Staying On Top of Child Support Payments In Washington State

Managing child support payments can be an ongoing result of a divorce when children are involved. Unfortunately, it’s an obligation many parents struggle with.

According to the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services’ website: “Currently, only about one-half of the custodial parents due child support receive full payment. About twenty-five percent receive partial payment and twenty-five percent receive nothing.”

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are 14.4 million custodial parents in the United States owed money for child support. This amounted to $37.9 billion owed in child support as of 2011.

Parents must keep on top of their child support obligations, including monthly transfer payments and shared costs of medical, extra-curricular, and other expenses. Failure to do so may result in a court action and legal fees beyond those incurred in the actual divorce.

One mother dealing with divorce, Sheri Atwood, developed the website and app, SupportPay (http://supportpay.com/), to deal with child support issues and simplifying the process of making payments to vendors, staying up-to-date on obligations, and keeping track of child support payments for tax purposes.

While programs like this may help parties stay current with their obligations, sometimes a party just isn’t current in paying their obligations. In these instances, the parent owed support may have to pursue compliance with the court orders.

If you are owed child support and reimbursements from the parent of your children, contact a family law attorney at Beresford Booth today.

BERESFORD BOOTH has made this content available to the general public for informational purposes only.  The information on this site is not intended to convey legal opinions or legal advice.

Sources:

http://www.dshs.wa.gov/dcs/services/enforcement.asp

http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p60-246.pdf

http://supportpay.com/

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/supporting-child-support/?_r=1