Last year, three Michigan counties – Huron (Joanne Brooks, FOC Director; Timothy Rutkowski, Prosecuting Attorney), Marquette (Andrea Monnett, FOC Director; Matthew Wiese, Prosecuting Attorney), and Tuscola (Sandra Erskine, FOC Director; Mark Reene, Prosecuting Attorney) – maximized their performance on all five performance-based incentive factors. This is the first time any county in Michigan has maximized all performance factors since the performance-based incentive program’s inception in 2000. Pennsylvania is the only state that has maximized its performance on all factors.

The federal government established the performance-based incentives program to reward states and counties for meeting or exceeding goals set in each of five factors in Title IV-D cases: percentage of cases with paternity established; percentage of cases that have a child support order; percentage of current child support collected; percentage of cases with an arrearage payment; and support collected per dollar spent. 

When the federal child support program was first implemented in 1975, incentives were based on collections (on public assistance cases) and cost-effectiveness, which ignored a county’s success in other aspects of its child support efforts. With the current program, performance is rewarded at each of the five stages. A county’s performance results in a multiplier that is applied to the county’s collections (dollars collected on cases that were never assistance plus two times the dollars collected on current and former assistance cases). All counties’ totals are then added together and the county receives an incentive based on its percentage of all counties’ performance. An office that reaches maximum performance has an incentive multiplier of 4.5 which increases its share of the incentives compared to counties with a smaller incentive multiplier.

When a county maximizes all five factors (at least 80 percent performance, and a cost-effectiveness ratio of five dollars collected for every one dollar spent), it not only receives a higher percentage of the state’s incentives, but it also helps increase the amount of incentives the federal government pays the state.

In Michigan, the Office of Child Support (OCS) pays the county incentives the same way that the federal government pays Michigan incentives.

How did the FOC offices in Huron, Marquette, and Tuscola counties succeed?

“We have truly made it a priority to implement a holistic approach to connect with the people we service,” stated Andrea Monnett. “By doing so, we are able to work with people, understand their current circumstances and keep lines of communication open. The amazing people who work in this office diligently manage alerts, run reports and queries, and are constantly looking for ways to educate themselves to make sure every aspect of a case is being worked.  Through these efforts, the end results have allowed us to maximize our incentives. We take great pride in this accomplishment.”

Sandy Erskine added this goal was met through a lot of outreach and hands-on work. “Our staff is good at keeping track of and following up on their cases,” she stated. “They are not afraid to call or send emails or letters to make sure everyone is up-to-date. It feels really good knowing we’re helping our clients by getting them what they need and deserve.”

Former State Court Administrator John Hohman called each court’s chief judge to personally congratulate the court for the FOC’s accomplishments.

For more information on how your office can maximize incentives, contact the Friend of the Court Bureau at 517-373-5975 or FOCB-Info@courts.mi.gov.Click to edit your new post...