Missouri changes child support procedure

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state child support office has changed the way it handles payments over holidays in response to a $1.2 million mistake made during the Thanksgiving break, officials said Monday.

Yet even while changing its policy, the state cast responsibility for the error on a contractor that it said would likely face a financial penalty.

During the days surrounding Thanksgiving, the state double-issued 7,500 child support checks and is now trying to recoup the money.

Under questioning Monday from state legislators, state child support director Gary Bailey explained how the mistake occurred.

Georgia-based contractor Systems and Methods Inc., which collects and disburses child support payments, twice accessed the same state-supplied payment list and ordered a bank to issue checks.

Bailey said the mistake occurred on Thanksgiving, and the contractor could have realized the list was the same as the previous day's by looking at the computer file's identification number.

"I have to assume that anyone running distribution of $1.2 million would look at the identity to see whether you have the same tape or not two times in a row," Bailey told reporters after being questioned about the mistake by a legislative appropriations committee.

No holiday payments

The state has since changed its practice and will send an electronic file to the contractor specifically stating that there are no payments on state holidays such as Dec. 24-25.

The change is no indication, however, that the state bears part of the blame, Bailey said.

The contractor also sidestepped full responsibility.

"We do admit that there are some problems," Ron Coleman, SMI's project director, said in an interview. But "my chief operator says we followed the procedure that we followed in the past."

Coleman said he did not know whether his employees looked at the identification number nor whether that is part of their normal procedure.

The new state policy "would definitely be a safeguard," he said. "We will follow whatever procedure the state wants us to follow."

During Monday's hearing, some lawmakers questioned why the state delegates the final authority to a contractor for issuing child support checks.

"That's a sloppy way of handling funds," said Rep. Quincy Troupe, D-St. Louis, chairman of the social services appropriations committee.

$391,000 recouped

Of the $1.2 million overpayment, the state has recouped $391,000 -- $232,000 by reclaiming electronic deposits and $159,000 through voluntarily returned checks.

It is unlikely that the state can recover the full amount, and the balance will be charged to SMI, Bailey said.

The state reclaimed electronic deposits before notifying child support recipients of the payment error, causing an overdraft in at least on family's bank account.

Reports about the financial effect on child-support recipient Dee Stephenson prompted a New England family to offer Christmas presents for Stephenson's 6-year-old daughter.

"Not that I think she's so destitute, but I was a single parent for a lot of years ... and remember when an extra $50 would have really made our day," said Kathy Delpero, who lives at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on the border of Maine and New Hampshire.

Stephenson said she planned to politely decline the generosity.

"That's just extremely touching," she said. "But somewhere there is a family who's going to be more impacted than I am. My daughter and I, we're OK."