Parents

The glossary has a list of acronyms and definitions of common terms that child support workers use

How to Change a Child Support Order allows you to select a state to get state-specific information about modifying an order

No, the child support amount will not change automatically; however, either parent can request a review and modification of their child support order.  A child support obligation must be reviewed, and modified if appropriate, at least every 36 months, or sooner if there has been a substantial change in circumstances such as reduced income of the obligated parent.

Check with your caseworker to see if your child support obligation is in line with state guidelines, and ask how to request a review.

Some courts and child support offices partner with employment programs and other agencies to provide employment services to noncustodial parents who are struggling to make ends meet and support their children.  Again, contact your local child support office.

To contact your local office, click on your state on the child support contact map to find your state or tribal website.  Your state or tribal website provides contact information for your local child support office.

Either parent may ask for a review of the order to make sure it is still accurate. Child support offices will review a child support order at least every three years, or when there is a significant change of circumstances, if either parent requests such a review. Some states have a procedure for an automatic update.

Ask your caseworker for information about reviewing and, if appropriate, modifying your child support order. As part of the review, the caseworker will verify the current income of the noncustodial parent. States can adjust a child support order up or down according to child support guidelines, a cost of living adjustment, or automated methods determined by the state.

Contact your local child support office for more information.

Some agencies have an application fee, usually no more than $25. In some instances this fee can be waived. Check with your local tribal or state agency for details.

Your child support office will enforce an order. Contact your tribal or state agency to find out what methods are available.

States may use a judicial or administrative process, or a combination of both, to establish and modify child support orders.

Judicial process — the court sets the order.
Administrative process — the state child support agency sets the order.

To see your state's modification process, go to Sign Up for, Pay, or Change Your Child Support and select your state from the dropdown box.

Federal law requires states to have procedures for periodic review and adjustment (if appropriate) of child support orders.

Working with one or both parents, a state may:

• Review the child support order using state guidelines for setting orders. If the current order amount is different than what the guidelines suggest, the support order may be adjusted.
• Apply a cost-of-living adjustment to the order using a formula developed by the state.
• Identify orders eligible for review based on automated comparisons with wage and state income tax data. After reviewing identified cases, the state may apply the appropriate adjustment.

Either parent can ask for a review of the order when there's a substantial change in income or living situation.

See the Changing a Child Support Order guide for more information.

Depending on state laws regarding community property, the IRS may intercept all or part of your or your spouse's share of the federal tax refund to pay your support debt.

If you and your new spouse (called a non-obligated or "injured" spouse) file a joint income tax return, your spouse may be able to get back his or her share of the refund. To claim their portion of any refund due, your spouse may file an Injured Spouse Allocation of a Joint Return (Form 8379) with the IRS. The IRS encourages an injured spouse to file the claim at the same time the tax return is filed.

Check with your child support agency for more information.

Yes. Effective October 1, 2007, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 allows states to submit cases for debts regardless of the child's age.

The child support program--a federal, state, tribal and local partnership--collects child support.

Visit the About section of our website to learn more about program services. The Understanding Child Support is another resource for families to learn about our program.

All states have official child support guidelines. The guidelines are used to calculate how much a parent should contribute to financially support his or her child. State agencies and courts must use the guidelines unless they are shown to be inappropriate in a particular case.

Most state guidelines consider, at a minimum, the needs of the child, other dependents, and the ability of the parents to pay. Federal law requires every child support order to address how parents will provide for their child’s health care needs. To learn more about medical support, take a look at the Understanding Child Support.

Some states use an income-shares model, which means the guidelines are based on the total income of both parents.  Other states use a percentage model that calculates the child support amount only on the income of the noncustodial parent.  The percentage model assumes that the custodial parent is contributing toward the child’s needs by providing care, food, clothing, and shelter.

Visit the Intergovernmental Reference Guide, select your state on the map, and look under “Support Details” to find information about child support guidelines in your state. The Understanding Child Support page also has information on guidelines and establishing a child support order.

Possibly.  It depends on what your child support agency has to do to find the noncustodial parent and establish regular payment. The more solid information and leads you provide, the more efficiently your case can be worked. Service fees vary by state depending on whether you are receiving cash assistance. Your caseworker should be able to tell you more about these costs.

Learn more about fees.

The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) works with states, tribes, local offices, employers, nonprofit groups, other federal offices, and other governments to secure financial support for children.

The role of OCSE is to:

• Help state and tribal child support programs follow federal law
• Provide technical assistance and training in using tools to
  • Locate parents
  • Establish parentage
  • Set child support orders
  • Collect payments
• Assess how well states and tribes are processing cases and collecting payments
• Answer public inquiries
• Provide outreach materials for parents, child support professionals, and employers
• Gather and share information about promising practices in child support
• Fund grant opportunities for research in program improvement
• Serve as the central authority for international child support cases

States have varying guidelines on some aspects of child support, but federal law outlines certain standards for all states, like mandatory medical support for children and income withholding for noncustodial parents.

OCSE does not have direct access to case information and it does not collect payments directly from parents.

Learn more about OCSE.

The Passport Denial Program helps child support agencies collect from noncustodial parents who owe more than $2,500 in past-due child support. A noncustodial parent whose support debt meets the criteria for certification receives a Pre-Offset Notice that explains the passport denial process. The notice includes the amount of past-due support owed at the time of mailing, as well as information on the Federal Tax Refund and Administrative Offset programs.

States submit case information of noncustodial parents who meet the criteria for passport denial to OCSE. When the past-due support exceeds $2,500, OCSE will automatically forward the parent’s name to the State Department for passport denial unless the state requests that the parent be excluded from the Passport Denial Program.

The noncustodial parent is not removed from the Passport Denial Program, even if their arrearages fall below the $2,500 threshold, until one of the following occurs:

• The submitting state specifically requests removal.
• The parent’s support debt amount is reduced to zero.
• The case is deleted.

When an individual applies for a passport, the State Department will deny the application based on the passport denial certification. The State Department will send a notice to the noncustodial parent explaining that the passport was denied because of past-due support. The notice informs the applicant to contact the appropriate state child support agency for more information.

State child support agencies work through OCSE to submit information about people who are behind in child support payments. The person's name, Social Security number, and past-due child support amount is sent to the Department of the Treasury.

Notification to the noncustodial parent
If the child support debt meets federal requirements for a federal tax refund offset, the noncustodial parent will receive a Pre-Offset Notice that explains why their case was submitted to the offset program. The Pre-Offset Notice shows the past-due amount owed at the time as well as information about federal tax refund offset, administrative offset, passport denial, and other actions the child support agency may take to collect past-due support. The Pre-Offset Notice also explains how to challenge the debt and request an administrative review.

Sending the payment
When the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service processes a tax refund, it matches the noncustodial parent’s debt and will intercept part or all of the tax refund, depending on how much is owed. Working through OCSE, the offset payment is then sent to the state child support agency as payment toward the past-due support. At the time of the tax refund offset, Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service mails a Notice of Offset to the noncustodial parent stating that all or part of their federal tax refund has been intercepted. The Notice provides direction on contacting the child support agency for further information.

Note: The state updates the debt amount regularly but may not issue a new Notice each time the debt amount changes. For that reason, the actual amount that is deducted from the noncustodial parent’s tax refund may differ from the amount on the Notice.

Timeframes for receiving and sending funds
Typically, the state child support office that submitted the noncustodial parent’s case for tax refund offset receives the funds within two to three weeks. It is important to stay informed with your local child support caseworker.

• Non-joint refund: Federal law requires a state to disburse a non-joint refund offset no later than 30 calendar days after receipt unless there is a special circumstance (for example, a pending appeal).
• Joint refund: State may hold the tax refund offset from a joint tax return for up to six months before disbursing (on rare occasions, a state may need to hold a joint refund offset for more than six months).

Bring as much of the following information as possible. This will help the child support office locate the parent, establish paternity, and establish and enforce your child support order.

• Information about the noncustodial parent
• Name, address and Social Security number
• Name and address of current or recent employer
• Names of friends and relatives, names of organizations to which he or she might belong
• Information about his or her income and assets -- pay slips, tax returns, bank accounts, investments or property holdings
• Physical description, or photograph, if possible
• Birth certificates of children
• If paternity is an issue, written statements (letters or notes) in which the alleged father has said or implied that he is the father of the child
• Your child support order, divorce decree, or separation agreement if you have one
• Records of any child support received in the past
• Information about your income and assets
• Information about expenses, such as your child’s health care, daycare, or special needs

Contact your child support office for payment information. They can provide you with information about:

• Making a child support payment (online, by phone, or in person)
• Accessing payment history or payment records
• Setting up recurring payments
• Electronic payment options for making or receiving payments

Some state websites allow you to access your payment information online; the federal website does not have case information.

Yes. The amount that can be withheld from your wages is limited by the Consumer Credit Protection Act.

Here are the limits:

• 50% of disposable income if an obligated parent has a second family
• 60% if there is no second family

These limits are each increased by 5% (to 55% and 65%) if payments are in arrears (past-due) for a period equal to 12 weeks or more. State law may further limit the amount that can be taken from your paycheck.

Visit the Intergovernmental Reference Guide, select your state in the drop-down box, and look under “Income Withholding” to find information about your state’s income withholding limits and procedures.

For cases in the child support program, the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program collects past-due support payments from the tax refunds of parents who owe support. The child support agency will submit your case to the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program if it meets either of these criteria:

• The custodial parent receives benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and the noncustodial parent owes at least $150 in arrears; or
• The custodial parent does not receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits and the noncustodial parent owes at least $500 in arrears.

If the parent who owes support does not receive a tax refund, then there are no funds to intercept.

Check with your child support agency for more information.

The state where the custodial parent lives submits the debt for Federal Tax Refund Offset. In cases where the noncustodial parent owes a support debt to more than one state, each state submits its case for offset. The noncustodial parent receives a separate notice for each state's debt, and has the right to contest each state's debt amount.

You must contact your child support agency to make satisfactory arrangements to pay your past-due support. If more than one state reported your name to the Passport Denial Program, you must reach an agreement with all states involved before your passport hold is released.

Once you have paid your past-due support in full or reached a satisfactory payment agreement, the state(s) will request that OCSS remove your name from the Passport Denial Program. After the State Department has processed the withdrawal request from OCSS and cleared its system, you may contact the National Passport Information Center at 1-877-487-2778 or make an appointment at a regional passport agency to complete the process.

Check with your child support agency for more information.

Income withholding is a process that deducts child support payments automatically from the noncustodial parent’s paycheck, like taxes. When a child support order is established, the child support agency sends an income withholding notice to the noncustodial parent’s employer. The notice explains how often and how much to withhold. The employer withholds the child support payment and sends it to the child support agency. The child support agency records the payment and sends the money to the custodial parent.

Since January 1994, child support orders require income withholding unless both parents and the courts agree on another payment method.  Learn more about income withholding.

If you know where a non-paying parent is living, you may be able to submit information anonymously through your state’s child support website or through the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s website.

State and tribal guidelines, or case law, indicate how to share child support in cases with more than one support order, or when a parent has multiple children. Each family must receive a portion of the available money. Depending on each state or tribe’s child support guidelines, having more than one support order may provide a reason to change the initial child support order. Ask your local child support agency for more information on how to request a change to more than one order.

The most important thing you can do is appear at the child support hearing. You will receive a notice about the hearing that will tell you where to go and what documents to bring. When both parents appear and bring the necessary documents, the agency or court will be able to make a fully informed and fair decision about the child support order amount.

ome states have information about how to request a change to your child support order using the court system, without going to the child support office. This is often called the "pro se" process (where the party represents himself or herself in a legal matter). State and local courts often have modification forms on their websites.

You may also get forms or information on finding an attorney in your area at https://www.lawhelp.org/find-help.

You can sign up through your local, state or tribal child support agency.

Usually, signing up at your local child support office is most convenient, but you can enroll at another location if you prefer. The telephone numbers for state and tribal child support agencies are listed on the child support contact map.  The state agency will refer you to the appropriate local child support office where you can sign up for child support services.

The contact map provides detailed information for your state or tribal child support agency. Select your state on the map for contact information.

States administer the Access and Visitation Program to help noncustodial parents see their children. Services vary by state, but may include mediation, counseling, education, development of parenting plans, supervised visitation, safe exchange services, and development of guidelines for visitation and alternative custody arrangements. In addition to the Access and Visitation Program, many states and local governments have resources and procedures for helping parents with parenting time.

Check with the Access and Visitation Program contact in your state for more information.

Yes, you can pursue a paternity establishment action even if your child’s father lives in another state. Your state may be able to claim jurisdiction and establish paternity if the father has lived in your state, the child was conceived in your state, or there is another basis for your state to have authority over the case.

Otherwise your state can petition the jurisdiction in which your child’s father lives to establish paternity under their laws. Often, genetic tests will be ordered to help prove paternity. Ask your caseworker for specific information about the laws in your state and the state where the other parent lives.

Yes. The state will enforce a tribal order. State and tribal child support agencies are required to recognize and enforce the child support orders issued by the other jurisdiction.

If the noncustodial parent still lives on the reservation, the tribe will continue to enforce the order. If the noncustodial parent moves off the reservation, the tribe may ask the state for assistance in enforcing the order. If the noncustodial parent met the obligation with in-kind payments and the state is helping to enforce the order, the noncustodial parent will now pay the order in cash rather than in-kind, non-cash payments.