Posted at 9:23 a.m. EST Wednesday, January 12, 2000

Hoosier Happenings

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

COMPUTER GLITCHES CONTINUE

MARION, Ind. (AP) -- Glitches continue to plague the state's new computer system which sorts and distributes child support payments. The Internal Revenue Service has mailed letters warning some parents statewide their tax refund will be withheld this year, even though they may now be up-to-date in support payments or are no longer obligated to pay because the information in the computer system is outdated.

Before the new system, court employees would ask the IRS to withhold tax refunds from delinquent parents.

``We had a little more control,'' said Carol Baird, Blackford County child support administrator.

Now the IRS is automatically notified if someone is behind in child support payments. Once the cases are updated, the new system will be a major improvement, said Baird, who is manually updating each of her county's 1,500 child support cases.

An Indiana Family and Social Services Administration spokesman acknowledged mistakes in the new system could take some time to correct.

``With the huge case load we have, it's obviously very difficult to guarantee that we'll get each and every case right each time, but that's the goal,'' spokesman Andrew Stoner said.

Source: Akron Beacon Journal, http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/ohio/docs/006492.htm

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), January 12, 2000

Answers

I really like this one because it is really nasty and involves the hated IRS. News media would understand it. Can we get action on this one?

-- Bud Hamilton (budham@hotmail.com), January 13, 2000.