Can Child Support Arrears Be Forgiven in Mississippi?

Child support arrears forgiveness in Mississippi is possible in only one situation: when a legal father disestablishes paternity through DNA evidence proving he is not the biological father. Outside that narrow path, federal law prohibits any Mississippi court from retroactively reducing or erasing support that has already come due. What you can do is stop the arrears from growing, claim credit for certain payments, correct accounting errors, or negotiate with the custodial parent within limits.

Why Arrears Cannot Simply Be Erased

The block on forgiveness is federal, not state. Under the Bradley Amendment, every state must treat each child support payment as an automatic court judgment the moment it comes due. Once that happens, the arrears are locked in and cannot be retroactively modified by any state court.¹ A judge can adjust your future support amount, but cannot reach back and reduce amounts already owed.

There is one narrow carve-out: a court may modify support for the period during which a modification petition is pending, but only from the date the other parent received notice of that petition.¹ That makes timing everything. If your income dropped six months ago and you file today, those six months of arrears are permanent. Every day you wait adds to a balance no court can undo.

Mississippi’s arrears rules reinforce the point in another way: the state has no statute of limitations on collection. Enforcement can be brought “at any time,” and the balance does not disappear when the child turns 18.² Waiting is not a strategy.

The One Real Forgiveness Path: Disestablishing Paternity

Mississippi law provides one genuine route to arrears forgiveness. Under Mississippi Code 93-11-71, when a legal father successfully disestablishes paternity through DNA testing that proves he is not the biological father, the court may forgive some or all of the arrears. The judge must make a written finding that forgiveness is equitable under the totality of the circumstances.²

You file the petition under Mississippi Code 93-9-10 in the court with jurisdiction over the support order. It must include an affidavit stating you have discovered new evidence about paternity since the original determination, along with DNA results administered within one year before filing that exclude you as the biological father.³ The court must find all of the following before granting relief:

The paternity evidence came to your knowledge after the original determination.
The DNA testing was properly conducted.
You did not adopt the child.
The child was not conceived through artificial insemination during your marriage to the mother.
You did not prevent the biological father from asserting parental rights.

Even when all five conditions are met, forgiveness of the arrears is discretionary, not automatic. And if the petition fails, you pay the court costs, genetic testing fees, and the other party’s reasonable attorney fees.³ Get the DNA test before you file.

Stopping Arrears From Growing

For most parents behind on support, the practical move is not seeking forgiveness of existing arrears but reducing ongoing payments so the arrears stop growing. Mississippi courts can modify a child support order when there has been a material and substantial change in circumstances since the last order. Common qualifying changes include job loss, a significant drop in income, disability, or a meaningful change in the child’s needs.

Mississippi Code 93-5-23 gives the court authority to change its decree and issue new orders as circumstances require, with each parent contributing in proportion to their relative financial ability.⁴ Mississippi Code 93-11-65 reinforces this by directing courts to consider both parents’ separate incomes and estates.⁵

File in the chancery court that issued the original order, and file quickly. A reduction applies only from the date the other parent receives notice of your petition. Anything that accrued before that notice stays on the books permanently.¹ Bring documentation of your changed circumstances to the hearing: pay stubs, termination letters, medical records, disability determinations.

Credits Against What You Already Owe

Mississippi recognizes a specific credit against existing arrears for parents receiving Social Security disability insurance. If the Social Security Administration pays retroactive dependent benefits to your child, you receive credit toward your arrearage for those payments, provided the arrears accrued after your disability onset date as determined by the SSA.²

SSDI claims often involve long processing delays, and retroactive dependent benefits can be substantial. If you’ve been approved and back benefits have gone to your child, present the SSA documentation to the court or to the Mississippi Division of Child Support Enforcement so the credit is properly applied.

Agreements With the Custodial Parent

If the custodial parent is willing to forgive some or all of the arrears owed directly to them, that agreement can carry weight, but two limits apply.

First, an informal understanding between parents does not satisfy the court judgment that already exists against you. The agreement has to be submitted to and approved by the court to have any legal effect. A handshake, a text message, or even a signed letter sitting in a drawer will not stop enforcement.

Second, if any portion of the arrears has been assigned to the state because the custodial parent received public assistance such as TANF, the custodial parent cannot forgive the state’s share. The state has its own interest in recovering those funds, and Mississippi does not currently operate a formal debt compromise program for state-owed arrears.

Correcting Calculation Errors

Sometimes an arrears balance is inflated not because payments were missed but because the amounts were miscalculated. If your balance reflects clerical mistakes, unreported payments, or misapplied credits, you can file a motion asking the court to correct the record. This is not forgiveness; it is fixing an accounting problem. Bring canceled checks, payment receipts, MDHS payment records, and anything else showing what you actually paid versus what was recorded.

What MDHS Can and Cannot Do

The Division of Child Support Enforcement within the Mississippi Department of Human Services can help parents petition the court for modifications when financial circumstances change, and it can explain the process for claiming credits.⁶ What it cannot do is forgive arrears on its own authority. Any actual reduction requires a court order.

Two Dead Ends Worth Naming

Bankruptcy will not help. Federal law classifies child support as a domestic support obligation and explicitly excludes it from discharge under Chapter 7, Chapter 13, and all other bankruptcy chapters.⁷ Filing may clear other debts and free up income for support, but the arrears survive the case.

Waiting will not help either. Mississippi imposes no time limit on collection, and every enforcement tool the state has, from wage withholding to license suspension to federal tax refund intercepts, remains available after the child reaches adulthood.² The sooner you act, whether by filing for modification, gathering DNA evidence, documenting SSDI benefits, or challenging a miscalculation, the more of the balance is within reach.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures
2
Justia. Mississippi Code 93-11-71 – Judgment for Overdue Child Support, Forgiveness of Arrears, Credit Toward Arrearage
3
Justia. Mississippi Code 93-9-10 – Disestablishment of Paternity
4
FindLaw. Mississippi Code 93-5-23 – Divorce Decrees and Child Support
5
Justia. Mississippi Code 93-11-65 – Custody and Support of Minor Children
6
Mississippi Department of Human Services. Division of Child Support Enforcement
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge