Collecting the child support that you are owed to cover the expenses of raising your children would be a seamless and simple process in an ideal world. However, as many single parents know, enforcing child support payments is often necessary.
If you are getting a divorce or splitting up with your child’s other parent, it’s a good idea to register with your state’s child support enforcement agency as soon as possible. A wage assignment is an effective method to collect both current and past owed child support.
Is It Necessary to Set Up Child Support Payments Through the State?
Some states require you to set up child support payments through the state; you can check this with your attorney. But even if your state does not require this, it can be worth doing if you suspect that your ex-partner is going to try and get away with not paying the child support that they owe.
This is because when you handle child support privately, it can be harder to collect payments if there is an issue compared to collecting it through the state. Find out more about how to track child support payments at Onward.
Onward’s guide offers a range of different ways to track and check child support payments to make sure that they are up to date. They also offer a useful co-parenting app that you can use with your ex to share expenses and make payments when needed.
Can You Ensure That Child Support is Paid?
Another benefit of collecting child support through the state is that even though it might be more hassle compared to collecting it privately at first, it does provide you with a way to ensure that the child support is paid each month.
If your ex does not comply with a court order to pay child support, they will be in violation, and you can go back to court to ask the judge to enforce the order. This way, any issues with the child support payment will also be handled by the child support agency, saving you the hassle.
Does Collecting Through the State Mean I Get Less Child Support?
Some difficult ex-partners will try and convince you that if you go through the state to get child support, they will not have to pay as much as you have agreed on privately, which can put you off taking this route.
However, don’t fall for this manipulation tactic. In most cases, when you ask for your child support to be paid and collected through the state, it will not reduce the amount that you are paid and will save you a lot of trouble.
How to Get Child Support Payments Taken from Your Exes Paycheck?
In some cases, it might be necessary to make child support payments directly from your ex-partner’s paycheck if they are withholding child support or continuing to refuse to make child support payments even when there is a court order in place. To get this, you will need to ask the court to order that child support payments are garnished.
What Can Child Support Payments Be Taken From?
If your ex-partner is going to college, for example, and gets money from the school in the form of a scholarship, then this would not be eligible for making child support payments. On the other hand, if they have a job at the college that they are paid for, then they would be eligible for child support.
Jobs that pay cash in hand will also count towards paying child support; however, you will need to have proof that your ex is being paid, in the form of bank receipts or witnesses who can support your claim, for example. Insurance settlements may or may not be eligible for child support payments depending on your state.
What if Your Ex Refuses to Comply with a Court Order?
If your ex has been ordered to pay child support by the courts but has refused to comply with the order, getting them back-paid will depend on how the payments were going to be made.
If the payments were meant to be made directly to you from your ex, then you should return to the court where the original order was created and file papers for a violation to enforce the order. You should get in touch with the state child support agency if the payments were meant to be made through them, and they will handle the situation on your behalf.
Can You Enforce an Informal Child Support Agreement in Court?
In most cases, any informal agreements that have been made regarding child support cannot be enforced by the court. You will first need to get a court order for the child support amount.
Child support is a tricky subject for many single parents, and while it should not be this difficult to deal with, understanding some common issues and how to handle them is important if you are coparenting.