He Is Not Paying Child Support; What Can I Do?

 Posted on May 12, 2015 in Child Support

When you are granted primary physical custody of your child, you assume responsibility for a number of concerns related to his or her well-being. Your address is used as the child’s primary address for legal purposes and school registration, in addition to you taking on the role of primary parent for many day-to-day activities. If you and the other parent have been granted joint legal custody, the other parent may assist you in making decisions and spend significant time with the child, but will often be ordered to contribute financially to the support of the child by means of a child support order.

Illinois Child Support

In the state of Illinois, the court may require that either or both parents pay child support, but, in practice, the parent who is not granted primary physical custody is generally required to provide support. Under state law, the amount to be paid is based on a percentage of the paying parent’s net income, sometimes adjusted for circumstantial factors of the family situation.

Orders for child support are legally enforceable documents and are taken very seriously by courts across the state. Child support is intended to provide the child with resources necessary to obtain food, shelter, clothing, and other basic necessities, so a parent’s failure to pay often has a direct impact on the well-being of the child.

When Support Payments Stop

As the residential parent, it is reasonable that you may come to rely on the child support payments to provide for your child. Thus, if the other parent suddenly stops paying, your life can become very difficult. Despite the stress and difficulty it may cause, you should avoid taking action against the other parent on your own. Do not withhold his access to the child, make it more difficult for him to visit, or threaten to do so. You can ask the court to impose such limitations but taking action without the court&s approval can create bigger problems for you down the road.

Instead, if you stopped receiving ordered child support payments, you should file action in the court with jurisdiction over your case. In doing so, you provide the court with the opportunity to enforce the support order by legal means. In order to mandate compliance from a parent who is delinquent in support payments, the court may:

• Place the parent on probation;
• Sentence the parent to periodic imprisonment with work-release arrangements;
• Suspend the parent’s driver’s license;
• Suspend or revoke any other state-issued professional licenses; and
• Garnish the parent’s wages or income until the delinquency is resolved.

If you should be receiving child support payments and the other parent has stopped complying with support order, contact an experienced family law attorney in Arlington Heights today. At A. Traub & Associates, we will meet with you to review your case and help you understand your options. We understand that your child’s best interest is your top priority and are ready to work with you to meet his or her needs.