York News Times Reprint
York County no longer has its own child support office. That responsibility has been taken over by Young-Williams, a private firm hired by Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services.
DHHS believes it’s more efficient to consolidate child support services, so it has been offering to manage child support offices for willing counties. So far, about 20 counties have taken that deal, County Attorney Gary Olson estimated.
People experiencing child support issues will no longer be able to address those issues in person at the courthouse, where the former child support office was located.
“They won’t be able to come in here, obviously, or call,” former Child Support Director Dai Mathers said. “There was quite a few regulars that would always call or come in here.”
However, they can use the DHHS website, which Mathers said is very easy to navigate.
“It’s right there in front of them,” Mathers said. “They can’t not find what they need on that website.”
They may experience less efficiency if they call to ask a question. Calling the York County child support office would usually result in getting connected to a person right away, Dai Mathers said.
“They’ll effectively have to go through more channels, probably, and go through two or three people when they call in the number,” Mathers said. “That’s just, unfortunately, the way it is.”
Olson’s decision to accept DHHS’ proposal was partly cost-motivated. When York County was operating its own child support office, it received some funding from the state, but the county had to pick up the rest of the bill. Now, the program will be entirely state-funded. That frees up funds for other programs at the County Attorney’s Office.
“I was convinced that there would be somewhat of a cost savings to the county,” Olson said. “In my opinion — I could be wrong — I think we’re severely understaffed.”
Plus, he trusts Young-Williams to handle child support cases well.
“I was fully convinced that the firm that was going to be coming in was really, really good,” Olson said. “This was their expertise, and they’re able to do a very, very professional job.”
Feedback from Polk’s county attorney influenced his decision.
“Polk kind of led the way,” Olson said. “The feedback from Polk was that the transition to Young-Williams went really, really well.”
The work of a child support office includes reviewing and adjusting the amount of child support that is owed.
“We would get, oftentimes, requests for reviews of the child support,” Mathers said. “When somebody maybe has a different job and is not making as much, they wanted to review their support and maybe get it lowered.”
It also includes enforcement for unpaid child support.
“There were a lot of people frustrated if the other party is not paying, reaching out, asking, ‘Can you help us?’” Mathers said. “Then we would do enforcements, beginning with taking away their driver’s license, and then moving on to a contempt action in court, stuff like that.”
Mathers also handled DNA testing in cases where a child’s parentage was disputed. It’s not yet clear where that service will be provided. People seeking testing may have to travel to Grand Island or Lincoln. Mathers speculated that the state could open a traveling office, though it would be expensive.
For Mathers’ part, she’ll stay in the County Attorney’s Office.
“I’ll be a legal assistant over next door, helping file criminal cases,” Mathers said. “I had some background on that, luckily, before I came to child support.”
