The father of my child started making child-support payments, but now he is refusing to pay. How can the government help me to start receiving payments again?

You should contact the Child Support Division of the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The AG’s office can help in situations like yours where one parent refuses to pay child support.

The Child Support Division uses several methods to help Texas parents collect on unpaid child support. For example, the most common way to enforce payment is to require the employer of the deadbeat parent to withhold wages from each paycheck and use the withheld money to pay for child support. The Child Support Division can also try to intercept money that may be due the parent from state and federal sources – like federal income tax refund checks.

Another way the Child Support Division can help you put pressure on the other parent to pay child support is by suspending state-issued licenses. Any state licensing authority can suspend the license of a deadbeat parent. The parent may be more likely to start paying child support if he or she can’t drive (suspended driver license), work (suspended professional license), or have fun on the weekends (suspended hunting or fishing license). The AG’s Child Support Division can also file a lien against the nonpaying parent’s property or can file a lawsuit that essentially asks the court to enforce the court order requiring child support.

Your recent columns have talked about using the AG’s Office to help me recover child support payments. I contacted the AG’s office and I didn’t find them helpful. Are there any other agencies or places that I can go for assistance?

I always suggest that people start with the AG’s Child Support Division. There are, however, a few other options. Some counties operate child-support offices or domestic-relations offices that can provide child-support-related assistance. You could also retain a private collection agency or an attorney to try to enforce your child-support order.

This article appears in October 21 • 2005.

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