Mix-up in mailed child support statement worries mother

When Candice Booth last week opened an envelope containing her monthly child support payment statement, she received a surprise.

Instead of finding a statement detailing the payments made by her ex-husband for their daughter, Samantha, 18, she pulled out a card listing payment information for a different family.

If Booth didn’t receive the statement meant for her, she wondered who did.

“I had someone’s confidential information and my confidential information is floating out there,” Booth said.

She worried that the statement in the hands of the wrong person might make her vulnerable to identity theft. She feared a person could use the account number printed on the statement to obtain personal information about her and Booth’s ex-husband, although a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Justice, which administers the state’s child support program, said it isn’t likely that personal information could be obtained with just the account number.

The Roseburg woman also became upset when she called the local office of the state Child Support Division to report the incident and she said the officials she spoke with didn’t seem concerned.

Booth said she was told to either shred the document or throw it into the trash. She worried that just throwing it into the trash could allow someone going through the trash bin at her apartment complex to improperly obtain the information. And she didn’t want someone somewhere else to get ahold of the card on her account the same way.

Booth said she spoke with three different workers and when she was directed to a fourth official, the call went to a voicemail message box that was already full. By that point, she said she was so angry and frustrated she didn’t bother to try and find a number to complain to the Child Support Division’s headquarters in Salem.

One of the reasons Booth was upset was that she didn’t know whether the mix-up was an isolated incident or whether hundreds of other Oregonians who receive child support payments through the Child Support Division — which handles 250,000 open cases statewide — might also be affected.

Booth’s daughter is supposed to receive $350 a month from her father. The Umpqua Community College student remained eligible for payments after she turned 18 because she’s still in school. Booth also receives payments because her husband still owes back support.

Booth also has a son, Jordan, 13, who has a different father.

Stephanie Soden, the spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Justice, said no other reports of child support statements going to the wrong recipient have been reported to her office.

“We have not heard that from anyone,” Soden said.

She said she was disturbed by the report that Booth felt her concerns were taken lightly.

“That is very disturbing to us. That is completely unacceptable,” Soden said. “I’m sorry that it happened to her.”

It’s the agency’s goal, she said, to keep all confidential information away from anyone who isn’t authorized to receive it. She said agency officials want to be informed if there is a breach.

Soden said the agency is looking into how the improper statement got into the envelope mailed to Booth rather than the one she should have received.

She also said top officials at the Roseburg office of the Child Support Division were not aware Booth had called to report a problem. She said they are reviewing procedures to ensure that such concerns receive priority attention.

On Wednesday, Booth received a letter from the Child Support Division. The four-sentence letter said that due to a printing error, the statement she received “contained incorrect information. The letter, which was accompanied by a corrected statement that included the proper information for Booth’s account, told her to disregard the previous statement but did not tell her to destroy the information or take it to a Child Support office, where it could be disposed of properly.

The letter, which was dated May 2 and arrived in an envelope dated May 4, was processed before Soden was contacted by The News-Review. That, along with statements made by the people Booth spoke with in the Roseburg child support office, led her to believe the mistake was more than an isolated incident.

“It was a very casual sort of reference. It looks like they were trying to minimize the problem,” Booth said.

A copy of the letter was faxed to Soden. She was working to obtain additional information on that mailing but had not obtained it by press deadline.



• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.