State Disbursement Unit (SDU) FAQ

DCSS-FAQ-02 v.5

 

SDU Mission Statement

  1. To provide exceptional support and information to external and internal customers to ensure payments are processed accurately and timely in order to promote the safety, well-being, and self-sufficiency of children and families.

Helpful Hints

  1. Review the frequently asked questions contained within this guide.
  2. Have a question not listed here? Submit an SDU Q&A Form.
  3. Read the Activity History Notes from the State Disbursement Unit.
  4. Refer to the DCSS Directory to identify SDU Team staff members to contact directly. However, try to refrain from emailing directly and instead use the group boxes because the teams monitor the group boxes regularly throughout the day. This helps if a staff member is out of the office, and another staff member may need to assist.
  5. Email the SDU Team group email boxes according to the Internal Only SDU Contacts List & Responsibilities:
  6. Accounts Receivable Function
  7. [email protected]
  8. [email protected]
  9. [email protected]
  10. Payment Disbursements Function
  11. [email protected]
  12. [email protected]
  13. Financial Review Suspense Team Function
  14. [email protected]
  15. [email protected]
  16. [email protected]
  17. [email protected]
  18. Please refrain from sending multiple emails/requests for the same issue, which causes rework of duplicate requests by staff and delays in responses.
  19. When sending requests to the SDU mailboxes, please provide as much information and detail as possible, such as case number, specific dates/payments related to inquiry/request, and what is being requested of SDU to assist with. Ensure that the requests are being sent to the appropriate mailbox. If the wrong mailbox is used and/or information is missing from the request, this may cause a delay in the requests being processed.
  20. ❌Example: Please take the next action on this payment.
  21. This does not specify what the issue is and what is being requested for SDU, to review or do next.
  22. ✅Example: This payment is held in NSF Payment received in the Past. The customer would like it reviewed for early release. The payment date is 01/23/2024, and the check number is 1234. Case number 0000000123-00.
  23. This example provides details and the task/action that is being asked of SDU and all relevant information.
  24. PLEASE NOTE OTC PAYMENTS WENT AWAY ​AS OF 02/01/2019. ​ THE LIST OF PAYMENT OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO MAKE A PAYMENT ARE AS FOLLOWS:
  1. TouchPay Kiosks located in the lobby. To find a TouchPay kiosk location or additional information, please refer clients to the DES website.
  2. Pay online:https://www.billerpayments.com/app/cust/login.do?bsn=descsg
  3. Pay with cash at a Walk-In Retail location. Refer clients to payincashnow.com to register and to find a location, they can visit this map. There is a $2.49 transaction fee to use Retail Pay.
  4. Pay over the phone: 1-888-585-7942
  5. Mail in: PO BOX 52107, Phoenix, AZ 85072

Acronyms / Definitions

  1. Administrative Check Request
  2. Case related requests involve payments on AZCARES – i.e. Support Recipient Overpayments (CPOP), refunds for the Support Payor, refunds due to errors, and misapplied payments.
  3. Cash handling requests involve payments received by DCSS either by walk-in or mail. Issues could be due to a deposit error, missing funds, or counterfeit bills.
  4. Documents only involve a request for a document(s) from another Agency/State, and a fee is required – i.e., birth certificates, court orders, etc.
  5. The requestor completes the OnBase Unity Client request form, with memorandum section included. In the request form. Recovery processes in case related requests.
  1. Affidavit of Forgery (AOF)
  2. This is the packet that gets sent to a client that states that a Child Support check was cashed by someone other than them. (A Police report is required.)
  1. Accounts Receivable (A/R)
  2. Function within the State Disbursement Unit that handles all things related to child support payments coming into DCSS (Money In).
  3. Bond of Indemnity (BOI)
  4. A request for a BOI can only be made for checks in Issued status and only if the address has been verified by the recipient and updated in the system.
  5. Direct Deposit
  6. Direct Deposit is set up for support recipients to receive their support payments directly into their bank accounts
  7. Disbursement
  8. A payment has been released to the State, Support Recipient, Other Jurisdiction, or any other entity. The funds have gone out, and the money is no longer in house with the agency.
  9. Dishonored Payment
  10. A payment returned to the DCSS by the maker’s financial institution while the payment was honored in good faith and posted to the case.
  11. Distribution
  12. Money has been applied to one or more active debts, and debt balances have been lowered.
  13. Electronic Payment Authorization (EPA)
  14. This form is required for Direct Deposit set up or changes to direct deposit bank accounts. Along with the signed EPA form, a copy of a voided check or a letter from the financial institution with the Support Recipient’s name, the routing number, and the account number is required. EPA forms are optional for EPC’s.
  15. Electronic Payment Card (EPC)
  16. EPC is set up for support recipients to receive their support payments directly to a prepaid Mastercard, and they can use it anywhere Mastercard is accepted.
  17. Note: Direct Deposit and EPC set up options are only available for Support Recipients.
  18. FiRST
  19. Financial Review and Suspense Team that consists of (4) major functions known as PIE, Recovery, Suspense, & Overpayments
  20. IRS Reversal (IRS=Internal Revenue Service.)
  21. IRS intercepts are one of the administrative enforcement actions of DCSS. These payments are applied to IVD child support cases. An IRS reversal is when the DCSS/SDU is notified by the IRS of any amounts that have been reversed.The Reversal adjustments are amounts that have been backed out and taken back by the IRS due to many factors. The reasons are not shared with the agency and we would advise the client to contact the IRS directly for additional questions. Due to the fact that the IRS offset was received and applied to the case it is now up to the agency to collect on the monies reversed. For this reason, we review each case we receive an IRS Reversal for on the weekly report, determine the status of the payment (in house, already disbursed, and/or partial), and depending upon the status of the payments IRA debts are set up on the active cases for the reversed IRS payment, the case is documented with the actions/outcomes, and recoupment actions may begin.
  22. Overpayment
  23. There are three ways an overpayment can occur:
  24. SDU Posted In Error function, is when it is found that a payment has been posted to an incorrect case and needs to be reposted to the correct case. If monies have already been disbursed on the incorrect case, this is considered an overpayment to whichever entity received the funds.
  25. The Administrative Check Request function, is when Operations has found that there was an error in one of the county offices, case related, and money that has already disbursed out to one entity when it should have gone to another. An administrative check request would be entered to have a manual check sent to the correct entity. Therefore, causing an overpayment to be incurred on the entity that should not have received the funds.
  26. The Overpayment Report function is a report that is automatically generated at overnight processing based on criteria that are built into the system that identify when there is a potential overpayment that resulted from Operations placing a financial request on a receipt that was already disbursed. The report is received by the SDU staff to work on the following morning, only if there is a result. There are payments that show up on this report that are not truly disbursed at the original time; therefore, it is not a true overpayment.
  27. Payment Disbursements (PD)
  28. Function within the State Disbursement Unit that handles all things related to child support payments going out from DCSS (Money Out).
  29. Payments posted in Error (PIE)
  30. A posted in error is money that ends up being posted, processed, or sent in error to a case.
  31. Reversal Request
  32. If a payment was disbursed via an EPC card or Direct Deposit in error, a reversal request can be made to retrieve the funds within 5 business days of the deposit.
  33. Stop Payment Request
  34. If a payment was disbursed via a paper check in error and the check is in issued status, a Stop Payment request can be made to the bank on that check and avoid the funds from going out.
  35. Unclaimed Funds Transfer (UFT)
  36. Formerly known as Escheatment (ESC), Payments in void or expired for a year or more are eligible to be moved into UFT. The funds are still available to the client, should they ever come forward to claim them. They will need to enter a claim in the Unclaimed Funds web portal: https://escheatment.azdes.gov/dcss/escheatment/claimant/clientLandingPage.jsf
  37. The claims are reviewed in the order that they are received. They cannot be reissued through AZCares. However, for a valid claim, a manual check will be issued to the claimant.
  38. Unidentified
  39. Payments that are received by DCSS without enough identifiers to be posted to a case.

Questions/Answers

Q1. What happens if a payment is discovered as posted in error on one case that belongs to a different case?

  1. Payments can get posted in error for different reasons. Some of the reasons can be:
  2. Case Status Changes (4D to N4D or vice versa) - the case manager needs to provide the new AZCARES case number/update IWO to the payor in order to prevent these types of PIEs
  3. Employer Error: The employer sent the payment with the wrong case information/amount.
  4. DCSS Error: The IWO was sent with the wrong case number/information; the wrong case information was provided to the payor.
  5. Clerk of Court Error: The IWO was sent with the wrong case number/information; the wrong case information was provided to the payor.
  6. Central Payment Processing (CPP) Center Error: The CPP posted the payment to the incorrect case.
  7. If payment is suspected as posted in error (PIE), the staff member working the case should research the case, payment backup, and contact the employer/Support Payor to inquire if/when needed. Once the staff member confirms that the payment is in fact a PIE, a PIE request should be entered on the OnBase PIE page. All of the research details and backup should be included in the request that shows and confirms that the payment is a PIE. The reason the payment is PIE should also be included, as well as who created the error (Employer, DCSS, COC, or CPP).
  8. When the SDU-Financial Review Suspense Team receives the PIE request, it will be reviewed for approval to process. If approved to process, the PIE function will proceed with processing the payment correction(s), and once it is completed, the requestor will be notified that their request has been completed via an email from OnBase. If it is not approved, the PIE request will rejected, and an email will be sent via OnBase to the requestor with the rejection reason.

Q2. Why is the financial request that was entered in "System Error" status?

  1. The System could not process the request for many different reasons. If you are unsure of the reason your request went into system error status, enter a Service Now ticket to the Systems team for assistance. Once the reason is known, the request can be resubmitted and/or re-entered to proceed with processing what was needed.

Q3. Why would a payor contact DCSS, indicating that they cannot access the online payment portals in order to make their payment anymore?

  1. There are two main reasons someone might not be able to access the online payment portals:
  2. The online portal is down.
  3. The payor's access has been deactivated due to Returned Payments that have occurred on the case. Returned Payments are when a payor submits a payment to DCSS, and it is posted and applied in Good Faith within 2 business days of receipt of the payment. During the processing to the payor's bank, their bank returns the payment as dishonored. Payments can be returned by banks as dishonored for many reasons, some of which reasons but not limited to are: Insufficient Funds, Account Closed, Unable to Locate, Unauthorized, etc.
  4. The way to tell if a payor has been deactivated from online access is to look at Case Note entries from the SDU Recovery team regarding a payment(s) being returned and the actions that were taken.
  • F0808 RECOVERY RETURNED ITEM DEBT
  • F0809 RECOVERY RETURNED ITEM DEBT RECOUP
  • F0810 RECOVERY RETURNED ITEM DEBT FINAL PAYMENT/PIF
  • A0107 SUPPRESSION ADDED ACCESS TO PGW REMOVED
  • A0108 SUPPRESSION REMOVED ACCESS TO PGW RESTORED
  1. If it is found that a payor has been deactivated due to a Returned Payment that has occurred on the case, the payor can request to have their account considered for reactivation prior to the 24 consecutive months if the following are provided:
  2. If a Returned Payment Debt exists on the case, the payor first needs to send in a recoupment payment to the following address:
  1. AZ DCSS
  2. ATTN: Recovery Unit
  3. PO Box 36626
  4. Phoenix, AZ 85067-6626
  1. Memo Line: Replacement Check
  2. A letter/statement from the payor/employer/payor's bank indicating that the Returned Payment issue has been resolved with their bank. The staff member should then send the letter/statement to the SDU Recovery team at [email protected] with the following subject line: "Online Payment Portal Reactivation Request - <<<0000000000-00 4D/N4D>>>. Recovery will review the case and the letter/statement provided in order to determine if the payor can be reactivated. **Note: if the payor has a repeated history of returned payments, that would be a reason the request for reactivation would be denied. Recovery will respond back to the staff member with the outcome of the review.

Q4. Where are Overpayment Debts that SDU processes indicated in AZCARES?

  1. Overpayments that SDU is notified of to process and setup Overpayment Debts, known in AZCARES as Recoupment Records, can occur in 3 different ways:
  2. Administrative Check Request
  3. Posted in Error Request
  4. AZCARES Generated Overpayment Report
  1. The overpayment debts are reflected in Activity History entries processed by Recovery.
  • F0805 RECOVERY OVERPAYMENT DEBT
  • F0806 RECOVERY OVERPAYMENT DEBT RECOUP
  • F0807 RECOVERY OVERPAYMENT DEBT FINAL PAYMENT/PIF
  • F0812 COMMENTS TO DCSS STAFF FROM RECOVERY
  • F0816 RECOVERY OVERPAYMENT UNCOLLECTABLE
  • F0814 RECOVERY DEBT PAYMENT AGREEMENT SENT
  • F0815 RECOVERY DEBT PAYMENT AGREEMENT REC'D
  1. Is there specific information you would like to see on the SDU page that would be helpful? Please submit your ideas here. ​
 
Last Review Date: 1/12/2026
Next Review Date: 1/12/2027
Last Revision Date: 1/12/2026