The Missouri Department of Social Services has created a website to streamline child support collections, especially for payments made through employee checks.
Many child support payments are made through income withholding, a process that demands employer participation. Consequently, Missouri keeps track of all new employment for noncustodial parents who owe child support. Both federal and state law requires a company to report within 20 days any new hire who owes child support.
When this was done manually with paperwork, the process could produce redundancies, add time and increase the likelihood of errors. Now, the employer simply uses the website to report a new hire with child support and allows the employer to take the child support out of that person's paycheck before he or she gets it.
Increase In Child Support Collections Expected
The new method of income withholding is expected to reduce the number of child support violations in the state. This may increase child support collection for the state by $7.8 million, the company running the new website, Policy Studies Inc., estimates.
Violations of Child Support
Missouri's Division of Child Support Enforcement (CSE) helps parents to collect child support. CSE will help locate parents, establish paternity, monitor and enforce compliance with child and medical support orders and distributing child support payments to the proper parent.
Speak to a Family Law Attorney
If you are not receiving child support payments you are owed, there are options. You may wish to contact a family law attorney to help you with collections. Even if the noncustodial parent did not ever register for income withholding, an effective way to enforce a child support order is through wage garnishment. If the court orders a garnishment, employers and banks pay the delinquent child support instead of the parent who is reneging child support obligations. Occasionally liens (a legal interest in property) can be used to reclaim property from delinquent parents, such as real estate and other personal property, in order to force child support payments.
When creating child support orders, modifying existing child support or seeking collections, an experienced family law attorney can help.
