The following is a list of facts about past-due child support collections in California. By no means is this list exhaustive or conclusive and it is intended for general information purposes only. Contact an attorney or your local child support enforcement office to learn more about child support collections and discuss the specifics of your case.
Facts About Collecting Child Support in California
- Interest on past due child support accrues at 10% annually. Interest accrues on the principal amount of child support that is unpaid. (Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 685.010(a))
- “When child support (or “family support”) installments that come due on or after January 1, 1992 fall in arrears by more than 30 days, the obligor is subject to imposition of as much as a 6% to 72% penalty on delinquent amounts.” (Fam.C. § 4722)
- Penalties may only be applied in “egregious instances of noncompliance with child support orders” and may only be imposed at the behest of an individual private party seeking to independently enforce child support. Local child support agencies cannot seek penalties.
- The California Child Support Enforcement agency can collect child support arrears owed to you under an order issued in another state and by a parent who lives outside of California
- Child Support Enforcement actions can only address two issues: Parentage and child support (including medical support)
- When parents have an existing child support order and they live in different states or countries, the child support order can be registered in the California county where one of the parents lives. Once the order is registered, a parent can seek to enforce and/or modify the order in that county’s courts.
- Child support orders and judgments, including penalties and interest, can be enforced at anytime until they are paid in full – even after your child or children reach age 18. This means that you can collect unpaid child support, interest and penalties, even if your ex-spouse or the parent of your child(ren) stopped paying child support years ago and you never sought to collect it then
- If your child support order, which may have been included in your divorce judgment, was issued in a state that has a limitation on the length of time permitted for collecting past-due support, but you live in California and are working with the California Child Support Enforcement Agency to attempt collection, California’s law that states child support is enforceable until paid in full defeats the issuing state’s statute of limitations, except in some situations (i.e. the support order was declared unenforceable in the issuing state)
- If a noncustodial parent fails to pay child support despite having the ability to do so, he or she may be held in contempt of court
- According to a 2006 report prepared by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, California lags the nation in “the collection of child support and its performance on federal outcome measures.” The Federal Performance Measures include:
Current Support Collections: The percentage of total current support owed that is collected
Arrearage Collections: The percentage of cases with arrearages in which some portion of past-due support is collected and paid to the family or the state.
Cost Effectiveness: Total collections divided by total administrative expenditures
