Child support enforcement agencies control important parts of your financial life and personal freedom. The scope of their power isn’t always obvious though. Everything gets more stressful once those letters about license suspension or wage garnishment land in your mailbox. These notices don’t usually spell out your actual rights or mention what other options are available to you.
These agencies have a tremendous amount of authority that comes from federal and state laws and these laws let them access your tax refunds and bank accounts. They can also report you to credit bureaus and even block your passport renewal if you owe more than $2,500. The system deals with cases for millions of families each year. Parents can also face different levels of enforcement based on the type of case they have. Title IV-D cases (which include state assistance) will get handled more aggressively than private cases do.
This article will help you cut through all the confusion about what these agencies can do to you and what protections you have. Every action they take has to follow specific statutes and court precedents and these laws actually do limit how far they can go. When you know these boundaries, you’ll be in a much better position to respond to enforcement actions and make sure you’re exercising all the rights that you have within the system.
Here’s how these agencies work through the child support process.
Laws That Create and Guide These Agencies
Congress created these particular agencies in 1975 as part of Title IV-D of the Social Security Act. The concept was fairly simple for the time. They needed an organized system that could actually enforce child support and make it a reality for families across the country.
These agencies work as a unique partnership where the federal government and state governments share responsibilities. Federal officials set the basic guidelines that every agency has to follow. State agencies then take care of all the day-to-day enforcement work and operations in their jurisdictions. Your local child support agency manages two sets of requirements at once. They follow the federal guidelines and comply with your state’s laws and procedures.
The landscape changed quite a bit in 1996 with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Congress handed these agencies much expanded powers for collecting child support payments. The agencies could now use a much wider range of tools to find non-paying parents and enforce payment orders. Bank accounts became easier to freeze. Licenses could be suspended. Tax refunds could be intercepted. The agencies went from limited options to a whole arsenal of enforcement mechanisms at their disposal.
Court decisions have been slowly chipping away at these enforcement powers for quite some time. Turner v. Rogers in 2011 changed the game. The Supreme Court said that agencies can’t simply ask a judge to throw someone in jail for unpaid child support anymore. They first have to prove that the person actually has the money to pay. This ruling meant agencies had to slow down and do their homework before they threaten anyone with jail time.
Most parents don’t know that child support cases fall into two separate categories. IV-D cases are the ones where the enforcement agency gets involved right from day one. Private cases are different because the parents first handle everything on their own or with their attorneys. The enforcement agency only enters the picture in a private case if one of the parents specifically requests their assistance later on.
The category your case falls into has consequences for how aggressively the agency pursues collection. IV-D cases usually face more persistent enforcement action. Any parent who receives public assistance automatically gets pushed into the IV-D category whether they want it or not. The state has its own financial stake in these cases because collecting the child support money helps them recoup some of their welfare expenditures.
Ways Agencies Can Take Your Money
Child support agencies have quite a few different options they can use to go after parents who aren’t keeping up with their payments. The method they use most frequently is wage garnishment and that’s when they take the money straight out of your paycheck before you can even see it. Federal law gives them the authority to take anywhere from 50% to 65% of your disposable income after all your taxes are paid. The exact percentage they can take varies based on a few factors.
When wage garnishment isn’t an option or it’s just not enough, these agencies have other tools at their disposal. They can freeze your bank accounts and withdraw money directly from them. They also have the power to place liens on your property, including your house and your vehicles. You’ll be stuck with that property until you’ve paid off your child support debt since they’ve placed a lien on it. You won’t be able to sell it or change the ownership at all. These agencies aren’t trying to be mean or vindictive about it. They’re just doing their job to make sure kids receive the financial support they’re entitled to by law.
Tax refund season gives the agencies one more collection tool. The Federal Tax Refund Offset Program lets them grab your entire tax refund before it ever makes it to your bank account. State tax refunds are fair game too. All that money you were probably counting on for a vacation or home repairs could go straight to your child support debt instead.
License suspension has actually turned out to be one of the most successful ways to get parents to pay up. Child support agencies can suspend any license you hold. Your driver’s license is usually the first on the list. But they can also go after professional licenses and even recreational ones, like hunting or fishing permits. Since parents typically need their car to get to work and earn a living, they usually find a way to start making payments pretty fast.
International travel also gets impossible once your back support hits $2,500. The government won’t issue or renew your passport until you’ve taken care of your child support obligations. That business trip overseas or family vacation abroad isn’t happening until you’ve settled up. Child support agencies also report delinquent accounts to all the main credit bureaus. Bad credit makes life much harder if you need to apply for loans, rent an apartment or land some types of jobs.
Child Support Rules Across State Boundaries
Child support enforcement across state lines can be a legal nightmare, though it’s becoming more manageable. Many child support cases involve parents who live in different states and this number continues to go up every year as families become more mobile. States have developed pretty advanced systems to work together on these cases.
The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (or UIFSA for short) makes it possible for only one state to have the authority to issue orders at any given time. Without this law, you’d have multiple states issuing conflicting orders which would create absolute chaos for everyone involved. Parents would be stuck trying to work out which order to follow and enforcement agencies wouldn’t know which one to enforce.
The state that originally issued your child support order usually maintains what’s called the continuing exclusive jurisdiction. For example, if you were divorced in New York, then you moved to Florida and your ex relocated to Oregon, New York would still be the state with the power to modify that order in most cases. It’s a sensible approach because, otherwise, you’d have three different states that might be fighting over who gets to make decisions and that wouldn’t help anyone.
Federal law makes it so every state has to accept and enforce child support orders from other states. An order from Texas has to be respected in California, just like a California order has to be respected in Maine. The Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act requires it. States can’t simply ignore one another’s court orders because they feel like it. The Federal Parent Locator Service is a government system that does just what it’s supposed to. It connects with employers, banks, and government agencies nationwide to track down parents who won’t pay their child support. Lots of parents think they can pack up and move to another state and just disappear to get out of their obligations. That strategy doesn’t work anymore because this system has become very skilled at tracking down anyone who owes support, no matter how hard they work to stay hidden.
Interstate cases can get messy because you have agencies from two or three different states all working together and each state agency has its own job in the enforcement process. One state actually collects the payments, another state deals with any changes to the order amount and a third state is where the receiving parent lives. While it sounds confusing, these agencies have become quite skilled at coordinating with one another over the years.
Your Rights in the Legal Process
Child support agencies have plenty of power and, sometimes, it seems like they can do whatever they want. The positive news is that you actually have quite a few rights that protect you. Agencies can’t simply seize your property or drag you to court without warning. A written notification is needed each time.
The Supreme Court has weighed in on this issue a few times and the message is the same each time. Parents have strong constitutional rights and child welfare agencies can’t simply ignore them or brush them aside. For you, this translates into some concrete protections. The agency has to tell you what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. They can’t simply show up and make requests without explanation. And before anything big happens with your case, you get a chance to tell your side of the story and defend yourself.
When an agency claims you haven’t paid child support, the burden of proof is on them. They need to show the documentation and records to back up their claims. This next part really matters. They also need to look at whether you actually have the money to pay in the first place. The courts usually throw out cases when agencies ignore someone’s genuine financial hardship. It’s a due process violation and judges don’t take that lightly.
You’re entitled to request an administrative hearing if you disagree with what the agency is doing. These hearings usually happen within 30 to 60 days after you file your request. I see a lot of parents skip this step because they assume it won’t make a difference and it’s a mistake. Parents who show up and explain their situation usually get better results than those who just ignore the whole process.
Civil contempt and criminal contempt might sound similar but they are different charges. With civil contempt, the court is mainly focused on getting you to follow their order from this point forward. Criminal contempt is something else. It’s the court punishing you for something you’ve already done. They each have their own laws and they both can land you in hot water if you’re not careful with how you handle the situation.
In general, parents who get legal help are less likely to wind up in jail for contempt. It’s a massive difference. Even if money is tight and you can’t afford a lawyer, you should definitely ask about your right to representation. Lots of courts will appoint an attorney for you, especially when jail time is on the table.
How to Change Your Child Support Order?
Child support orders are flexible. Life happens and circumstances change, and fortunately, the courts get this reality. The law lets you request a modification to your payment amount when you’ve experienced what qualifies as a significant change in circumstances. What counts as significant depends on your state. But most of them draw the line at around a 15% to 20% change in your income. Some states are even more generous and will review your case when the difference is $50 a month.
The timing of your request matters though. Courts won’t backdate modifications under any circumstances. Lose your job six months ago and just now submit the paperwork for a modification and you still owe the full original amount for all those six months. The reduction only kicks in from the exact day you file your request with the court. The Bradley Amendment is the federal law behind this strict requirement and it prevents any past-due child support from being forgiven or lowered retroactively no matter what.
You have two different types of modifications available and which one you need depends on your situation. A temporary modification makes sense when you just lost your job last week or have a short-term medical issue. A permanent modification is the right choice when your financial situation has fundamentally changed for the long term. Maybe you’ve switched careers and your new field pays less or you’ve become disabled and can’t work the same hours anymore.
A few common situations will usually qualify you for a review of your support order. Job loss is probably the simplest reason to file. A new child to support also qualifies in most states through birth or adoption. Changes in custody arrangements can trigger a review too, especially when you now have the kids for much more of the time than the original order specified. Your oldest child recently turning eighteen and graduating high school is another valid reason to go back to court.
Large numbers of parents who qualify for modifications never get around to submitting the paperwork. Many parents who are actually eligible parents never request the changes they need and deserve. A mistake like that could cost you thousands of dollars as the months and years go by. During any waiting period for the court to make its decision after you file for a modification, you need to continue making your original payments. Just pay the full amount that you’ve been paying all along. Any payments that you skip or lower during the wait will pile up as arrears. The court will still hold you responsible for every dollar of it later.
Do You Need Help From a Lawyer?
If you need advice on handling a child support matter, contact an experienced child support attorney to assist you. A seasoned child support attorney can make sure you are consistently getting the right amount of support to provide for your child’s needs.
Child support enforcement agencies have plenty of power, and anyone who’s been through the system knows how scary it feels. These agencies possess extensive authority to secure support payments and give needed protection for children who need that financial stability. At the same time, they have to work within legal boundaries and respect constitutional protections that apply to everyone. When you know the scope of authority and limitations, the entire system feels far less overwhelming.
Knowledge of these parameters benefits both parties in a support case. The parent who receives support gains a better picture of the available enforcement options and the paying parent understands their rights and obligations. This knowledge changes the situation completely. You move from feeling powerless in a confusing bureaucracy to having a solid picture of what to expect and how to get through the process well.
Child support agencies have some very strong tools at their disposal, and for very important reasons. Kids need to eat, have clothes on their backs, and have a safe place to live. These aren’t negotiable costs. Even with that enforcement power though, you do still have rights throughout the entire process. You can speak up and demand to be heard, you’re entitled to advance warning before any action gets taken against you and you can ask for modifications when your circumstances change. Parents miss these protections all the time and the consequences are always expensive.
Now that you know how the system works and what protections you have, you’re ready to handle whatever comes from these agencies. You’ve learned the guidelines they have to follow and you know your rights as a citizen and you have the right procedures for requesting changes if you need them. This knowledge takes something that could be terrifying and confusing and turns it into something that you can manage. The process might still be tough and stressful. But least now you know what you’re up against.
Knowledge only gets you so far with child support cases. That’s where an experienced attorney changes everything. At LegalMatch, you can connect with attorneys who work with child support enforcement cases all day long and who know just how to work within the system to get results. Connect with an attorney using our matching system, and they’ll sit down with you to review your situation and explain each of the steps ahead. They’ll also protect your interests and make sure that the system treats you fairly. You can match with an attorney who’ll put everything you’ve learned into action for your family.
