If you stop paying child support in Florida, the state can garnish your paycheck, suspend your driver’s and professional licenses, seize money from your bank accounts, intercept your tax refunds, block your passport, report you to the credit bureaus, and ultimately send you to jail for willful non-payment. The debt grows with interest the whole time, it can’t be erased in bankruptcy, and it doesn’t disappear when your child turns 18. Florida’s enforcement system is built to make falling behind more expensive and harder to escape the longer it goes on.
Your Paycheck Is the First Thing to Go
Every Florida child support order automatically includes an income deduction provision that tells your employer to pull the support straight from your wages before you ever see the money.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 61.1301 – Income Deduction Orders Your employer has no discretion in the matter.
Once you owe arrears, the employer must withhold an extra 20 percent on top of your current support amount until the back balance is cleared.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 61.1301 – Income Deduction Orders Federal law sets the ceiling on how much of your disposable earnings can be taken: 50 percent if you’re supporting another spouse or child, 60 percent if you’re not. Each cap rises by five percentage points when your arrears are more than 12 weeks old.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment At the top of the range, nearly two-thirds of your take-home pay can be redirected before you ever touch it.
Your Licenses Can Be Suspended
Fall just 15 days behind and the Florida Department of Revenue can start the process of suspending your driver’s license and vehicle registration. You’ll get a notice by mail with 20 days to pay the balance, set up a payment plan, or contest the action. Ignore it and the suspension takes effect.3Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.13016 – Suspension of Driver Licenses and Motor Vehicle Registrations
You can avoid suspension by showing you receive unemployment benefits, Social Security disability, or temporary cash assistance, or that you’re following a confirmed bankruptcy repayment plan.3Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.13016 – Suspension of Driver Licenses and Motor Vehicle Registrations
Driving isn’t the only thing at stake. If your job requires a state-issued license — real estate, healthcare, construction, cosmetology, any licensed field — that license can be suspended too. Hunting and fishing licenses are also on the list. The practical effect: the enforcement tool that stops you from working can be the same tool used to collect what you owe.
Your Tax Refunds and Passport Get Blocked
Florida reports past-due balances to the U.S. Treasury, which intercepts part or all of your federal income tax refund and sends it toward your arrears.4Administration for Children and Families. How Does a Federal Tax Refund Offset Work? State tax refunds and rebates can be intercepted the same way.
Owe $2,500 or more and you’ll be blocked from getting a new U.S. passport or renewing one you already hold. The State Department will also revoke a current passport the moment you turn it in for any routine service, including adding pages or updating a photo.5Administration for Children and Families. Passport Denial Program 101
Your Bank Accounts and Property Can Be Seized
A judge can order a levy on your bank accounts to satisfy the debt. Federal law also requires Florida to maintain procedures under which liens automatically attach to your real and personal property when support becomes overdue.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures That lien can land on your house, your car, your investment accounts, or other assets, and it blocks you from selling or transferring any of them until the debt is resolved.
You Can Be Jailed for Contempt
The most severe enforcement tool is a civil contempt finding. When a judge decides you have willfully refused to pay despite having the ability to do so, you can be ordered to jail until you pay a specific “purge amount” the court sets. It isn’t a criminal sentence in the traditional sense. It’s coercive: you hold the key to your own release.
The distinction between “won’t pay” and “can’t pay” is the whole ballgame at a contempt hearing. A judge cannot jail you if you genuinely lack the means to pay. You have the right to argue inability to pay, and the burden rests on the person seeking enforcement to show you had the money and chose not to hand it over.
The Debt Grows and Follows You
Unpaid Florida child support accrues interest at the rate set by Section 55.03. Any payment you do make gets applied first to current support, then to overdue principal, and only then to accumulated interest.7Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.14 – Enforcement and Modification of Support, Maintenance, or Alimony Agreements or Orders If you pay anything less than the full current obligation, interest keeps compounding on top of the balance.
Federal law requires the state to report your name and the full amount of overdue support to consumer credit agencies.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures A child support delinquency on your credit report can block a mortgage, auto loan, or credit card approval, and it stays there until the debt is cleared.
Bankruptcy won’t rescue you. Federal bankruptcy law lists domestic support obligations as debts that survive both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 523 – Exceptions to Discharge Filing won’t erase past-due child support and won’t stop most of the enforcement actions above.
Leaving the State Turns It Into a Federal Crime
If you move out of Florida and willfully stop paying support for a child in another state, you’re exposed to federal prosecution. Once the debt has gone unpaid for more than a year or exceeds $5,000, it becomes a federal offense punishable by up to six months in federal prison for a first conviction.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 228 – Failure to Pay Legal Child Support Obligations
If the debt tops $10,000, goes unpaid for more than two years, or you crossed state lines specifically to dodge it, the maximum climbs to two years. Any conviction carries mandatory restitution for the full unpaid balance.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 228 – Failure to Pay Legal Child Support Obligations The HHS Office of Inspector General investigates these cases and publishes a list of parents wanted for non-payment.10Office of Inspector General. Child Support Enforcement
Social Security, Retirement, and VA Benefits Aren’t Safe
Social Security retirement and disability benefits are not shielded. Federal law lets Social Security withhold payments under a court garnishment order, subject to the same Consumer Credit Protection Act caps that apply to wages.11Social Security Administration. Can My Social Security Benefits Be Garnished or Levied?2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
Private retirement plans can also be reached. A Qualified Domestic Relations Order allows a court to direct a 401(k) plan or pension to pay child support straight from your account, and the tax liability on money distributed to a child or dependent stays on you, the plan participant.12Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – QDRO: Qualified Domestic Relations Order
One narrow boundary worth knowing: VA disability compensation now works differently. As of February 2026, the VA no longer grants need-based apportionments of disability benefits in most situations and defers to state family courts on support decisions. Apportionments continue only in limited circumstances, such as when the veteran is incarcerated or institutionalized at government expense.13VA News. VA Limits Apportionment of Disability Benefits
The Debt Doesn’t End When Your Child Turns 18
A common and expensive misconception: that unpaid support disappears once the child becomes an adult. It doesn’t. Florida law ends the obligation to pay current support at 18, but accumulated arrears, retroactive support, and related costs survive indefinitely.14Justia Law. Florida Statutes 61.14 – Enforcement and Modification of Support, Maintenance, or Alimony Agreements or Orders
You must keep paying at the same rate that was in effect right before the child turned 18 until the arrears are gone or the court changes the amount.7Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.14 – Enforcement and Modification of Support, Maintenance, or Alimony Agreements or Orders Every enforcement tool above — wage garnishment, license suspension, tax intercept, contempt, liens — stays available for years after your child is grown.
If You Genuinely Can’t Pay, Modify the Order
Parents who truly cannot afford their obligation have a legal path, but it runs through the courthouse, not through silence. You can file a Supplemental Petition for Modification of Child Support asking the court to lower the amount based on your changed finances.15Florida Courts. Instructions for Florida Supreme Court Approved Family Law Form 12.905(b) – Supplemental Petition for Modification of Child Support
You’ll need to show a substantial change in circumstances and that the modification serves the child’s best interests. Involuntary job loss, a significant income drop, or a disability affecting your earning capacity are the usual grounds. The change must also be big enough to matter: the difference between your current order and what the guidelines would now produce has to be at least 15 percent or $50, whichever is greater.16Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.30 – Child Support Guidelines
Until a judge signs a new order, the old one controls. Arrears keep piling up at the original amount, interest keeps accruing, and every enforcement mechanism stays active. Filing the petition does not pause your obligation. Only a signed modification does.