Navigating Engagement for Child Support Participants
Navigating Child Support can be complex, time-consuming, and at times an inequitable experience for both custodial and non-custodial parents. Child Support programs involve high levels of participation and time-sensitive requirements which participants must adhere to. For many, meeting these conditions is challenging. Keeping track of court hearings, notices and payments can feel nearly impossible while trying to manage busy schedules or complex family needs. These challenges, among others, pose a risk to families, as failure to meet the many requirements of their participation with Child Support could result in poor outcomes for the children and family members involved. That said, we must proactively support families to set them up for success, and by implementing mobile systems of engagement, Child Support organizations can do just that.
Child support programs, which are designed to promote parental responsibility so that children receive support from both parents even when they live in separate households, face several unique challenges. These challenges vary from procedural complexities to societal and economic factors. Some of these challenges include:
Compliance: Ensuring compliance with child support orders can be challenging. Noncustodial parents may resist or struggle to meet their financial obligations, leading to enforcement difficulties.
High Caseloads and Resource Constraints: Child support organizations often face high caseloads, leading to resource constraints. This can result in delays in case processing, communication issues, and challenges in providing personalized assistance.
Complex Family Dynamics: Nontraditional family structures and complex family dynamics, such as blended families, can pose challenges in determining child support responsibilities.
Changing Family Structures: Evolving family structures, such as joint custody arrangements or nontraditional parenting roles, can pose challenges in determining appropriate child support amounts and structures.
Data Accuracy and Information Sharing: Ensuring accurate and up-to-date information, such as income and employment status, of noncustodial parents is crucial. Inaccuracies or delays in sharing information can hinder effective outcomes.
Technology: Outdated or inefficient technology systems within child support organizations can impede effective case management, communication, and data sharing.
These challenges directly impact families, but also the workers and organizations. Modern technology solutions have the ability to address these challenges, changing the dynamic and culture of engagement.
How can Diona Child Support help address some of these challenges?
Worldwide, smartphone usage has increased year-over-year by at least 5% over the last 5 years. Currently, about 92% of Americans are smartphone users. Most of these users fall within age demographics between 18 – 49 years old, the same age range that most custodial and non-custodial Child Support participants fall. For many individuals in the US, their smartphones are the primary device used for communication, entertainment, and day-to-day life and business management. Considering this, it seems like a no-brainer that health and human services organizations would leverage the mobile technology that individuals already have in their hands by implementing mobile systems of engagement.
The benefits of mobile systems of engagement for participants of Child Support programs are significant. Diona Child Support provides capabilities that are accessible and can be used anywhere at any time, meeting participants where they are, while also benefiting the workforce and the organization.
Participants: Individuals engaging with government programs want the same things we all want as consumers...convenience, ease of use, and transparency. For families involved with Child Support, the challenges identified above require solutions that help alleviate, not add to, the stress of their situation. Diona Child Support allows participants to:
Avoid long wait times and limit trips to the organization office and perform required activities outside of normal business hours, saving participants valuable time and money that would be spent on childcare or gas. This allows custodial and non-custodial parents to more easily meet program requirements while navigating potentially complex family, economic, or employment circumstances.
Complete applications with ease, request modifications or reliefs, and update personal information, conserving valuable organization resources and empowering participants with autonomous engagement. These features also ensure that the organization has the most up-to-date information about both custodial and non-custodial parents so that the financial obligation to the child or children involved is accurately calculated.
Workforce: Caseworkers need solutions that reduce administrative burden expanding their capacity to do more meaningful work. Diona Child Support enhances the workforce experience by:
Reducing the workload and stress of high caseloads for caseworkers results from extending more capabilities to participants.
Improving engagement with clients and the quality of information received allows caseworkers to better serve participants.
Operations and Compliance: Organizations benefit from offering mobile systems of engagement, too. With Diona Child Support organizations will realize:
Improved operational efficiency with agile technology to modernize participant engagement tools while continuing to leverage existing Child Support and payment systems, regardless of the state of that technology.
Improved data accuracy and streamlined information sharing between the organization and parents by enabling proactive push notification nudges and notices so that participants can better keep track of requirements and appointments, supporting their consistent participation in the program.
For the Child Support organization, employing a mobile system of engagement helps to streamline payment processes, enhances the quality of client records, and speeds up applications, requests, and modification processing. Ultimately, all of this improves outcomes while offering workload relief and improving morale at both the individual, team, and organizational level.
Diona Child Support facilitates meaningful engagement between participants and the organization, by providing participants with the tools and support they need to meet program requirements and easing administrative burden for other stakeholders. Organizations can get Diona Child Support fast. Implemented in months, not years, you can see ROI and solve critical challenges without the strain on resources that typically comes with large technology projects. And as important, this can happen now. Diona Child Support leverages existing Child Support and payment systems without requiring changes to them. Improved engagement with families results in improved programs for organizations.
Why wait to improve family engagement in Child Support? Learn more at: Child Support Self-Service solution for custodial and non-custodial parents (diona.com).