When two parents get divorced, one parent may be required to pay child support in an amount either determined by the court or agreed upon in negotiations and then approved by a judge. In the state of Minnesota, those child support agreements are enforced by the Child Support Enforcement Division (CSED), a unit within the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
CSED performs functions such as:
- Establishing paternity of any children born to unmarried couples
- Establishing, enforcing and modifying child and medical support needs
- Collecting and processing child support payments
- Locating any missing parents
- Working with other states to ensure parents pay support orders
If a person does not meet their child support obligations, CSED may step in to enforce the support obligations. Here are just a few examples of some of the methods the unit might use to ensure payment:
- Referring cases to federal law enforcement officials for criminal prosecution
- Filing contempt actions, which then requires the delinquent parent to appear in court and explain why he or she has not been paying child support on time
- Reporting delinquent parents to consumer credit bureaus
- Sending withholding orders to employers of delinquent parents, who will then be required to withhold funds for arrears and pay them to CSED
- Suspension of driver’s licenses and various professional licenses
- Referral of delinquent parents with significant amounts of overdue child support to the U.S. State Department for the purpose of denying or revoking passports
- Intercepting the state and federal tax returns of delinquent parents to apply them to the balance
For more information on the various options that exist to enforce child support orders in the state of Minnesota, speak with a knowledgeable Minnesota divorce attorney at Appelhof, Pfeifer & Hart, P.A.
