Child Support Orders Enforcement

Child support enforcement laws were made to ensure parents don’t avoid or neglect their financials responsibilities. Typically support payments are due at the start of the month on the 1st or in the middle of the month at the 15th day. In many states, such as California, payments can be taken directly from a parent’s paycheck, this is referred to as a wage garnishment or income withholding order. This happens when the court orders the employer to withhold money and provide it directly to the parent that receives the support. Also, sometimes payments are made through a 3rd party child support registry (State Disbursement Unit) that records all payments made and missed as well as ensuring the payment gets forwarded to the receiving parent.

There can be many potential penalties for failure to pay child support, such as a accrued interest on any unpaid balance, forced pre-payment of future support, wage garnishments, suspension of drivers license or professional license and in extreme cases even prison.

California has offices for child support enforcement, called the DCSS, or Department of Child Support Services. These offices help locate responsible parents and enforce child support laws and orders. There are also federal laws that make it a criminal act to fail to pay support to an out-of-state parent.