How Does Child Support Work in Marinette County, WI?

Child support in Marinette County, Wisconsin runs through the Marinette County Child Support Agency on the second floor of the courthouse at 1926 Hall Avenue, which opens a case, calculates the amount using the statewide percentage-of-income formula, routes payments through the Wisconsin Support Collections Trust Fund, and enforces the order when a parent falls behind. The office is in Room C223 and can be reached at (715) 732-7440.¹

Opening a Case

Download the parent application from the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families website, complete it, sign the back page, and submit it to the Marinette County agency.² The application fee is $25, paid by check or money order. The fee is waived if you participate in W-2, SSI Caretaker Supplement, federally financed foster care, federally financed adoption assistance, or if you were referred through BadgerCare Plus.³

Bring the paperwork the agency will need to calculate an accurate amount: Social Security numbers for yourself, the other parent, and each child; recent pay stubs; tax returns from the past two years with W-2s and 1099s; health insurance details including the premium and the cost to add a child; and employer information for the other parent if you have it. Both parents also must file a Financial Disclosure Statement listing income, debts, and assets. If one parent fails to file, the court can rely on the other parent’s statement.⁴

After filing, the other parent is served with notice and a hearing is scheduled where a court official reviews the financial evidence and enters a binding order. The timeline from filing to the first hearing usually runs four to eight weeks, depending on the court calendar and how quickly service is completed.

How the Support Amount Is Calculated

Wisconsin uses a percentage-of-income standard set in Administrative Code Chapter DCF 150. Courts must follow the formula unless a party asks for a deviation and shows the standard amount would be unfair.⁵ The percentages apply to the paying parent’s monthly gross income:

One child: 17%
Two children: 25%
Three children: 29%
Four children: 31%
Five or more children: 34%

Gross income is broader than take-home pay. It includes salary and wages, investment returns, Social Security disability benefits, unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation that replaces income, and veterans disability compensation. Money you defer into a retirement plan or an employee benefit plan still counts, even though it never shows up in your paycheck. Business owners who control a corporation or partnership can also see undistributed business income counted as gross income, so sheltering money inside a business does not reduce the obligation.⁶

If a parent quits a job or cuts hours without a good reason, the court can impute income based on earning capacity, looking at work history, education, skills, and local job availability. Incarceration, however, cannot be treated as voluntary unemployment when setting or modifying support.⁷

Shared Placement

When both parents have the child at least 25% of the year, roughly 92 overnights, the court switches to a shared-placement formula.⁸ Each parent’s income is run through the applicable percentage, multiplied by 150% to account for the cost of running two households, and then adjusted for the share of time the child spends with the other parent. The two figures are offset, and the higher-earning parent pays the difference.

Deviations

Either parent can ask the court to set support above or below the standard. The court will only deviate if the standard amount would be unfair to the child or a parent, and the law lists more than a dozen factors the court can weigh, including each parent’s financial resources, maintenance payments, childcare costs, extraordinary travel to exercise placement, tax consequences, and earning capacity. If the court deviates, it must state its reasoning on the record.⁵

Health Insurance and Medical Costs

Every Wisconsin child support order must address health insurance for the child. The court can order either or both parents to carry a private plan if the providers are within a reasonable distance of the child’s home (generally 30 minutes or 30 miles) and the premium does not exceed 10% of the insuring parent’s monthly income available for support. The non-insuring parent can be ordered to contribute toward the premium, capped at the same 10%. A parent earning below 150% of the federal poverty level cannot be ordered to pay for coverage unless it is free.⁹

The order also addresses expenses insurance does not cover, such as co-pays, deductibles, and uncovered treatments, splitting them based on each parent’s ability to pay. The insurance contribution is often folded into the monthly support amount as an upward or downward adjustment rather than billed separately.

How Payments Are Made

All child support in Wisconsin must flow through the Wisconsin Support Collections Trust Fund (WI SCTF). Paying the other parent directly, even with receipts, does not count and will not protect you from an arrears claim.¹⁰

Income withholding is the default. Wisconsin law requires every support order to include automatic income withholding, whether or not the payer is behind. The employer deducts the amount from each paycheck and sends it to the Trust Fund within five business days, and the Trust Fund then releases it to the receiving parent within about two more business days.¹¹

When withholding is not possible, such as for self-employed parents, you can pay online through ExpertPay or MoneyGram, by phone with a touch-tone authorization, by mailing a check to WI SCTF at Box 74200 in Milwaukee, or in cash at a MoneyGram location using your child support PIN. Cash payments post within five days; credit card payments can take up to twelve days to reach the Trust Fund.¹⁰

What Happens If a Parent Falls Behind

Federal guidelines require the local agency to act once a payer is more than one month behind.¹² The first response is automatic: the agency increases the income withholding amount and starts charging interest. Interest accrues at 1% per month, or 12% per year, on any arrears balance that equals or exceeds one month’s support. If there is no current obligation, interest runs on the entire outstanding balance.⁵ On a $5,000 arrears balance, that is $600 a year.

If the arrears keep growing, enforcement escalates:

Interception of state and federal tax refunds.
Liens on property, bank accounts, and other assets.
Suspension or denial of driver’s, professional, and recreational licenses.
Federal actions including passport denial and credit bureau reporting for larger arrears.
Contempt of court, which can result in jail time, as a last resort.

The Marinette County office uses each of these tools, and license suspension in particular tends to get the attention of parents who have ignored earlier steps.¹²

Changing an Order When Circumstances Shift

Either parent can ask the child support agency to review the existing order. The agency will conduct a review if three years have passed since the last review or order, or if there has been a substantial change in circumstances. Wisconsin defines “substantial change” practically: a raise, job loss, or other income shift that would move the monthly amount by $50 or more qualifies, and so does a change in placement, particularly when the child now lives primarily with the parent who had been paying.¹³

Separately, Wisconsin statute lets either party petition the court for a revision once 33 months have passed since the last support order, even without a specific change in circumstances, as long as the order sets support as a fixed dollar amount rather than a percentage.¹⁴

Going through the agency is simpler because you do not file a motion, schedule a hearing, or serve papers. It is also slower; changes do not take effect until the review finishes and both parties have had a chance to object, which can stretch across several months. Petitioning the court directly, with or without an attorney, is the faster route if you can afford the filing fee.

When Child Support Ends

A parent’s duty to pay child support in Wisconsin continues until the child turns 18. If the child is still in high school or working toward a GED at 18, support extends until graduation or age 19, whichever comes first.¹⁵

Support does not always stop on its own. The paying parent often has to contact the agency or petition the court to formally end the obligation; otherwise the withholding order stays in place. If the child cannot support themselves due to a disability, the obligation can continue past 19.

Arrears survive termination. Back support that accumulated before the end date is still owed, and 1% monthly interest keeps running on the balance until it is paid in full.⁵

1
Marinette County. Marinette County Child Support
2
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Apply for Child Support Services
3
Burnett County, Wisconsin. Parent Application for Child Support Services
4
Wisconsin Court System. Wisconsin Financial Disclosure Statement Form FA-4139V
5
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes 767.511 – Percentage Standard
6
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Administrative Code DCF 150.02 – Definitions
7
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Administrative Code DCF 150.03 – Income
8
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Administrative Code DCF 150.04 – Special Circumstances
9
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Administrative Code DCF 150.05 – Medical Support
10
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Ways to Pay Support
11
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Income Withholding Information
12
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Monitoring and Enforcing Child Support Orders
13
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Reviewing a Court Order for a Change
14
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes 767.59 – Revision of Judgment or Order
15
Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Guide to Changing and Ending Child Support