BUFFALO, N.Y. — “I just had a $400 medical bill for my daughter this week, which was an unexpected expense,” Kaitlyn C. told 2 On Your Side, which agreed to withhold her full name at her request.
The issue for the Williamsville woman is the state-run child support payment system has stopping issuing funds.
The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance manages court-ordered child support payments. Kaitlyn explained the money goes to the agency first and is given to her through Bank of America, which she says dispenses the funds.
That system went down this week. Posted on the OTDA website was this: “OTDA is aware of a technical issue with its Child Support payment system and is working with the state Office of Information Technology Services to correct this situation as quickly as possible.”
What Kaitlyn wanted to know is when would payments be processed again. But she said communicating with the agency was difficult.
“The office itself is very hard to reach. Like if you have a problem or you need to talk with an agent, you are expected to fax them or email them, and that’s the only way to contact the child support enforcement office,” Kaitlyn said.
Without a clear indication when the money might start showing up again, she is judging bills and dipping into what saving she has.
2 On Your Side contacted OTDA Friday. We wanted to know, specifically, what the issue was with the delayed payments. We also inquired about how many people were affected by the problem.
A few minutes before start of our 6 p.m. Friday newscast, we received this statement:
“A technical issue with the Child Support payment system interrupted payments from being issued this week to households served by the program. OTDA is working with the state Office of Information Technology Services to identify affected households and correct the situation. OTDA expects to begin issuing payments again on Monday, April 5, and will work with families to mitigate the impact of this delay in payments to the best of our ability.”