A New Jersey child support order establishes the legal obligation for parents to financially support their children, ensuring that children receive the financial resources they need for health, education, and general welfare. Whether you're seeking to establish child support, enforce an existing order, or modify current support obligations, understanding how the New Jersey child support program works helps you protect your children's interests and navigate the legal system effectively.
The New Jersey child support program provides comprehensive services including locating non-custodial parents, establishing paternity when necessary, obtaining child support orders through the courts, collecting and distributing child support payments, and enforcing support obligations when parents fail to pay. Working with the child support agency or an experienced family law attorney ensures your rights are protected throughout the child support process.
Establishing a Child Support Order
Before child support payments can begin, a formal court order must establish the support obligation, setting the amount one parent owes to the other for the children's care.
Who Can File
Either parent or the person with custody can file with the court to establish a child support order. Additionally, when families receive public assistance through programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the local county welfare agency automatically files for child support on behalf of the state to recover public assistance costs.
Paternity Requirements
For unmarried parents, establishing paternity is a prerequisite for obtaining a child support order. When children are born to married parents, the husband is presumed to be the legal father. However, unmarried parents must establish paternity either by signing a Certificate of Parentage at the hospital or through genetic testing ordered by the court before child support proceedings can move forward.
Application Process
Parents apply for child support services through the New Jersey Child Support Program by completing an application with their local county Board of Social Services. The application fee is $6 for full child support enforcement services. After applying, parents typically receive notice of a child support hearing within 10 business days, where a hearing officer or judge will determine the appropriate support amount.
New Jersey Child Support Guidelines
New Jersey uses standardized guidelines to calculate child support amounts, ensuring consistency and fairness across cases while considering each family's unique circumstances.
Income Shares Model
The state employs the Income Shares Model, which calculates child support based on both parents' combined income. This approach recognizes that children should receive the same proportion of parental income they would have received if the family remained intact. Each parent contributes to the total support obligation in proportion to their share of the combined income.
Income Calculation
For child support purposes, income includes wages, salaries, commissions, and tips, self-employment and business income, Social Security benefits and retirement distributions, workers' compensation and unemployment benefits, disability payments, alimony received from other relationships, rental income, and investment returns, including interest and dividends. Courts examine comprehensive financial information to ensure accurate income determinations.
Adjustments and Add-ons
Beyond basic support calculated from the guidelines, additional expenses are factored into child support orders, including work-related child care costs, health insurance premiums for children, unreimbursed medical expenses above a threshold amount, and educational expenses when appropriate. These adjustments ensure support orders address children's actual needs.
Parenting Time Impact on Support
The amount of time children spend with each parent significantly affects child support calculations, with different worksheets used depending on parenting arrangements.
Sole Parenting Worksheet
When one parent serves as the parent of primary residence (custodial parent) and the other parent (non-custodial parent) has the children for less than 28% of overnights (approximately two nights per week), the sole parenting worksheet applies. In these arrangements, the non-custodial parent pays their proportional share of support to the custodial parent, who is presumed to spend their share directly on the children.
Shared Parenting Worksheet
When the non-custodial parent has children for at least 28% of overnights and provides separate living accommodations, the shared parenting worksheet applies. This worksheet adjusts the support calculation to account for the fact that both parents directly pay child-related expenses during their parenting time, potentially reducing the amount one parent pays to the other.
Court Discretion
Judges may deviate from guideline calculations when circumstances warrant, considering factors including very high or low parental income, special needs of children, private school tuition, obligations to support other families, and any other factors affecting fairness and the children's best interests.
Payment Processing and Distribution
Once a court order establishes child support, the New Jersey Family Support Payment Center processes all payments, ensuring accurate accounting and timely distribution.
Income Withholding
The primary payment method involves automatic income withholding from the paying parent's wages. Employers receive Income Withholding Orders directing them to deduct child support amounts from paychecks and remit payments to the New Jersey Family Support Payment Center (NJFSPC). This system ensures consistent, reliable payments without requiring the paying parent to remember to submit funds each period.
Alternative Payment Methods
When income withholding isn't possible (for self-employed individuals or unemployed parents), paying parents can submit payments through various methods including online payments via credit or debit card, payment at participating retail locations, money orders or checks mailed to the payment center, or direct bank-to-bank transfers. All payments must be processed through NJFSPC for proper credit and distribution.
Receiving Payments
Parents receiving child support can choose how to receive funds including direct deposit to their bank account, a Way2Go prepaid debit card administered by the state, or paper checks mailed to their address. Direct deposit offers the fastest, most reliable access to support payments, typically posting within one business day of receipt by the payment center.
Child Support Enforcement
When parents fail to pay child support as ordered, the New Jersey Child Support Agency has extensive enforcement tools available to collect past-due support and encourage ongoing compliance.
Income Withholding Orders
Beyond voluntary compliance, child support enforcement begins with mandatory income withholding. Courts issue orders requiring employers to withhold support from wages, making it difficult for paying parents to avoid their obligations as long as they remain employed in legitimate jobs.
Additional Enforcement Actions
When income withholding proves insufficient or paying parents attempt to evade their obligations, the child support agency can take additional enforcement actions including intercepting federal and state tax refunds, suspending driver's licenses and professional licenses, reporting arrears to credit bureaus, seizing bank accounts and other assets, denying or revoking passports for parents owing substantial arrears, and filing contempt motions potentially resulting in arrest warrants.
Contempt of Court
Parents who willfully fail to pay court-ordered child support can be held in contempt of court, potentially facing fines, wage garnishment at higher rates, or even incarceration until they demonstrate good faith efforts to meet their support obligations. Courts take child support enforcement seriously, recognizing that children depend on these payments for their basic needs.
Modifying Child Support Orders
Child support orders aren't permanent and can be modified when circumstances change significantly, ensuring orders remain appropriate for families' current situations.
Changed Circumstances
Either parent can file a motion requesting modification of child support when substantial changes in circumstances have occurred since the current order was established. Examples of significant changes include substantial increases or decreases in either parent's income, job loss or disability affecting earning capacity, changes in parenting time arrangements, changes in child care costs or health insurance expenses, birth of additional children, and children's changing needs as they age.
Three-Year Review
Parents can request a review of their child support order every three years through their local county Board of Social Services without needing to prove changed circumstances. Based on this review, the agency recommends modification if the current circumstances would result in a support change of at least 20% under the guidelines. For families receiving public assistance, agencies automatically conduct these reviews.
Cost of Living Adjustments
New Jersey law requires automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to all child support orders every two years, reflecting changes in the Consumer Price Index for New Jersey metropolitan areas. Parents receive notice of proposed adjustments and have 30 days to contest them if they believe the adjustments are inappropriate given their current circumstances.
When Child Support Ends
Understanding when child support obligations terminate helps parents plan financially and avoid confusion about their ongoing responsibilities.
Automatic Termination
Under New Jersey law, current child support obligations automatically end without court hearings when children reach age 19, marry, die, or enter military service. When these events occur, parents must provide documentation to the child support agency, which updates orders to reflect termination. However, any arrears (past-due support) remain owed and subject to continued enforcement even after current support obligations end.
Continuation Beyond Age 19
Child support can continue beyond age 19 in several circumstances including when children under age 23 are enrolled full-time in high school, college, vocational school, or graduate programs, when children cannot support themselves due to physical or mental disabilities that existed before age 19, when parents reach separate agreements for continued support, or when courts grant continuation for other exceptional reasons.
Requesting Continuation
Custodial parents seeking continuation of support beyond age 19 must submit written requests with required proof before children turn 19. The child support agency reviews these requests and, if approved, issues updated orders with new termination dates. Either parent can file court motions requesting or challenging support continuation based on specific circumstances.
Public Assistance and Child Support
When families receive public assistance, special rules apply regarding child support establishment and distribution, as the state seeks to recover welfare costs.
TANF and Child Support
Families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) must cooperate with child support establishment and enforcement as a condition of receiving benefits. The state automatically files for child support, and collected payments first reimburse the state for public assistance provided before any funds go to the family.
Pass-Through Payments
New Jersey law allows custodial parents receiving TANF to keep a portion of child support collected, encouraging cooperation and ensuring children benefit from support payments. Families with one child may receive up to $100 monthly of collected support, while families with two or more children may receive up to $200 monthly, with remaining amounts going to reimburse the state.
Former Assistance Recipients
Even after families stop receiving public assistance, the state retains rights to collect child support for periods when assistance was provided, continuing enforcement to recover welfare costs. Once arrears owed to the state are satisfied, all current child support payments go directly to custodial parents.
Interstate and International Cases
Child support services extend across state lines and international borders, ensuring children receive support regardless of where parents live.
Uniform Interstate Family Support Act
All states follow the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), providing standardized procedures for establishing and enforcing child support across state lines. When one parent lives in New Jersey and the other in a different state, New Jersey works cooperatively with that state's child support agency to establish orders and enforce payments.
Direct Income Withholding
Employers must honor income withholding orders from other states, making interstate enforcement more effective. When non-custodial parents work in different states from where orders were issued, income can still be withheld and remitted to the appropriate payment center for distribution to custodial parents.
International Cases
The United States has agreements with many countries under the Hague Convention on International Recovery of Child Support, allowing enforcement even when parents live abroad. New Jersey's Intergovernmental Central Registry handles cases involving other countries, coordinating with foreign agencies to establish paternity, obtain support orders, and enforce existing obligations.
Getting Help With Child Support
Whether you need to establish, enforce, or modify child support, various resources help you navigate the New Jersey child support system.
Child Support Services
The New Jersey Child Support Program provides comprehensive services including locating non-custodial parents, establishing paternity, obtaining support orders, processing and distributing payments, enforcing support obligations, and modifying orders when circumstances change. Services are available through local county Board of Social Services offices.
Automated Information
Parents can access case information 24/7 through the automated phone system at 1-877-NJKIDS1 (1-877-655-4371) or online at njchildsupport.gov. These systems provide payment histories, case balances, upcoming court dates, and other important information without needing to speak with caseworkers during business hours.
Legal Assistance
For complex child support matters or when disputes arise, consulting with family law attorneys ensures your rights are protected. Legal Services of New Jersey provides free legal assistance to qualifying low-income residents at 1-888-LSNJLAW or lsnjlaw.org. For those who don't qualify for free services, private family law attorneys can provide representation in child support proceedings.
Protecting Children's Interests
A New Jersey child support order serves one primary purpose: ensuring children receive the financial support they need from both parents, regardless of the parents' relationship status. Whether you're establishing initial support, seeking enforcement of existing orders, or requesting modifications due to changed circumstances, understanding how the child support system works empowers you to advocate effectively for your children's needs.
Child support isn't just about money; it represents both parents' ongoing commitment to their children's welfare, providing resources for food, housing, clothing, healthcare, education, and other essential needs. The New Jersey Child Support Program exists to help families navigate this system, ensuring children receive the support they deserve.
If you need assistance with establishing, enforcing, or modifying a child support order, contact your local county Board of Social Services to apply for child support services, or consult with an experienced family law attorney who can guide you through the process and protect your interests. Your children's financial security depends on effective child support orders that meet their needs and reflect both parents' abilities to contribute to their upbringing.