As a Child Support Enforcement professional, you are challenged with establishing paternity, enforcing child support orders, monitoring cases for timely payment, and calculating child support obligations.
Your agency may lack the resources, tools, and data needed to quickly locate non-custodial parents, especially when they become incarcerated.
We help child support agencies address challenges, such as parental incarceration, modification of support obligations, and addressing uncollectible debt.
In 2019, there were 2 million people in the nation's prisons and jails—a 500% increase over the last 40 years.* Unwed births accounted for 10% of all births in 1975− they account for 40% today.** Unmarried parents are more likely to be young, suffer from mental illness, be chemically dependent, and/or incarcerated.***
Legislators and agencies are re-thinking the way child support obligations are established. Unrealistic payment expectations, especially in the case of incarcerated parents, are counterproductive. These individuals have little earning potential while incarcerated and find it difficult to secure gainful employment post-release.
Nationally, over 220,000 inmates owe child support.**** On average, an incarcerated parent with a child support order leaves prison with roughly $20,000 in debt—with no means to pay upon release.**** Reducing the amount of uncollectible debt increases the likelihood of future payments.
Equifax is a leading data integration company that operates the nation’s most comprehensive and current incarceration data network, with direct jail management system interfaces to over 2,000 jails and DOC facilities.
Collaborating with child support agencies across the country, we have identified a critical need for access to near real-time incarceration data to help agencies successfully locate and monitor NCPs who are in the various stages of incarceration.
Our Incarceration Intelligence™ solution gives agencies access to timely data that helps locate and monitor NCPs, with the end goal of increasing child support payments.
Agencies are able to place “watches” on their NCP lists, and receive alerts when matching individuals are:
Equifax partnered with Kentucky CSE to define the criteria and scope of services necessary to effectively locate and monitor NCPs moving in and out of the prison system. Equifax modeled the process, provided training, and recommended best practices for the most effective utilization of the solution. The program launched with approximately 10 Kentucky users within CSE’s parent locate section; within one year, the program has expanded to nearly 400 users, with managers in each regional office providing access for their staff.
The TotalVerify Incarceration Intelligence Solution is the most valuable tool in our child support enforcement arsenal.