Clay County Commission
Dan Haglund
Sandy Thorne, supervisor for Clay County Child Support, Fraud and Collections, presented a detailed breakdown of her department’s dollars and work changes in 2022 before than Clay County Board of Commission in Moorhead on Tuesday.
She called it part three of the Social Services annual report focusing on child support, fraud and collections, as well as financial services. The first two parts were presented in previous weeks.
Under Thorne, there are 12 full-time staff in child support, and two each for welfare fraud and collections. Both of the welfare fraud employees are eligible for Federal Financial Participation (FFP) dollars at 50 percent, and the Fraud Prevention Investigations (FPI) is funded by a state grant of up to $125,000 annually.
These individuals conduct two types of investigations: FPI – front-end investigations which focus on verifying the facts to prevent a grant from being issued using incorrect information; and Criminal Investigations(back-end), where a grant has already been incorrectly issued based on false or unreported information.
Thorne reports that the majority of referrals are for household composition, unreported income or employment, or residency verification. She includes that program waivers due to COVID-19 reduced referrals, but the numbers are improving once again.
In 2018 and 2019, there were more than 500 fraud referrals each year, but the case numbers slipped to 366 in 2020, 259 in 2021, and 274 in 2022.
The pre-pandemic numbers for what Thorne classifies as fraud investigations direct savings ($402,523) and cost avoidance ($1,207,569) to the county in 2019 have also decreased to $126,423 and $379,269 in 2022.
As far as criminal cases, in 2019 there were 21 referrals and eight criminal convictions and nearly $90,000 in overpayments. In 2021 and 2022, there were just three referrals each year, but a total of 14 criminal convictions and more than $93,000 in overpayments.
Based on statistics so far in 2023, “I think the numbers will be going back up to pre-COVID levels,” Thorne said.
In county collections, the two officers collect on outstanding debts owed to various departments of the Clay County Social Service Center, as well as other county and state government departments. The areas of collection include: public assistance overpayments (county receives incentives for these), foster care placements, probate/medical assistance recovery, county burial, detox, highway department and environmental health.
The collections officers’ duties include: Acting as a representative payee for children in placement who receive Social Security benefits; and enforcing probate cases where the county has a preferred claim, and acting as a personal representative to act in the best interest of the estate. This can include selling real estate and managing trust accounts for contract for deed cases.
The officers also spend time skip tracing (locating people), filing for revenue recapture on overdue debts, and perform several functions related to child support cases. These can include facilitating buccal swabs in paternity testing, monitoring driver’s license suspension cases, and judgment renewals.
In child support, there are six full-time Child Support Officers (CSO) and six Support Enforcement Aides (SEA). The services provided here are: locating parents; establish parentage; establish court orders for basic, medical and childcare support; enforce. review and monitor court orders for support; enforce support when one parent does not reside in Minnesota; and collect and process payments.
Child support department funding through FFP is at 66 percent, and is based on statewide performance in five areas: paternity establishment, current support collected, establishment of court orders, collections of cases with arrears, and program cost effectiveness. FFP funding for Clay County was $1,215,091 in 2022, with federal incentives of $147,596 and state incentives of $19,511.
In fiscal year 2022, Clay County had 2,454 cases and collected $5,566,256 in current child support owed, as well as $1,605,795 in arrears.
Thorne says the collections have been somewhat inflated due to COVID stimulus payments. Expenditures totaled $2,048,883, which breaks down to collecting $3.50 for every dollar spent. The state average is $2.91.
More than 90 percent of county cases are not receiving cash grants, and approximately one-third of the caseload is interstate.
Thorns also detailed the work-related changes during the pandemic, including hybrid schedules and a greater expansion of employees working from home.
“Court hearings are working well, and we feel we get more participation as people don’t have to travel or take time off work,” Thorne added. “There are still some in-person hearings, but most are virtual.”
In the Financial Assistance division, there are several programs to monitor. The cash grant programs include the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), within which the Rural Minnesota CEP operates, the Diversionary Work Program (DWP), General Assistance (GA), Minnesota Supplement Aid (MSA), Group Residential Housing (GRH), and Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA).
Other programs in this area include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Child Care, Medical Assistance, Emergency Cash Assistance and County Funded Burial.
MFIP is federally funded, and helps pregnant women, families with minor children, and noncustodial parents of children receiving MFIP who meet financial guidelines. A family of three (two children, one adult) with no income would qualify for approximately $686 in cash and $619 in SNAP benefits.
The General Assistance program, as Clay supervisor Jamie Stewart points out, is state-funded and provides cash benefits to adults without children, including people who are elderly, ill, injured or otherwise incapacitated. The maximum monthly benefit is $203 for an individual and $260 for a couple.
“Our numbers have slowly increased with that program,” Stewart said. “And we expect them to continue to increase.”
From 2015 to 2022, the cases have steadily increased from 187 to 377.
In the Minnesota Supplemental Assistance program, the average monthly benefit per individual is $81 and $111 for a couple. There has been a slight decrease in Clay County from 2021 to 2022, from 390 cases to 375.