The laws for collecting overdue child support vary from state to state, but there’s always some kind of effort put in place to collect back due payments. The primary way that past due child support is collected is through the courts. A state-assigned enforcement worker takes your case and attempts to negotiate the money you’re owed.
The Court System and Child Support
The court system within each state has its own unique way of collecting child support. When a custodial parent has not received a payment after a specific amount of time, they can then go their local courthouse to file a contempt of court charge against the other parent — which is known as a non-custodial parent or NPC.
The NPC will then have to appear in court to explain to the judge why they have not been keeping up with payments. Once the judge over the case evaluates the matter, they will then render a judgment on the best way to collect past due money.
What are some child support collection options?
A judge can order a non-custodial parent’s wages to be garnished, they can remove the funds from a bank or checking account to collect money, they can have a NPC to cash in on an asset to cover the cost of the past due amount, or they can take away their driving privileges until the support is paid.
Some states will also take a person’s tax return if they owe money for a past due account. They can also take a person’s lottery winnings and even send people to jail. Many NCPs have been locked up in jail because they did not pay their child support. The point is that states use various collection methods to get the past due money owed to the custodial parent.
What happens when that fails?
The above process is when the court system and the state-appointed enforcement agency works the way they are supposed to. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with the public sector, you know that’s rarely the case. It lacks the sufficient funding necessary to devote enough time and effort on every case file, and as a result, some cases get overlooked and under-represented. Tricky situations which require a personalized touch rarely see a happy ending through the public sector.
A private child support agency can succeed where the government fails. An organization like Support Collectors has made a successful system of locating NCPs and negotiating payment that’s based on a dedicated, personalized technique. Their team of lawyers, investigators, and enforcers work together to recover overdue support, with no limits on how long these payments have gone unpaid. Several months or several years make no difference to the way they attend to each and every case.
Ultimately, custodial parents should not have to stress about the lack of support. They already have enough to worry about by raising a family single-handedly. When the government fails, a private child support enforcement agency is there to pick up the slack to make sure any NCP pays their delinquent support.