When a person has child support obligations, struggles when it comes to meeting these obligations can have major impacts for them. This can particularly be the case if the struggles result in them falling behind on their payments.
Missed payments could lead to a person who owes child support facing child support enforcement proceedings and collection actions (like wage garnishment). As a note though, being subjected to such proceedings and actions is not the only thing falling behind on child support payments could result in for a parent.
For one, a person’s credit situation can be impacted by a child support debt. Missed child support payments could, depending on the circumstances, end up on a person’s credit report and damage their credit score. Negative things on a credit report and a reduced credit score can deeply affect the kind of financial options a person has.
Now, what particular impacts a given child support debt could have on person’s credit depends in part on the particular rules the state they are in has regarding unpaid child support and credit reporting. This underscores how big of an impact the particularly laws of the state they are in can have for a person when it comes to child-support-related issues.
Given the major impacts missing child support payments can have, it can be incredibly important for a parent to address child support struggles early, before such struggles develop into one actually falling behind on payments. Among the options a parent who is facing financial difficulties when it comes to making their child support payments may have for trying to address the situation is requesting a child support modification. Skilled family law attorneys can advise individuals who are facing child support struggles on whether they might qualify for such a modification and assist them with the process of requesting such a modification.
Source: Yahoo! Finance, “Will Child Support Payments Affect My Credit?,” Christine Giordano, July 11, 2016
