Child Support Payment

Recent Lay-Off?

Income withholding

Most support is collected by withholding income from a parent’s income.  All new and modified child support court orders are subject to income withholding.  

Income Withholding (IW) is the process by which court ordered child support, spousal maintenance, child care, and/or medical support is deducted from earned income, including periodic payments to a contractor, or unearned income, such as rental income. The procedures are governed by Minnesota Statutes 518A.53.

The amount employers can withhold is limited by the Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA).  Example: An employer can withhold 65% of the net income for a non-custodial parent not living with a second family who has arrearages 12 weeks or more overdue.

If the obligor is working for cash or is self-employed it is his/her responsibility to send payments on his/her own. If they do not comply with the child support order, the child support office may begin using other enforcement tools.

Direct Payment

Direct payment can only be made if no child support services or public assistance is being provided.  

Do not send child support payments directly to the custodial parent.  If the custodial parent is paid directly, the Minnesota Child Support Payment Center (CSPC) has no record of the payment. Our agency will assume the non-custodial parent is delinquent.  Our agency may take enforcement actions to collect the amount that was not credited to the case(s).

The payment center is open 24 hours/7 days per week.

  • Do not send cash.  Make the support payments by check or money order.
  • Make the check or money order payable to Minnesota Child Support Payment Center.
  • Include your Social Security or participant number so proper credit is received.
  • Keep careful records.  Non-custodial parents should keep cancelled checks or copies of money orders as receipts.  If a difference exists between our records and yours, the non-custodial parent may be required to produce the receipts as proof of payment. 

If public assistance or child support enforcement services are being provided, you need to make all child support payments through the Minnesota Child Support Payment Center (CSPC).  Include your participant number and/or your Social Security Number on your payments to ensure the payment posts to the correct account.  The address to make payments to is:

MN CSPC
P.O. Box 64326
St. Paul, MN 55164  

If a direct payment is received:

  • You must contact your MFIP (Minnesota Family Investment Program) worker and/or Child Support Officer immediately if you receive child support directly from your child's other parent. You must report support you received directly from your child's parent on your household report form.  You must also report changes in income, including changes in child support, to your child care worker.  If you live in subsidized housing, you must report your change in income.
  • Endorse (sign) the payment over to the Minnesota Child Support Payment Center, and include their social security number or case number on the payment.  Send it to Minnesota Child Support Payment Center, P. O. Box 64326, St Paul, MN 55164.

What happens if child support payments are not made

There may be times when a non-custodial parent does not pay child support.  Sometimes a non-custodial parent may be between jobs or become physically unable to work.  If the non-custodial parent contacts our office with this information, we would recommend they attempt to get their court order changed.  However, if a non-custodial parent has the ability to pay but chooses not to, the child support office uses enforcement remedies. Below is a list of some enforcement methods.

Additional tools used for enforcement include:

  • Intercepting federal and state income and property tax refunds and lottery winnings
    The child support office can collect past due child support from an NCP’s state income tax refund or property tax refund. It can also intercept federal income tax refunds and state lottery winnings.

    Note: If your spouse's taxes have been held for child support and you want to claim your share of joint tax money, in the case of Federal Taxes you must file an injured spouse claim with the IRS. In regards to State Taxes contact your spouse’s Child Support Officer.

  • Reporting unpaid balances to credit bureaus
    Child support arrears are reported to the credit bureau as a past due amount in the most serious delinquency category of a credit report.  The thresholds for having unpaid child support reported as a delinquent account are three months worth of unpaid current support (three times the monthly amount due) or $1.00 of unpaid support if  there is no monthly current support due.  Cases that qualified for reporting to the credit bureau prior to December 11, 2003 under the old threshold of $1000 will continue to be reported until paid in full. 

  • Passport denial

  • Suspending driver’s and occupational licenses
    Driver’s licenses may be suspended for NCPs who are at least three months behind in paying their child support obligations.  Before a driver’s license is suspended, the NCP is notified in writing. The NCP then has 90 days to pay the past due balance in full or enter into a written payment plan with the child support office; otherwise, the license will be suspended.

    Note: If your Minnesota Driver’s License has been suspended due to non-payment of child support, you can contact your child support officer to discuss a payment plan, seek a court order to reinstate, or obtain a limited license through the Department of Public Safety.   

  • New hire reporting by employers
    Employers must report basic information about all their newly hired employees to the Minnesota New Hire Reporting Center. Employers must provide this information within 20 days of the day the employee starts work. Employers must also report when employees no longer work for them.  Each state’s child support computer system receives data provided through new hire reporting. Then child support office staff use the information to locate NCPs and to establish or modify child support orders.

  • Judgment entry and interest charging
    Interest begins charging after an obligation is 30 days past due. Levies can be made against financial assets.

  • Denial of student grants

  • Civil contempt
    The court may find an NCP in contempt of court if the NCP has the ability to pay but is willfully not paying the support obligations. This enforcement tool is used only when all others have failed.

  • Criminal nonsupport

 

 Locating Parents

The child support agency can assist in locating a non-custodial parent who is not helping to support his or her children. We have access to multiple state and federal resources, including resources for attempting to locate persons outside the state of Minnesota.

When contact is lost with a non-custodial parent, our child support state-wide computer automatically begins searching for information from many sources.  A partial list of sources includes:

  • Reemployment/unemployment records
  • Credit reporting agency records
  • Public assistance and food stamp records
  • Motor vehicle registration and driver’s license records
  • United States Postal Service
  • Current and previous employers
  • Law enforcement agencies, and parole and probation offices

In addition, child support offices use two other tools to locate parents: the Federal Case Registry and the National Directory of New Hire Reporting.

  • The Federal Case Registry contains limited information about each child support case in the United States. It matches quarterly wage information and unemployment compensation records submitted by each state with the National Directory of New Hires.
  • Federal law requires all employers to report information about newly hired employees. They report the information to their state. The state then reports the information to the National Directory of New Hires.

When you will receive your support payment

Once income withholding papers have been sent to an employer, it may take up to 45 days to receive a payment from the date an employer was first notified to withhold support. Payments are sent to the custodial parent as they are received at the Child Support Payment Center (CSPC). 

If an obligor is self-employed or income withholding cannot be implemented, we will forward payments to you as we receive them from the obligor.

Why does it take so long?

Under state law, the child support office must serve notice on the employer or other payor of funds within one week of getting the court order for child support. The payor of funds must begin deducting support payments from the obligor's income no later than the first pay period beginning within 14 days of receiving official notice from the child support office. The child support payment must be sent to the child support agency within seven days of the date the obligor is paid the remainder of the income. Based on these time frames, and taking into account weekends and the time needed for delivery by first class mail or by direct deposit, it could take 45 days for the first payment to reach you.

Why would I not get the child support owed to me?

There are many reasons you might not get the support owed to you. Most often these reasons are based on the employment situation of the non-custodial parent (NCP). As a general rule, if there is no money coming in it is because the NCP is not earning anything

Tracking your Child Support payments:

Minnesota Child Support Website

Payment info line
651-215-5630 or
800-657-3512.

Tracking Payments

Visit the Minnesota Child Support web site.

You can access your account online

You will need your 4 digit personal identification number (PIN) and your 10-digit participant number to get payment information. If you do not remember your PIN, contact your Child Support Officer to get a new PIN issued. For security reasons, your new PIN will be mailed to you and cannot be given over the phone.  Do not contact the obligor's employer.

Call the State of Minnesota automated payment information line

Call the State of Minnesota automated payment information line at (651)215-5630 or 1-800-657-3512 to find out about child support payments. The Payment Center updates this information nightly. 

You will need to know your Personal Identification Number (PIN) to access this information.  Call 612-348-6411 to request a new PIN. This is a voicemail box. Messages will be retrieved daily and the PIN will be mailed to you.

If you already have a PIN but have forgotten it, call your Child Support Officer (CSO). Your PIN can either be mailed to you or you may come into the child support office with a picture ID and pick it up from your CSO. It cannot be given to you over the phone.

Billing Statements

Non-custodial parents receive a billing statement each month from CSPC unless there is no mailing address or no amount is due for the month.  The monthly billing statement lists amounts due and payments received.  As of 06/01/2009 billing statements are not sent if payments are made by income withholding. 

Often, the account may show an arrears balance even though consistent and regular payments have been made.  For example, this will occur when a non-custodial parent is paid every other week, and is not a reason for concern.

The payment center is open 24 hours/7 days per week. Since employers send payments directly to CSPC, the information provided is current. 

Other Fees & Payments

Fees

When the custodial parent is not a public assistance recipient, a 1% fee will be collected on the payments issued to the custodial parent.

Medical Reimbursement

When a party requests collection of uninsured and/or unreimbursed medical/dental costs, the Child Support Officer reviews the file and when appropriate sends you the required paperwork. You will then need to complete the forms and send in copies of bills, receipts, etc. Once that paperwork is received they will begin the legal process to collect the owed money, during which time the other party can contest the process.

Child Care Support

You need a Child Care Support obligation in your court order. Otherwise this obligation functions much like Basic Support, except that Hennepin can suspend the obligation when the child is no longer in daycare. Child care support can be resumed in some cases if a child is re-enrolled in day care. Some orders may state a date when the child care support terminates.

Past-due support

Income withholding will collect an extra 20% of the monthly current support amount. Example: If the support due each month is $200.00, we are authorized to collect an extra 20%, or $40.00 monthly, until all arrears are paid.  Intercepting the non-custodial parent’s tax refunds is another method used to collect past due support.

Frequently Asked Questions About Collecting Support

Q: Why does my support money vary each month? Why don't I get a full month's support as the court order states?

A: Under Minnesota law, employers are allowed to deduct child support payments in accordance with the employer’s pay periods. Payroll may be done weekly, biweekly (every other week), semimonthly (twice a month), or monthly. For example, If the obligor is paid biweekly, the support amount to be withheld is calculated as follows: The employer multiplies the monthly obligation times 12 to equal total payments due for the year. The yearly amount is then divided by 26 pay periods to determine the amount that should be deducted from each of the 26 paychecks for the year. The employer will forward each of these payments to the Child Support Payment Center as they are deducted from the obligor’s income. Over the course of a calendar year, the obligee will receive the total amount that is due. However, since the deductions are made biweekly and not monthly, the amount received may vary from month to month depending on whether there are two paydays or three paydays in a given month.

Example: For a $100.00 per month child support order, the employer would send payments as follows:
$23.08 weekly $46.15 biweekly $50.00 semi-monthly $100.00 monthly

Q: What if the obligor is required to support more than one family? How much support will I get?

A: Federal and state law requires that public agencies send support money to all the families who are owed support. A obligor's wages may not be enough to fully provide for more than one family. Money is distributed to each family according to federal and state regulations. 

Q: How does the child support agency office distribute payments?

Under the law, child support payments collected are distributed in the following order:

  1. Current month's support
  2. Other court-ordered payments distributed as ordered by the court
  3. Past-due support owed to obligee
  4. Fees owed to the county or state
  5. Past due support (arrearages) owed to the county or state
  6. Reimbursement of foster care costs
  7. Reimbursement of medical expenses owed to the state
  8. Arrearages or reimbursements owed to counties in other states 

Q: Can I make payments with a credit card?

A: No.  

Q: How do I stop interest from charging on past due support?

A: Noncustodial parents may ask the Child Support agency to stop interest charging on past due support if certain criteria are met.

The noncustodial parent may request that the Child Support agency stop interest charging if there have been 12 consecutive months of complete and timely payments of both current support and required payments on the child support debt or arrearages.

Q: The non-custodial parent has lost his/her job, receiving worker's compensation or collecting Social Security Benefits. What happens now?

A: If the non-custodial parent is not working, but is collecting unemployment, child support can be withheld from that payor of funds. If the non-custodial parent is receiving worker’s compensation from an injury, we can also collect from that source. We may be able to collect support from all of these sources, but in some cases we may not be able to collect 100% of what is due.

If no payor of funds is found, we will remind the non-custodial parent of their obligation. If no payment is received at the CSPC, no payment can be sent to the custodial parent. The court order will continue to charge while the non-custodial parent is not working.  If you want to modify your order during this time period, please see the Modification/COLA section.

Hennepin County has created information for parents who have been recently laid off.

Q: Is the non-custodial parent considered behind on his/her child support?

A: If the non-custodial parent pays anytime during the month the obligation is considered current.  Payments will be received based upon the non-custodial parent's pay cycle even if the court order states otherwise.

Q: Can the custodial parent contact the non-custodial parent’s employer?

A: Our agency needs to be involved when an employer does not send a payment or sends an incorrect payment amount.  When a custodial parent applies or is referred for our services, the custodial parent consents to Hennepin County taking care of the collection of the support payments. If there is a problem with an employer, a Child Support Officer will take the necessary actions to solve the problem.

Q: Can I receive both child support and MFIP at the same time?

A: If you are a recipient of public assistance, by law you have assigned your rights to child support and maintenance to the State of Minnesota.  The assignment of support becomes effective as soon as the application for public assistance is approved.  The assignment includes both current child support and arrearages and continues as long as you receive assistance. Child support will be sent to you even though you are receiving public assistance; however, the amount of public assistance you receive will be affected by the amount of child support you receive.

Q: I have just started working, and my MFIP is being canceled. When will I get my child support, and how much will I receive?

A: You will receive the full amount ordered by the court, if we collect it. The Payment Center sends support to you as it is collected during the month. Once the obligor pays the full amount of current support for the month, any additional money received during the calendar month is applied as payment on past-due support. Sometimes the obligor owes support to more than one family. Current support must be paid first to all families. Any additional money received will be applied to arrears.

Q: Do contributions to Child Care/Day Care expense automatically end when my youngest child turns 13 years old?

A: No, according to MN Statute 518A.40 it is the responsibility of the parties to obtain a new court order, enter into a stipulation, or alert the child support office that is enforcing the court order that a change in expenses has occurred.