January 2024 NCSEA CSQ

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Behavioral Economics and Attracting Customers to the IV-D Program by Taylor Ashe, Policy Program Consultant - Program Initiatives, Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement In the book Nudge: The Final Edition, Nobel Prize in Economics winner Richard Thaler and author Cass Sunstein present a comprehensive introduction to behavioral economics for the individual, governments, and society as a whole. i Building off the comprehensive research on human decision-making pioneered by Daniel Kahneman, this book highlights how child support professionals can think of themselves as “choice architects” who are “responsible for organizing the context in which people make decisions” every time they build or engage in an interaction with parents. ii At the core of behavioral economics is the discovery that humans make decisions with countless biases at play. These biases are always present and inform the way we navigate websites, read email, or process and internalize advertising. Like the architects who design the built world, child support professionals have a range of tools available when designing interactions with potential customers that can help integrate biased human decision-making into an informed, easy, and pleasant choice architecture
experience. Some of the more powerful tools noted in Nudge and in much other behavioral economic research are described below: • Default options are powerful. In countless experiments, defaults have been found to be highly effective. iii The Texas Office of the Attorney General received a waiver from the federal Office of Child Support Services (OCSS) in 1996 that allowed the Texas Child Support Division to bypass the requirement that families must apply for IV-D services and pay a fee unless the child is receiving certain federally-funded benefits. With this waiver, Texas enacted a program that automatically enrolled all new child support orders in divorce cases into the IV-D program in counties that chose to participate. These families could opt out if they chose to, but the default option was automatic enrollment. An evaluation of this program showed it was effective; it increased the IV-D caseload and improved collections. iv After allowing this program to operate for many years, OCSS eventually terminated the waiver in 2021. Since then, the Texas Division of Child Support has implemented a streamlined application process for parties in divorce cases who want to opt into IV-D services in those counties that participated in the waiver. • Humans are social creatures. There are countless ways in which the actions of others who share aspects of identity (political affiliation, parenthood status, job, etc.) have a profound effect on the decisions humans make. Language such as, “Parents who work full-time like you…” can be powerful ways to increase customer engagement. • Give feedback during a decision-making event. Indicators such as a progress bar showing how much is left on an online application or green checkmarks next to the correct format for email addresses and phone numbers provide real-time feedback to customers and encourage their decision to continue. • Describe the result of a choice as a real-world outcome. For example: “By checking this box, a Family Violence Indicator (FVI) will be placed on your account for you and your dependents. This will ensure that none of your personal identifiable information including address or phone number are shared with the other parent.”
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Page 6 and 7: and seeking guidance as needed on s
Page 8 and 9: Congress Shines a Light on Federal
Page 10 and 11: I was asked to testify on Monday af
Page 12 and 13: inter-jurisdictional; and (3) the p
Page 14 and 15: speaking on behalf of the whole chi
Page 16 and 17: and State Child Support agencies ca
Page 18 and 19: Tom Joseph has represented public s
Page 22 and 23: While these are powerful tools that
Page 24 and 25: customers are not forgotten. Potent
Page 26 and 27: primarily to traditional W-2 employ
Page 28 and 29: compliance with the clarified new h
Page 30 and 31: enabling them to be utilized as bot
Page 32 and 33: Thursday, NCSEA President Erin Fris
Page 34 and 35: Breaking the Mold: Exploring Non-Ca
Page 36 and 37: simple cash payments. They can cont
Page 38: Conclusion Non-cash child support c

January 2024 NCSEA CSQ

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