One of the most significant changes in child support enforcement was the implementation of the New Hire Reporting Program. New hire reporting is the process by which an employer reports information on newly hired employees to a state directory within 20 days of the hire.

Ohio Revised Code Section 3121.89 - 3121.8911 and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, 42 U.S.C. 653A requires all employers to report newly hired employees to a state directory. This information is matched with state and national data to help collect child support through income withholding.

The Ohio New Hire Reporting Program is operated for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), Office of Child Support by a private competitively-bid contractor. The new hire reports are processed by the contractor and transmitted to ODJFS. ODJFS also cross checks this information with public assistance, unemployment, and workers' compensation files to prevent unlawful or erroneous receipt of benefits.

Ohio submits the new hire reports to the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH), a component of the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS). The FPLS receives new hire data from all states and, along with other state employment data, matches it with requests for locate information. When a match is made, FPLS provides the requesting state with the locate information.

Security and privacy of data is a major focus of the new hire program. Federal law requires all states to establish safeguards for confidential information handled by state agencies and specifies who and for what purpose the information can be used.

To read more about the employers' role in New Hire Reporting, click on "Helping America's Children and Saving Taxpayer Dollars."

Employers must report hires, rehires or the return to work of an employee who has been laid off, furloughed, separated, granted a leave without pay, or terminated from employment. Ohio Revised Code section 3121.89 defines an employee as "an individual who is employed to provide services for compensation to an employer and includes an individual who provides services to an employer under a contract as an independent contractor and who is an individual, the sole shareholder of a corporation, or the sole member of a limited liability company." This statutory definition requires that Independent Contractors (persons for whom you are required to submit a 1099 form) be reported as new hires.

An employer who fails to make a new hire report can be fined up to $25 for each failure to report. If the failure to make a report is the result of a conspiracy between the employer and the employee not to report or to supply false or incomplete information, the fine can be up to $500.00 for each failure to report.

Ohio employers who have employees working in multiple states can either:

• report newly hired employees to the state in which they are working, following the new hire regulations, requirements and time frames of each state to which you report, or
• select a state where you have employees working and report all new hires to that state electronically or magnetically with two monthly submissions not less than 12 days nor more than 16 days apart.

You may choose only one of the options. You must also notify both the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and the United States Department of Health and Human Services in writing of the state that you have designated as the state to which you will transmit your report. You may notify the Department of HHS in one of three ways:

1. Mail or fax the notification to :
   
   Department of Health and Human Services
   Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE)
   Multi State Employer Registrations
   Box 509
   Randallstown, MD 21133
   (410) 227-9325 (FAX)
   
   Please include the following information:
   
   • Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN)
   • Employer's name, address, telephone number related to the state selected for reporting purposes
   • Other states in which your company has employees
   • Corporate point of contact
   
   

   If your company will be reporting new hires on behalf of your subsidiaries who operate under different names and FEINs, please also list the names, FEINs, and states where they have employees working.

   NOTE: This option is not available to payroll service companies reporting on behalf of multi state companies.

2. You may use the Multi State Employer Notification form that contains all the information listed above. Call (202) 401-9267 to request a copy of the form or download a copy of the form from the federal OCSE website: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/newhire/employer/publication/publication.htm
   
   
3. You may inform the Secretary of Health and Human Services by providing your information electronically to the interactive site at the above web site address.

• If reporting manually, you must report within 20 days of hire
• If reporting electronically, you must report at least two times per month (if you have new employees to report), 12-16 days apart.

1. Gather the following information:
   • Employee name, address, date of birth, social security number, and date of hire, rehire, or return to work; and
   • Employer name, address, and federal employer identification number (FEIN).
2. Create the report using:
   • An internet report created at the New Hire Website: www.oh-newhire.com
   • An electronic report via cartridge or diskette;
   • Electronic File Transfer;
   • A photocopy of the employee's W-4 form (including company name, address and FEIN as well as the employee's date of hire);
   • A photocopy of the New Hire Form, JFS 07048; and
   • A computer print-out or other list of employees.
3. Submit the Report

You can submit the report via the Ohio New Hire Reporting Center's Website at www.oh-newhire.com, fax to 1-888-872-1611, or mail to the Ohio New Hire Reporting Program, P.O. Box 15309, Columbus, Ohio 43215-0309.

Using one of the electronic methods is the most efficient and accurate way to submit the information. If you would like more information on electronic reporting, please contact their office at the phone number or address listed above.

1. As an employer, how do I benefit from New Hire reporting?
2. How can I minimize the amount of time I spend on reporting new employees?
3. Isn't new hire information currently available through quarterly wage reporting?
4. Do I have to report a new employee as a new hire if the employee worked for me in the past?

1. Q. As an employer, how do I benefit from New Hire reporting?
   
   A. A direct result of New Hire reporting will be the reduction and prevention of fraudulent worker's compensation and unemployment insurance payments. Timely receipt of new hire data allows Ohio to cross-match this data against its active unemployment claimant files and either stop payments or recover erroneous payments.
   
   
2. Q. How can I minimize the amount of time I spend on reporting new employees?
   
   A. The majority of information you must submit is already information on a new employee's W-4 form. Although the reporting process is an additional requirement, the majority of employers either report very little or no cost impact to their operations. To ease the process, Ohio offers a variety of reporting methods.
   
   
3. Q. Isn't new hire information currently available through quarterly wage reporting?
   
   A. There can be as much as a six month lag from the date of submission of wage data information to the date the child support office receives the information. Because many individuals change jobs frequently, quarterly wage data is often out of date or the employee is no longer working for the specified Ohio employer. With new hire reporting, data is available within a significantly shorter period of time.
   
   
4. Q. Do I have to report a new employee as a new hire if the employee worked for me in the past?
   
   A. Yes. You must report all new hires, including rehires.
   
   

For more Questions and Answers, please visit the Ohio New Hire Reporting Center website at www.oh-newhire.com.