How does wage withholding work for child support?

If you have a court order to pay child support, you can have your employer withhold it from your paycheck. This allows you to make regular payments.

The Attorney General of Texas explains that most people pay their child support through wage withholding. In fact, about 80% of Texas child support payments use the withholding procedure.

The process

To begin the withholding procedure, you will need to supply the Office of the Attorney General with your employment information. The office will then send a notification to your employer titled Order to Withhold Income for Child Support. This document will inform your employer about the details of the withholding order, such as the amount to take from each of your paychecks.

Your employer will automatically take the money out of your check just as it does taxes and other money withheld. Your employer will also take care of sending the payments to the Child Support Division for you.

The Child Support Division will then process the payment and send it to the other parent.

Do note that it can take a few weeks for your employer to get the withholding setup in its system. You must keep paying your payments until you start seeing it come out of your paycheck. There should be a line on your check stub that shows the withholding just like it shows the withholding for taxes.

The benefits

Paying through wage withholding helps to ensure that your payments reach the Child Support Division on time. You do not have to remember to do anything once you have it set up with your employer.