Florida Child Support Bank Levy: Freeze, Exemptions, and 21-Day Response

A Florida child support bank levy lets the Department of Revenue freeze your bank account and take the money in it to pay down past-due support, without filing a new lawsuit or getting a fresh court order first. The agency has to send specific notices and wait set periods before the money actually moves, and you have 21 days from the Notice of Intent to Levy to pay the arrears, work out an agreement, or formally challenge the action. Miss that window and the funds transfer out.

When the DOR Can Reach Your Account

The DOR does not levy every delinquent case. Your situation has to meet a financial threshold first: your past-due balance must exceed $600, or your arrears must be greater than four times your total monthly support obligation (current support plus any ordered payment toward arrears). On top of that, you must have paid less than 75% of your total monthly obligation during the three months leading up to the action.¹

If partial payments have kept you above the 75% line, the DOR cannot use this tool against you regardless of total arrears. Fall below it for three straight months, and the account becomes fair game. The agency’s reach covers checking accounts, savings, money market funds, and brokerage accounts held by any third party on your behalf.² Moving money to an out-of-state bank does not help, because federal data-matching rules require multistate financial institutions to report account holder matches back to the state.³

How the Freeze and Seizure Unfold

The process runs on built-in waiting periods, but it moves faster than most people expect. Three notices drive it.

Notice to Freeze

The DOR sends a Notice to Freeze to your bank by certified mail. The bank must immediately hold your funds up to the amount of past-due support listed in the notice, and you cannot withdraw, transfer, or spend frozen funds while the hold is in place.² The bank has five days to report back to the DOR with details about what it is holding. The freeze lasts up to 60 days, or longer if you file a legal challenge.

Notice of Intent to Levy

At the same time, the DOR sends you a Notice of Intent to Levy by certified mail. This is the formal warning that the agency plans to seize the frozen funds. The notice must arrive at least 30 days before the levy takes place.² You have 21 days from receiving this notice to pay the arrears, negotiate with the DOR, or formally contest the levy.¹

Notice of Levy and Fund Transfer

If you don’t respond or your challenge fails, the DOR issues a Notice of Levy during the last 30 days of the 60-day freeze period. The bank transfers the frozen funds to the DOR, which processes them through the State Disbursement Unit and forwards the money to the parent owed the support.² If the account holds securities worth less than the arrears, the institution must liquidate them in a commercially reasonable manner and send the proceeds minus normal fees.

What Happens If the Account Is Joint

A joint account can be frozen in full, even if the co-owner owes no child support. The DOR must give the joint owner the same notice and hearing rights it gives you, including a separate Notice to Joint Owner if the original notice didn’t reach them.¹

The DOR cannot take the portion of the account that belongs exclusively to the joint owner, but the burden of proof is on you and the co-owner to show which funds are whose. That means deposit records, account statements, and documentation tracing specific deposits to the joint owner’s own money. If you can’t prove the split, the DOR will deny the claim and treat the full frozen amount as yours.¹ Any agreement for a partial release has to be in writing and signed by all parties.

Money That Can and Can’t Be Taken

Protections exist, but they are narrower for child support than for other kinds of garnishment. This catches many people off guard.

Social Security Retirement and Disability

Regular Social Security retirement and SSDI benefits are not exempt from child support enforcement. Federal law overrides the usual protections and allows garnishment of Social Security payments to collect child support and alimony.⁴⁵

Supplemental Security Income

SSI is fully exempt from child support garnishment, both at the source and after it lands in your account.⁶ If your frozen account holds SSI deposits, you’ll need to produce records proving the funds came from SSI to get them released.

VA Benefits

Most VA periodic benefits are exempt. The exception is narrow: service-connected disability compensation paid to a veteran who waived part of military retirement pay to receive that compensation can be reached.⁴ Federal regulations also require banks to review accounts for recent federal benefit deposits before complying with a garnishment order.⁷

Wages in the Account

When wages or salary are deposited into an account subject to a child support levy, the Consumer Credit Protection Act caps how much can be taken. These ceilings are higher than the 25% limit for ordinary debts. If you support another spouse or dependent child, the maximum is 50% of your disposable earnings. If you don’t, it rises to 60%. If you’re more than 12 weeks behind on support, an additional 5% applies, pushing the caps to 55% and 65%.⁸ These caps apply to earnings, not to money already sitting in the account from other sources like a tax refund or a gift.

Your 21-Day Window to Fight Back

You have two ways to contest a levy, and you must pick one within 21 days of receiving the Notice of Intent to Levy. You can request an administrative hearing in writing, filed with the DOR’s Deputy Agency Clerk, or you can file a petition in circuit court.⁹ You can’t pursue both at the same time.

Common grounds include:

Mistaken identity, where the DOR targeted the wrong person’s account.
An incorrect arrears calculation, where payments weren’t properly credited or the balance is wrong.
Exempt funds, such as SSI, protected VA benefits, or other legally shielded money.
A joint owner claim, seeking release of funds that belong exclusively to the co-owner.

While a challenge is pending, the freeze stays in place, but the DOR cannot transfer the money until there is a final decision.² You can also request an informal conference with the DOR to try to work it out. An informal conference does not affect your right to a formal hearing and does not extend the 21-day deadline, so treat it as a supplement, not a substitute.¹

Miss the 21-day window and you lose the right to contest. The DOR proceeds with the levy, and there’s no mechanism to unwind it after the fact.

Paying or Settling the Arrears

The most direct way to stop or avoid a levy is to contact the DOR’s Child Support Program and discuss a payment agreement. A payment agreement is a written plan for paying down arrears through regular monthly installments when you can’t clear the full balance at once.¹⁰ Breaking the terms of that agreement lets the DOR resume enforcement without further notice.

One reality surprises many people. Florida law does not allow retroactive reduction of child support arrears. Once a payment comes due, it becomes a vested right of the child and a final judgment. A judge can’t go back and lower what has already accrued, even if your finances changed drastically. You can petition to modify your future support obligation going forward, but the existing arrears balance stays. If the arrears are owed to the state as reimbursement for public assistance, the DOR has limited discretion to compromise the amount, though this is rare.

Where a Bank Levy Fits Among Other Enforcement Actions

A bank levy is one of the DOR’s more aggressive tools, and it is rarely the first one used. Before an account gets frozen, most parents have already seen income withholding orders sent to an employer, interception of federal and state tax refunds, or suspension of driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations.¹¹ The federal government can also deny or revoke a passport when arrears exceed $2,500.¹²

The levy usually comes into play when income withholding isn’t working, often because the obligor is self-employed, between jobs, or earning income that isn’t easily garnished through an employer. If you’ve received a Notice of Intent to Levy, the DOR has likely already tried less intrusive methods. That history is worth keeping in mind when deciding whether to negotiate a payment plan or fight the levy on procedural grounds.

1
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code 12E-1.028 – Garnishment by Levy
2
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 409.25656 – Garnishment
3
Administration for Children and Families. Multistate Financial Institution Data Match Information for Families
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 659 – Consent by United States to Income Withholding, Garnishment, and Similar Proceedings for Enforcement of Child Support and Alimony Obligations
5
Social Security Administration. Can My Social Security Benefits Be Garnished or Levied
6
Office of Child Support Enforcement. Garnishing Federal Benefits for Child Support
7
eCFR. 31 CFR Part 212 – Garnishment of Accounts Containing Federal Benefit Payments
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
9
Florida Department of Revenue. How Do I Request an Administrative Hearing to Contest a Levy
10
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Child Support Program – Payment Agreement
11
Florida Department of Revenue. Child Support Program
12
Office of Child Support Enforcement. Child Support Handbook Chapter 5 – Collecting Support