Pennsylvania Automated Child Support Enforcement System (PACSES)
How the PACSES Computer System Affects You
On 5/4/98, we installed a new statewide computer system called PACSES (Pennsylvania Automated Child Support Enforcement System). This new computer system was ordered by federal law and has been installed statewide by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. As a Domestic Relations client you will be affected by the way this system operates.
Your Support Payment - How PACSES Affects Amounts
Domestic Relations began using a new federally required, statewide computer system called PACSES (Pennsylvania Automated Child Support Enforcement System) on May 4, 1998. This page is designed to help you understand how this new system affects amounts shown on your support payment.
With PACSES, Payment AMOUNTS MAY BE DIFFERENT!
Why? See below:
WHAT: Your support payment amounts can vary, even if the payer faithfully makes fixed payments to our office.
WHY: PACSES automatically applies ("distributes") collections to pay child/spousal support debts first, and, after the month's child/spousal support debt has been paid, it distributes subsequent/remaining collections for the month (usually collected at the end of the month) to lesser debts, such as fees.
RESULT: When this happens, the support payments which we disburse from those "end of the month collections" are not as large as usual. If you want to know more about this, click here to see How PACSES distributes support collections.
How PACSES Distributes Support Collections
The key to understanding the amounts shown on your support check is learning how PACSES distributes support collections.
The basics:
PACSES distribution pays MSO before any other debt.
PACSES will not distribute receipts to any other debts until the month's receipts have fully paid MSO.
Weekly Orders: If your support order is $50 per week, PACSES calculates your MSO using a factor of 4.345. See below:
Weekly Order Amount $50 X 4.345 = $217.25 MSO
After paying MSO, PACSES applies any remaining receipts for the month to the payer’s other debts, according to the rank of those debts under the distribution hierarchy.
The PACSES Distribution Hierarchy
How PACSES Tracks Receipts: Collection Date
If a family was previously on welfare, often there are support arrears owed to the family and arrears owed to welfare. In such cases, PACSES distributes arrears payments to the family first**. (Note: DPW arrears accrue when a payee of a support action is a welfare recipient. This happens because DPW requires welfare recipients to assign their child support to DPW as a condition of receiving welfare benefits. When the family goes off public assistance, any arrears owed to DPW remain payable to DPW.)
**Payments received through the Federal Income Tax Offset (IRS Refund) are applied to arrears owed to DPW first. All other forms of payments (i.e. income withholding, unemployment compensation, State Income Tax…) are applied as stated above—“family first”.
On 5/4/98, we installed a new statewide computer system called PACSES (Pennsylvania Automated Child Support Enforcement System). This new computer system was ordered by federal law and has been installed statewide by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. As a Domestic Relations client you will be affected by the way this system operates.
- Check Amounts (Your Support Check - How PACSES Affects Amounts): Check amounts may vary. During a month, each payment is applied to active child support and arrears until the monthly amount is paid. After that, payments are applied to costs, then additional arrears. Payments from payers who have more than one support order are applied to all cases.
- New telephone and information system: When you call our main number, 610-278-3646 you reach a new, 24 hour per day automated telephone system (AVR) which can be used to learn routine information about your case, as well as to reach the office by phone during regular business hours. Please use this system to find out information about your case and save you time.
- Locating absent parents: PACSES helps Domestic Relations Section locate missing parents. This system communicates with the welfare system and Domestic Relations systems in other counties, as well as other agencies.
- Case and member numbers: Save your 9 digit PACSES case number and your 10 digit PACSES member I.D. number. You should use those numbers when contacting Domestic Relations about your case. You must include your 10 digit member I.D. number on all support payments and correspondence.
Your Support Payment - How PACSES Affects Amounts
Domestic Relations began using a new federally required, statewide computer system called PACSES (Pennsylvania Automated Child Support Enforcement System) on May 4, 1998. This page is designed to help you understand how this new system affects amounts shown on your support payment.
With PACSES, Payment AMOUNTS MAY BE DIFFERENT!
Why? See below:
WHAT: Your support payment amounts can vary, even if the payer faithfully makes fixed payments to our office.
WHY: PACSES automatically applies ("distributes") collections to pay child/spousal support debts first, and, after the month's child/spousal support debt has been paid, it distributes subsequent/remaining collections for the month (usually collected at the end of the month) to lesser debts, such as fees.
RESULT: When this happens, the support payments which we disburse from those "end of the month collections" are not as large as usual. If you want to know more about this, click here to see How PACSES distributes support collections.
How PACSES Distributes Support Collections
The key to understanding the amounts shown on your support check is learning how PACSES distributes support collections.
The basics:
- If the payer has more than one support case, PACSES automatically distributes collections among them. For example, if the payer owes child support on more than one PACSES support case, PACSES will automatically distribute support collections to each of them.
- PACSES distributes collections - called receipts - to the payer's debts using a "distribution hierarchy" after it identifies the receipts as collections for a specific month. Click here to learn more about the "Distribution Hierarchy."
- Examples of a PACSES "debt" include the following: a regular charging support order, a regular amount the payer is ordered to pay on arrears, a collection fee, or a court cost.
- The "distribution hierarchy" ranks the debts for payment. It assigns debts various levels of importance, and insures that more important debts are paid first. For example, a month's receipts must pay the entire month's support order debt before any excess receipts for the month are applied to lesser debts, such as fees.
- The highest ranked debt in the distribution hierarchy is the Monthly Support Obligation, or MSO.
PACSES distribution pays MSO before any other debt.
PACSES will not distribute receipts to any other debts until the month's receipts have fully paid MSO.
- MSO is the regular charging support order, expressed as a monthly amount.
- How PACSES calculates your MSO:
Weekly Orders: If your support order is $50 per week, PACSES calculates your MSO using a factor of 4.345. See below:
Weekly Order Amount $50 X 4.345 = $217.25 MSO
After paying MSO, PACSES applies any remaining receipts for the month to the payer’s other debts, according to the rank of those debts under the distribution hierarchy.
The PACSES Distribution Hierarchy
- First, PACSES distributes receipts collected for a given month to your Monthly Support Obligation or MSO. For example, if you have a support order of $50.00 per week, the system calculates MSO as follows: $50/week x 4.345 = $217.25 MSO. Amounts the system distributes to your MSO are shown on your support check stub as Current (C). Note: PACSES assigns receipts to a specific month, by tracking the receipt’s "collection date".
- After MSO has been paid in full, the system distributes any additional receipts collected for the month to pay what is called Ordered On Arrears (OOA). To do this, PACSES converts any weekly Ordered On Arrears amount to a monthly amount, using the same factor it uses to calculate MSO. For example, if your support order requires the payer to pay $5/week on the arrears, the system calculates the monthly OOA amount this way: $5/week x 4.345 = $21.72 Monthly OOA. On your support check stub, these distributions are identified by an (O). (Note: In cases where a family was previously on welfare, often there are support arrears owed to the family and arrears owed to welfare. In such cases, PACSES distributes arrears payments to the family first. )
- Next the system distributes any receipts collected for the month to pay current fees (payable to Domestic Relations). Fee collections do not appear on your support check.
- If a month’s receipts pay MSO, OOA, and current fees, and there are still receipts for the month which are left over to distribute, the system distributes these receipts to any additional support arrears owed. These distributions appear on your support check stub as either A (Retroactive Arrears) or N (Normal Arrears). (Note: In cases where a family was previously on welfare, often there are support arrears owed to the family and arrears owed to welfare. In such cases, PACSES distributes arrears payments to the family first. )
- Any remaining receipts for the month are next distributed to any past due fees (fee arrears). Such distributions are payable to Domestic Relations and therefore are not shown on your support check stub.
- Finally, any remaining receipts collected for the month are paid toward "future support obligations." For this to occur, there must be no arrears of any kind owed on the case. This "futures" distribution is shown on your support check stub as an F. (Note: PACSES will distribute up to two months of futures before placing subsequent receipts on hold.)
How PACSES Tracks Receipts: Collection Date
- The payment tracking process starts when a payment is posted. To post a payment (i.e., to enter the payment into the system), the payment processing unit enters the identity of the payer, the amount of the payment and the "collection date" (The "collection date" is not necessarily the date that the payment was posted, as we describe further below.)
- When the payment is posted, PACSES identifies the payment as a receipt. It also assigns it a receipt number associated with the day it was posted.
- PACSES also assigns receipts to a specific month, by tracking the "collection date" entered for the receipt. (The "collection date" is important, for reasons described below.)
- For cash payments, the "collection date" is the date that the payer made the payment in Domestic Relations (Domestic Relations typically posts such payments on the same day they were made.)
- For income attachment payments, however, the "collection date" is the date that the payment was withheld from the payer’s income. The "collection date" for income attachment payments is commonly a week or two prior to the date that the collection is posted in Domestic Relations.
- HOW COLLECTION DATE INTERACTS WITH MSO: When the "collection date" of a receipt is for the month prior to the date the receipt was posted (which happens frequently with wage attachment payments), that payment will be applied toward the distribution hierarchy for the prior month - not the current month. Such payments are more likely to pay lesser debts such as fees.
If a family was previously on welfare, often there are support arrears owed to the family and arrears owed to welfare. In such cases, PACSES distributes arrears payments to the family first**. (Note: DPW arrears accrue when a payee of a support action is a welfare recipient. This happens because DPW requires welfare recipients to assign their child support to DPW as a condition of receiving welfare benefits. When the family goes off public assistance, any arrears owed to DPW remain payable to DPW.)
**Payments received through the Federal Income Tax Offset (IRS Refund) are applied to arrears owed to DPW first. All other forms of payments (i.e. income withholding, unemployment compensation, State Income Tax…) are applied as stated above—“family first”.