Child Support Enforcement LOCATE

EXPANDED FEDERAL PARENT LOCATOR SERVICE (EFPLS)

GENERAL INFORMATION

This topic contains information on the following subjects:

1. An overview of EFPLS;

2. The Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS);

3. The interfaces that FPLS has with other agencies;

4. The return of information from FPLS;

5. Requesting FPLS manual Locate data.



EXPANDED FEDERAL PARENTR LOCATOR SERVICE (EFPLS) OVERVIEW

EFPLS provides CSE agencies with locate, income, asset and employment information on noncustodial parents (NCPs). It facilitates the sharing of this information among states. EFPLS consists of:

• National Directory of New Hire (NDNH) - Provides new hire, quarterly wage, and unemployment insurance from state new hire directories and federal employers' data.
• Federal Case Registry (FCR) - Provides case and participant data from the various state case registries.
• Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) - Provides data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Defense, Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Veterans Affairs, Federal Agencies, and SSA/Master Beneficiary Records. FPLS is the national child support data system, operated by OCSE. Its purpose is to collect and share information with state child support agencies to help them in quickly locating individuals and expediting case processing.

FEDERAL PARENT LOCATOR SERVICE (FPLS)

When a case has been in the Locate Processing Status for seventy-four (74) days, ACTS submits the NCP to the interface with FPLS. As long as the case remains in Locate, it is not automatically submitted again. However, when the case moves to another processing status, then re-enters Locate later, and remains there for seventy-four (74) days, ACTS re-submits the NCP to FPLS. Each time that an NCP is submitted to the ACTS/FPLS interface is recorded in the system.

CSE caseworkers can submit manual requests to all or selected FPLS sources at any time after the initial submission. ACTS records each manual request in the case history.



FPLS INTERFACES

FPLS has interfaces with the following agencies:

• Federal Bureau of Investigation;
• Department of Defense;
• Internal Revenue Service;
• Social Security Administration;
• Veterans Affairs;
• Federal Agencies;
• SSA/Master Beneficiary Records (SSA/MBR).

When the FPLS interface returns information, ACTS notifies the responsible caseworker. ACTS also notifies caseworkers when it cannot return information from any of these sources, including the reason why data could not be returned.



RETURN OF INFORMATION FROM FPLS

When a data match is found, the FPLS sends the results to the applicable state(s) if family violence has NOT been indicated and the Social Security number of the individual(s) is verified. Persons in N.C. NIVD cases do not have information returned. Information on other states' NIVD cases is returned through FRC proactive matching.

FPLS can return the following types of information:

• Participant home or employment address data;
• Participant employer data;
• Participant income or asset data;
• Participant CSE case data (for cases in other states).

REQUESTING FEDERAL PARENT LOCATOR SERVICE (FPLS) MANUAL LOCATE DATA

Because the FCR and the NDNH perform proactive searches, caseworkers rarely need to send manual FPLS Locate requests. However, ACTS enables caseworkers to send manual requests to specific (or all) FPLS sources. In order for CSE caseworkers to send a manual FPLS Locate request, the selected ACTS participant must be registered with the FCR.

If caseworkers have exhausted all other location efforts when searching for a client, they can transmit a manual request to FPLS for data from the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) and other external location sources. The resulting response can provide the most recent employment and address data that is available in FPLS.