If your ex-husband won’t pay child support, open a case with your state or tribal child support enforcement agency. Federal law requires every state to maintain a specific set of collection tools — wage garnishment, tax refund intercepts, license suspension, property liens, passport denial, credit reporting, and contempt of court — and the agency can use most of them without your having to go back before a judge.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures to Improve Effectiveness of Child Support Enforcement The service is usually free or very low cost. Move quickly, because arrears keep growing and enforcement takes time to produce money in your hand.
Start With Your State’s Child Support Agency
The fastest first step is to contact your state or tribal child support enforcement agency. You can find yours through USAGov’s directory or by searching your state’s name plus “child support enforcement.”2USAGov. Get Help Collecting Child Support You fill out an application to open a case, and once it’s active the agency takes over most of the enforcement work.
These agencies have authority to act administratively, without a new court hearing. They can send an income withholding order to his employer, intercept tax refunds, suspend licenses, and place liens on property. If you don’t know where he is, the agency can tap the Federal Parent Locator Service, which cross-references employment records, unemployment claims, and wage data across every state and automatically flags your case when he starts a new job or files for unemployment anywhere in the country.3Administration for Children & Families. Overview of Federal Parent Locator Service
Filing a Contempt Motion in Court
If the agency route feels too slow, or if your ex is actively hiding income, you can file an enforcement motion directly in the court that issued your original order. Depending on your jurisdiction, it’s called a motion to show cause or a petition for contempt. You’re asking a judge to find that he has willfully violated a court order and to impose consequences.
The mechanics are straightforward. Get the forms from the court clerk, complete and file them with any required filing fee, and then formally serve him with the paperwork so he gets notice of the hearing. At the hearing you present your evidence of missed payments, and the judge decides what to do. Many courts waive filing fees for child support enforcement outright, and most allow a fee waiver based on financial hardship.
The reason to go this route is leverage. A judge handling a contempt matter can order jail time for willful nonpayment, and that threat alone often produces payment. Civil contempt is designed to coerce compliance: the sentence is one the parent can avoid by paying or showing a good-faith effort. Criminal contempt punishes past willful disobedience with a fixed sentence or fine. Either form can include an order making him pay your attorney’s fees.
What to Gather Before You File
Pull a few things together before contacting the agency or the court. The more you bring, the faster enforcement moves.4Administration for Children & Families. What Documents Do I Need to Bring to the Child Support Office
- A copy of your child support order, divorce decree, or separation agreement showing the amount and schedule.
- A record of every payment received and missed, with dates and amounts. Bank statements, payment-app screenshots, or state disbursement unit records all work.
- His full legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, and last known address.
- His current or most recent employer, plus any pay stubs or information about other income.
- Anything you know about bank accounts, vehicles, real estate, or investments.
Gaps are not a reason to wait. The agency has investigative tools and databases of its own and can fill in most of what you don’t have. Even a former employer or a relative’s address gives them a starting point.
How Payment Actually Gets Collected
Federal law requires every state to maintain the enforcement tools below.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures to Improve Effectiveness of Child Support Enforcement They aren’t optional programs that vary wildly by location. Congress mandated them as a condition of states receiving federal child support funding.
Wage Withholding
The most effective tool is automatic paycheck deduction. Once an income withholding order is in place, his employer must take the support amount from each check and send it to the state disbursement unit before he ever sees the money. For orders issued since 1994, withholding is built into the order itself. For older orders, it starts as soon as arrears develop, with no separate hearing required.
Federal law caps what can be withheld. If he’s supporting another spouse or child, the limit is 50 percent of disposable earnings; otherwise it’s 60 percent. When arrears are more than 12 weeks overdue, each cap rises by 5 percentage points, to 55 or 65 percent.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment Those are significantly higher ceilings than garnishment for ordinary debts.
Tax Refund Intercept
The agency can intercept his federal or state tax refund and redirect it to you. For the federal program, the threshold is $500 in arrears for most cases, or $150 if you’ve received public assistance.6Administration for Children & Families. When Is a Child Support Case Eligible for the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program States run their own intercept programs for state refunds.
License Suspension
State agencies can suspend his driver’s license, professional licenses, and recreational licenses such as hunting or fishing permits. Because the suspension hits daily life and the ability to earn, it’s one of the most motivating tools in the kit.
Property Liens
A lien can be placed on his real estate, vehicles, or other property. He can’t sell, refinance, or transfer the asset until the support debt is resolved.
Passport Denial
If he owes more than $2,500 in past-due support, the federal government will deny his passport application.7U.S. Department of State. Pay Child Support Before Applying for a Passport The statute also authorizes the State Department to revoke, restrict, or limit a passport already issued.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 652 – Duties of Secretary The process is largely automatic once your state agency certifies the debt to the federal Office of Child Support Services, which forwards the name to the State Department.9Administration for Children & Families. How Does the Passport Denial Program Work
Credit Reporting
State child support agencies are federally required to report unpaid arrears to national credit bureaus periodically. A child support delinquency on his credit report makes mortgages, car loans, and credit cards harder to get approved, which often produces payment when he needs to borrow or refinance. The dollar threshold that triggers reporting varies by state, but the duty to report does not.
If He Lives in Another State
A state line doesn’t protect him. Every state is required to adopt the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act as a condition of federal funding, which makes your existing order enforceable nationwide. You don’t need a new order from his state.
Your agency can send an income withholding order directly to his out-of-state employer without involving a second agency. When direct withholding isn’t practical, your agency can refer the case to the enforcement agency where he lives, which then acts locally. The Federal Parent Locator Service ties the system together by tracking employment and wage data across all states, so a parent who moves to avoid paying gets flagged automatically.3Administration for Children & Families. Overview of Federal Parent Locator Service
He Can’t Erase Child Support in Bankruptcy
If he files for bankruptcy hoping to wipe out the debt, it won’t work. Federal bankruptcy law lists domestic support obligations as non-dischargeable, so no form of bankruptcy eliminates child support arrears.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge In Chapter 7, the obligation continues in full during and after the case. In Chapter 13, he must stay current on ongoing support while also repaying all pre-bankruptcy arrears through the repayment plan, with interest. Child support is a priority debt, paid ahead of credit cards, medical bills, and other unsecured obligations.
He Can’t Erase Past Arrears by Asking for a Modification
If his income genuinely dropped, the right response is to petition the court for a modification. Until a judge signs a new order, the original amount is owed in full. And the modification cannot be backdated: federal law prohibits states from applying a support change to any period before the date the modification motion was filed.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures to Improve Effectiveness of Child Support Enforcement Every dollar that accumulated before he asked the court for a change is still owed at the original amount. That protection is why delay hurts him and helps you.
Arrears Keep Growing
Unpaid child support doesn’t sit still. Many states charge interest on overdue balances, with rates typically running from about 6 to 12 percent per year. A parent $10,000 behind in a state charging 10 percent will owe $11,000 within a year even without missing another payment.
The debt also tends to outlast other obligations. Many states have no statute of limitations on collecting past-due support, meaning it remains enforceable until paid in full. Even in states with a time limit, the windows are typically long. Under a 1986 federal law commonly called the Bradley Amendment, child support arrears automatically become enforceable judgments, so they can be collected through the full range of tools without a separate court ruling to convert them.
Federal Criminal Charges in the Worst Cases
When a parent willfully refuses to pay support for a child living in another state, the failure can become a federal crime. Under 18 U.S.C. § 228, if the debt has been unpaid for more than a year or exceeds $5,000, it’s a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison. If it has gone unpaid for more than two years or exceeds $10,000, it becomes a felony carrying up to two years.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 228 – Failure to Pay Legal Child Support Obligations Federal prosecution is rare and typically reserved for cases where a parent has the ability to pay and is deliberately evading across state lines, but the statute gives prosecutors leverage in the worst situations.