How to Enforce a Child Support Order

So you filed the application for child support, attended the hearing, and a child support order was entered by the judge. But, the other parent says they aren't going to pay – and you have yet to receive a support check. What can do you went the supporting parent refuses to live up to his obligations? Enforce the order, of course! Here is how you can enforce a child support order and get the money that your child deserves:

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Find Out Exactly How Much You Are Owed
   
   Hopefully, you have been keeping track of your child support payments as they come in. If you aren't already, you should start listing the dates that you receive the payments, how much was paid at that time, and if the payment was more or less than what was due. If you haven't been doing that up until now, no worries – you should be able to piece together how much you've been paid by getting a copy of the checks you cashed or your checking account statements, finding the payments you have received, totaling them all, and subtracting that amount from the amount you should have received in total since the day the order was put in place. If you were paid in cash and have no record of the payments, you are going to have a lot of trouble trying to both figure out what is owed and prove it.

2. Contact Your States's Child Support Enforcement Office
   
   Every state has an office dedicated to child support and enforcing it. You can contact the office to find out what the limits are for arrears (usually $10,000) and what steps you need to take to get the ball rolling. Visit the address below to find your state's office, their address, and the phone number to get in contact with them. Have both the amount you are owed and a copy of your support order ready when you call:
   
   https://ocse.acf.hhs.gov/int/directories/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.extivdlist

3. How to Enforce Child Support
   
   Once you open a case with your child support enforcement office, you will learn there are different ways of forcefully coercing supporting parents into paying their child support. These methods range from simply removing the money out of the parent's paycheck automatically before they receive it every payday, or having their employer withhold the amount, to suspended the parent's driver's license and other professional licenses, to actually putting the parent in jail until they pay back a certain percentage of the arrears they owe. For repeat offenders, the parent will be let off the hook until the entire amount has been paid in full. In most cases, this is more than enough to not only “encourage” the parent to pay their support in full, but to never skip or short you on support payments again in the future.