors are required to conduct audits to assess completeness, reliability, and security of the data, and the accuracy of the reporting systems used in calculating performance indicators.
Penalties
The penalty system is used to penalize states that fail to perform at acceptable levels or fail to submit complete and reliable data. IF the state falls below one or more of the performance measures, or does not meet the data reliability criteria, an automatic corrective action period of one year will ensue. If not corrected during that period, a penalty will be imposed at the end of the year.