Article on channels 10/11 website:

The Nebraska Child Support Payment Center, a division of the Nebraska State Treasurer’s Office, set all kinds of records Monday, the busiest day of the year in the 12-year history of the payment center, State Treasurer Don Stenberg said today.

As a result, the center paid out more than $4.4 million in child support payments Tuesday, the largest amount ever paid out in a single day, Treasurer Stenberg said.

“The staff of the Child Support Payment Center deserves our combined thanks for seeing to it that all child support payments were received, processed, and sent to custodial parents smoothly and efficiently on this busiest of all days,” Stenberg said. “The staff worked steadily throughout the long day to make sure child support payments were uninterrupted so children would continue to receive the basic support they need and rightly ought to have.”

“This could not have happened without our entire team putting forth a phenomenal effort,” said Troy Reiners, director of the Nebraska Child Support Payment Center. Reiners said he also expects the record for the amount processed in a single month to be broken this December. The record is $28.3 million set in May 2012.

The Monday following a holiday is typically a busy day at the Child Support Payment Center, but last Monday following Thanksgiving was busier than all others, the Treasurer said. Monday’s numbers broke records set in 2010 and 2011. Traditionally, the Monday after Arbor Day is the center’s busiest day of the year.

The Child Support Payment Center processes child support payments made by non-custodial parents and by employers on behalf of non-custodial parents in an agreement with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. The center set these new records:

• Most payments processed in a single day – 19,336, a 22 percent increase over the previous record of 15,771 set on May 3, 2010.
• Largest amount of money received in a single day – $4,758,103, up almost 13 percent from the previous record of $4,222,505 set on May 3, 2010.
• Most payouts disbursed in a single day – 16,460, up almost 23 percent from the previous record of 13,389 set on May 3, 2010.
• Largest amount of money disbursed in a single day – $4,426,553, up 12 percent from the previous record of $3,949,068 set on May 11, 2011

“The Nebraska Child Support Payment Center has been at the forefront of adapting technology to improve the efficiency and security, as well as to lower the cost, of receiving and disbursing child support payments,” Treasurer Stenberg said. “Significant efforts have been made over the decade to encourage non-custodial parents and employers, who submit on behalf of non-custodial parents, to make payments electronically and to encourage custodial parents to receive payments electronically as well, reducing the expense of paper, printing, postage, and staff time.”

Treasurer Stenberg emphasized the records set Monday were accomplished with a smaller staff than records set previously. Twenty employees work at the payment center, compared with 24 in 2010 when earlier records were set.

The Nebraska Child Support Payment Center, located at 233 S. 10th St. in Lincoln, began operations Dec. 21, 2001, in compliance with a 1996 federal law that required states to establish state disbursement units for child support. It disbursed the first payment on Dec. 26, 2001. The center became a division of the State Treasurer’s Office in 2000, based on an interagency agreement between the Treasurer’s Office and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Laws passed by the Legislature in 1999 and 2000 laid the foundation for the centralized system. Before then, child support payments were collected and distributed by district court clerks throughout the state.