TN 33 (11-12)

A. Background for Electronic Income Withholding Orders (eIWO)

In August 2011, the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) began sending daily files to SSA containing detail records for direct processing of income withholding orders by the Court Ordered Garnishment System (COGS). Electronic Income Withholding Orders (eIWO) for child support garnishment replace the manual process for participating States and jurisdictions.

Effective February 2012, use of the electronic process began. The participating States and jurisdictions send the files electronically to SSA. The electronic process updates COGS and stores a copy of the order in the Online Retrieval System (ORS). Therefore, the field office (FO) will have no processing action on these cases.

Central Office will provide notification of participating States and jurisdictions as they elect to participate in the eIWO process.

B. eIWO process

The eIWO process will be fully automated.

1. Participating States and jurisdictions send garnishment orders directly to SSA as electronic files.

2. The eIWO files trigger the garnishment action automatically through COGS. ORS will keep a copy of the electronic garnishment order from the eIWO file. COGS sends all appropriate notices.

3. OCSE receives all rejected eIWO exceptions from COGS.

C. Responding to eIWO inquiries

Beneficiaries may contact SSA for information regarding eIWO garnishment cases.

1. For inquiries to verify information in an eIWO (e.g., the amount of withholding, the effective date), FO or Processing Center (PC) technicians and National 800 Number Network (N8NN) agents can answer questions by accessing the eIWO in ORS. Access ORS at ORS Production.

2. Refer questions to the issuing court or State Distribution Unit (SDU) that involve:

   • access to personally identifiable information (PII); or

   • questions about withholding under an eIWO (e.g., the garnished person denies knowledge of a garnishment order).

D. Identifying eIWO orders in COGS

You will find cases involving eIWO in COGS, just like paper garnishment orders. For paper garnishment orders, see GN 02410.210.

To identify eIWO orders, query COGS; see SM 00832.460

1. Select #27, Payments Outside Title II System (POTS), on the SSA main menu. Enter “3” (GARNISHMENT SYSTEM) to enter the COGS. See SM 00832.100, How to Access COGS.

2. On the Garnishment System Menu (OGSM), enter the Input Unit Code, Beneficiary BOAN and select Function “3” (QUERY). See SM 00832.200, COGS Processing of the Garnishment System Menu (OGSM).

3. The Order Query (OGOQ) screen will be displayed and provide information about the garnishment order. Use this screen to obtain the eIWO “CASE NO.” The eIWO case number will display as a 10-15 digit case number followed by an asterisk and EIWO (i.e., “XXXXXXXXXX*EIWO”). See SM 00832.280, COGS Processing of the Order Query (OGOQ) Screen.

4. For detailed information regarding the order, place an “X” next to Detail in the appropriate section; see SM 00832.280.

E. Viewing the eIWO and notices in ORS

On the ORS home screen, select “ACCESS BY SSN” under “FOLDER LIST.” Find your case using the claim Social Security Number (SSN) for the garnished beneficiary. For the selected case, choose the notice showing EIWNOT in the REPORT ID field.

Access ORS at ORS Production.

F. Participating eIWO states and jurisdictions

The following SDUs can now process by eIWO:

G. References

SM 00832.100 How to Access COGS

SM 00832.200 COGS Processing of the Garnishment System Menu (OGSM)

SM 00832.280 COGS Processing of the Order Query (OGOQ Screen)

SM 00832.460 How to Query a Garnishment Case

GN 02410.210 Processing Paper Garnishment Orders in the Field Office or Processing Center