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By Birmingham Debt Management Operations Center

The 2009 tax season is coming to an end and the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) Call Center is now making preparations for the upcoming Economic Recovery Payments to begin in May. Each year the Call Center receives millions of calls and this is now the eleventh year of operations. The Call Center received approximately 4.3 million calls in 2008, with two thirds of the total calls being received during the busiest time of the year, which is tax season. During the 2008 tax season, from January 1, 2008 through April 15, 2008, the TOP Call Center received 2,848,573 as compared to 2,714,387 for the same period during the 2007 tax season. The remaining 1,455,060 for 2008 were received between April 16 and the end of the year. Answering thousands of calls is a challenge that FMS meets daily with well trained staff, terrific technical support and automation.

The Financial Management Service created TOP in response to provisions of the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (DCIA). TOP utilizes the FMS centralized disbursement process by matching a database of delinquent debts owed to various Government and State agencies against payments to be made by the Government. When TOP matches a delinquent debtor record to a payment being issued, the payment is intercepted and applied to the debt. Each time a payment is offset to help satisfy a debt, the payee receives an offset notice from FMS providing information about the offset, along with the creditor agency address and phone number(s). Each notice also contains the toll-free TOP Call Center number 1-800-304-3107 as the secondary point of contact.

The TOP Call Center responds to inquiries from the public and from agencies concerning Federal payments that have been offset or scheduled to be offset. The traditional types of questions received are “will I be offset?” or “who took my money?” As callers may be upset about the collection of their debts through the offset program, the Call Center staff is specifically trained to handle each call with professionalism so that each caller receives accurate information as quickly as possible.

The TOP Call Center has improved customer service to taxpayers with an expansion of its Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capability. The IVR system gives taxpayers around the clock access to answer many of their offset questions. The popularity of self service using the IVR has increased every year since its implementation in December 2000. In 2008, 90 percent of callers choose the self-service IVR option.

The Treasury Offset Call Center may be reached at 1-800-304-3107. Normal business hours are Monday through Friday 7:30AM to 5:00PM Central time. Calls are answered in both English and Spanish languages. The IVR automated system is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

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