AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Child Support Division ranks first in the nation for collecting more than $3.869 billion in child support for the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2015, a June press release states.
Texas is first among 54 states, territories and districts for the amount of child support collected; the amount of child support collected per employee; and cost effectiveness, according to the Fiscal Year 2015 Preliminary Data Report released in April by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement.
Paxton
“I am very proud that our Child Support Division remains the top performing child support program in the country,” Paxton said. “I celebrate the great work of our child support division and remain committed to fight for children in Texas who aren’t getting the support they need and deserve.”
For the past nine years, the CSD has collected more child support than any other state in the nation.
While child support collections in 26 states grew by less than one percent – and many of those states experienced an annual decline in child support collections – Texas’s collections grew by $162 million between 2014 and 2015 and accounted for 45.2 percent of the $360 million national increase, the press release states.
Based on the recently released report, the Texas program is a national leader in productivity and efficiency. Texas leads the country in collections per child support employee.
In 2015, collections per full-time employee (FTE) averaged $1.4 million, compared to the national average of $535,341 per employee. In addition, by collecting $12.26 for every dollar spent, Texas is first in cost effectiveness and trumps the national cost effectiveness ratio of $5.26 by more than 200 percent.
Under state and federal law, the Office of the Attorney General can assist families who request child support services and must serve families who currently receive or have received public assistance.
Services offered by the Child Support Division include locating absent parents; establishing paternity for children born to unmarried parents; establishing, enforcing, and modifying child and medical support orders; and collecting and distributing child support payments.