There are many ways in which parents can get tangled up in the child support process and on paying child support. Whether it is long court sessions, mediation, complicated laws, or problems with tracking child support payments, we understand that it’s not easy to manage or process.
One of the issues that come up around paying child support happens to be around late child support payments. What recourse do you have, and how can you manage it? We can help answer some of these questions for you.
For starters, many, many parents get into the position of being late on paying child support because there is no easy and simple way to track payments. The issue of course can be made worse if, for example, the parents are no longer on speaking terms. Not all states have reliable tracking methods – and since it differs county to county, some actually still track child support by hand! We here at SupportPay saw this as a major problem. It meant that children aren’t getting their child support, and that the parent who must pay does not have an easy, streamlined way to track when they are supposed to be paying child support.
So, if you’re behind on paying child support, here are some things you can do:
- Talk to a lawyer or counsel. They will be able to advise you on the best possible next steps. The penalties for not paying child support can be steep, including jail time. This is why we advise that you begin talking to your lawyer as soon as you can in order to not make the problem worse, or be subject to other fines or fees. If you don’t have any means to counsel, we recommend our partner Avvo, who offers legal services such as filing for divorce online.
- Go through the previous legal arrangement, and understand what you owe. We strongly recommend using a tracking system to track your payments. That is where SupportPay comes in handy – you have one place where you can continue to track, monitor and keep a record whenever you are paying child support. You can sign up for free today, and you can have the other parent sign up as well, without ever having to talk to them should you wish not to.
- If possible, after legal counsel, discuss a way to work out when you can pay your back child support. It’s important to understand that letting back payments slide only makes the situation worse. Therefore, we recommend a system of paying child support that works for both parties. Meeting on mutual ground can go a long way to making sure you have a process in place to never miss a payment again.
So, these are just some of the ways in which you can take care of paying child support that you missed. If you have other questions, you can contact us and we can put you in touch with our family law network. Or you can sign up for SupportPay today, register and begin the easy process of tracking child support payments.