The Associated Press reports that over the next year the state of Missouri hopes to increase child support collections by $7.8 million. It plans to do this by implementing an online reporting system, allowing businesses to dispense with their paper systems.

The Missouri Department of Social Services currently relies on a paperwork and manual data entry system to comply with federal and state laws requiring businesses to inform the state when they hire employees who owe child support.

In an effort to make is easier to collect child support from the paychecks of those who owe, the Social Services department recently hired a Denver company, by the name of Policy Studies, to establish a new website for businesses to report new hires. Policy Studies apparently administers around 20 employee reporting programs throughout the nation.

According to the Missouri Department of Social Services, employers are responsible for reporting new hire information within 20 days, reporting when employees under wage assignment are no longer employed with the company, and responding to employment verification requests.

New hire reporting is called for by both federal and Missouri law. Once the information is received from employers it is placed in a statewide registry and transmitted to the National Directory of New Hires. After that, non-custodial parents under orders to pay child support are located and their employers are ordered to withhold money from the employee's paycheck for the payment of child support.

Source: Kansas City Star, "Missouri hopes new system will boost child support collections," 4 May 2011.