What Happens if My Child’s Other Parent Won’t Pay Child Support?

While it’s perfectly natural to become upset and frustrated when your child’s other parent won’t pay child support, the law is on your side. There are several legal steps you can take to ensure your child is properly provided for if their other parent is financially able to pay child support and refuses to do so.

1. Contempt of Court Action

If the other parent doesn’t have a good reason for not paying child support, you can file a contempt of court action against him or her (this is called a show cause in Virginia).

2. Tax Intercept

You can also attempt to use the other parent’s state and federal tax refunds to cover any unpaid child support. Many times this is only possible, though, if your payments are being processed through the Division of Child Support Enforcement.

3. Use the Parent Locator Service

If the other parent has moved out of Virginia in an effort to avoid child support payments, you can use the Parent Locator Service. The service uses the IRS and the Social Security Administration to find the other parent’s new employer. You’ll be able to enforce the child support order once the non-paying parent has been found.

4. Wage Order Assignment

The Division of Child Support Enforcement can force the other parent’s employer to deduct a portion of his or her wages to cover unpaid child support. Once the wages have been deducted, they’ll go directly to you.

5. Forward the Child Support Order to an Out-of-State Court

If the other parent has moved to a location where Virginia doesn’t have jurisdiction, you can request that your state’s court send the child support order to the state in which the other parent now resides. Once the order has been received, the other parent’s new state can require that child support be paid.

Try to get in contact with the other parent and find out why child support isn’t being paid. It may simply be that his or her financial situation has changed. If necessary, you can have the child support order modified to make it easier for payments to be made. The other parent may genuinely want to pay child support but simply not have enough to pay in full.

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Matt Kurylo

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