| August 2006 |
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|
Setoff Debt Collection Program
Step by Step |
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1. |
The
governing body of your county, hospital, special purpose
district, or other political subdivision must pass a
resolution authorizing the Association of Counties to act as
your claimant agent in the collection of delinquent debts.
Please fax or mail a copy of this resolution to SCAC. Also, you
must send a letter from your attorney addressing the claimant
agency’s eligibility to participate in these debt collection
programs. |
| 2. |
Sign a
Memorandum of Understanding and Agreement between your
county, hospital, special purpose district, or other political
subdivision and the S.C. Association of Counties. |
| 3. |
Complete
the Participation Form for your county, hospital, special
purpose district, or other political subdivision. Complete the
Appointment of Hearing Officer form, which identifies the
Hearing Officer who will fulfill the duties outlined in
§12-56-65. All entities must submit these forms in order to
participate in the coming year. |
| 4. |
Begin
gathering your list of delinquent debts. All debts submitted
for setoff debt must include social security numbers. The
minimum debt submitted should be at least $50. The Association
will provide each participant with a computer software program
for preparing the debt file for the Association. Or, the entity
may submit the data in an ASCII file or an Excel file in the
field layout as specified by SCAC. |
| 5. |
Debtors must be notified by letter of
outstanding debts, substantially following the language set
forth in the Setoff Debt Collection Act in §12-56-62.
The letter includes the appeals
process a debtor should follow to dispute a debt. SCAC
also recommends adding a sentence to the letter relating to
administrative fees as authorized
by §12-56-60 and §12-56-63 of the Setoff Debt Collection Act.
These notices should be mailed no later than
October 2 (earlier, if possible, to allow the debtors the 30
days required by the statute to satisfy their debts, and to
allow entities time for administrative processing of these
debts.) Entities are no longer required to renotify debtors who
have already been notified if there are no changes to the
account information. |
| 6. |
If a written protest is received
from a Debtor, the entity must complete and send the Notice
of Protest form to SCAC. Also, please notify the debtor of
the date, time, and location of the informal hearing using the
address provided by the debtor in his notice of protest.
After hearing the protest, the Hearing Officer should notify
SCAC of the decision by sending the Certification of Hearing
form. If the decision is appealed by the debtor, the Hearing
Officer should notify SCAC of any contest before the
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and the ALJ ruling. |
| 7. |
The debt file must be
submitted to the Association of Counties no later than November
10. If pulling data from more than one system, entities may
submit multiple files with different formats (SCAC Software,
ASCII, Excel). SCAC will compile all the files to prepare
software for the entity, as requested. A copy of the
completed certification form must be faxed or mailed to SCAC
before we can process the initial load. Files should be
submitted using electronic transfers through SCAC’s secure SSL
software. |
| 8. |
SCAC will send a Confirmation Report
to each entity showing the total number and dollar amount
of
records in the initial load file, as well as
a listing of records with errors. Entities may review this
listing and provide SCAC an adjustment file with corrections to
any accounts. All corrections are due by November 24.
SCAC will not load your initial load until we
have received verification of the totals in the confirmation
report. |
| 9. |
After the initial load is loaded by SCAC,
accounts can be reduced or deleted (actually reduced to $0.00)
at any time due to payments or protests; however, accounts
cannot be added or increased. Any
adjustment file, containing account reductions, deletions and
protests, sent to SCAC after the initial load data file has been
submitted to SCAC and before SCAC sends the data to the S.C.
Department of Revenue will be applied to both the current year
data file for 2006 and the new year data file for 2007.
Adjustments received before December 8 are
guaranteed to be included in the initial load sent to DOR.
After December 8, please continue to send all adjustments
to SCAC, daily as necessary, and we will attempt to include them
in the final load sent to DOR. If we cannot process these
adjustments before December 15, we will send the adjustments to
DOR as soon as we receive confirmation that DOR has loaded your
data into their system. |
| 10. |
SCAC will continue to process
match data for the current year. This match data should be
loaded into your active data file for the current year. If
you are managing two separate data files for the current year
and the new year, the match data will need to be entered into
both files. |
| 11. |
SCAC’s technical staff will
assist you with downloading the new year’s version of the
software beginning January 1, if you are using our software.
To use the upgraded software, you must have Internet access and
have a currently supported Microsoft Operating System (2000, XP,
etc.) |
| 12. |
Please continue sending
adjustment files. TO MINIMIZE REFUNDS, PLEASE SEND ADJUSTMENT
FILES PROMPTLY AS YOU RECEIVE PAYMENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.
Entities should immediately notify SCAC of any bankruptcies.
SCAC will send a confirmation report to you for all adjustment
files showing the total number and dollar amount of
adjustments received. If the amount differs from your records,
please contact SCAC immediately. |
| 13. |
Upon receipt of a setoff or GEAR
file, SCAC will process the data and send to each entity a
letter, check or electronic deposit notification, detailed
report and file of transactions. Entities will receive email
notifications alerting you of an available file to download.
With SCAC’s Debt Collection Software, you will be able to
download the data file and detailed report to your computer
through the Debt Software Transfer (SSL) Module. If you are
using Electronic Funds Transfer, you will receive an automatic
deposit to your bank account and an email notifying you of the
deposit. |
| 14. |
After receiving a setoff report
from SCAC, the entity must promptly notify the debtor in
writing of the setoff and the status of the debt as required
by the statute. |
|
15.
|
SCAC will provide entities Address updates
from the DOR tax return system in June and December.
We will send you data files and reports
showing differences between the DOR system and the SCAC system.
Please update your data as necessary.
|
| Please send all
notices and forms mentioned above to: Melinda Suddes, South
Carolina Association of Counties, P.O. Box 8207, Columbia, SC
29202-8207. If you have questions, please contact Melinda at
1-800-922-6081 or email her at melinda@scac.state.sc.us. |
