Apparently, these large employers were tired of sending checks to individual counties, but instead wanted to write one check to a central disbursing unit. Our legislature buckled under and passed such a law known as Public Act 91-212. Like all state projects, they were totally unprepared, understaffed, and undercomputerized for such a massive undertaking. Macon County issues about 3,000 support checks a week and was doing a good job of it. Now, we have one state agency, which is supposed to receive and then issue millions of check each week.
Horror stories abound.
I have one client who attempted to call this unit 30 times, and all she received was a voice mail stating that the mailboxes were full, and the machine hung up. Six weeks after the support money was sent to this Unit, she still had not received a check. One recipient of support even told our Circuit Clerk that when she spoke with the State Disbursement Unit, she was told that they were resolving the backlog by processing the payments that were due the Illinois Department of Public Aid before those to individual recipients. If true, it just confirms the majesty and absence of wisdom in having a state agency involved in handling money. In any event, this process is with us and hopefully will get better in the future.