Hamilton County Announces New,
Convenient Way to Pay Child and Spousal Support
Sept. 16, 2009 --
Hamilton County residents who
owe child or spousal support can now pay online by credit or debit
card, providing a flexible, secure method of making on-time
payments.
The County has contracted with Point
& Pay, a third-party vendor, to accept the payments, which can be
made with American Express®, Discover®, MasterCard® and VISA® credit
or debit cards. Depending upon individual card benefits, cardholders
can even earn rewards such as airline miles or other bonuses when
making their payments with a credit card.
An online payment can be made by
going to the Job and Family Services website,
www.hcjfs.org.
Click into the Online Service Center box at the bottom left, and
select the Point & Pay link in the Child Support section at the top.
Payers must provide a case number, credit or debit card information
and the amount that is to be paid. A nominal fee is calculated and
charged for this convenient service.
"One of the major goals of our agency
is to be more accessible to the people we serve," said Moira Weir,
director of Hamilton County’s Job and Family Services Department.
"In this day and age, there is no reason why we can’t provide
Hamilton County residents a convenient way to pay that saves them
time, gas money and the hassle of coming downtown. Now, they have
the flexibility of paying any time, any day from anywhere there is a
computer."
For more than 10 years, Point & Pay
has offered citizens the ease of fulfilling payment obligations in
real-time, conveniently and securely, at anytime, from anywhere.
"Credit card and debit card payments
continue to rise in popularity, reflecting the trend of using
electronic payment methods instead of traditional, paper-based
options," said Joshua Rush, director of Marketing for Point & Pay.
"We are excited to bring this convenient, new payment option to
Hamilton County."
Talbert House takes over operation of
Mount Airy Center
Sept. 1, 2009 -- Effective today, the Hamilton County Department of Job and
Family Services will no longer handle operations of the Mount Airy Center
homeless shelter. The agency has transferred operations to Talbert House.
As the agency focuses on mandated services in light of shrinking state
allocations, the best course of action was to turn the shelter over to a
community provider with more experience providing direct services to this
population. The agency has worked closely not only with Talbert House, but also
the City of Cincinnati, County Community Development and the Continuum of Care
for the Homeless.
Talbert House runs mental health, substance abuse,
employment and other programs that will be available to the homeless men at
Mount Airy.
Talbert House officials plan to operate the shelter in a
similar manner to HCJFS. A transition plan was put into place to help Talbert
House officials learn about the day-to-day operations of the shelter. HCJFS
employees who worked at the shelter were given the opportunity to apply and
interview for the positions at the shelter through Talbert House.
The agency expects to save $500,000 annually with Talbert
House taking over shelter operations.
