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Educate yourself with Child Support
Information, Legal Terms and Definitions

child support information CSA is a one stop shop for all of your Child support Information. You will receive valuable insight pertaining to your needs, but here’s the Catch. We are not a state or government agency. We're simply regular people just like you who are trying to make the best of our own child support situations.

We will gladly share our personal experiences, and offer advice on various pages of this website. Also here at CSA you will receive child support information on state calculators, modifications, enforcement rules along with new child support laws. Take it from us we have all had our fair share of frustrations dealing with the System. Our goal is to provide all of you with various informative content that will help with your situation.

visitor slogan: I PAID MY CHILD $UPPORT TODAY... HAVE YOU?


In doing so, we felt that it would be good to provide you with some basic definitions and terminology. Below are some general terms and other info you should become familiar with. Remember that we support both sides. So whether you are a payor or payee take advantage of the child support information on this page.


Alleged Father

  • A person who has been named as the father of a child born out of wedlock, but for whom paternity has not been legally established.

Buccal Swab

  • A recognized form of genetic testing used to determine paternity, which involves a q-tip type instrument for collecting saliva from individuals submitting to testing.

CSEA

  • Child Support Enforcement Agency

Custodial Parent

  • The child's legal caretaker who has custody of the children and may be entitled to receive child support payments on behalf of the children. Also referred to as residential parent or obligee.

Genetic Testing

  • A procedure to establish a likelihood that the putative or alleged father is or is not the biological father of a child.

Income Withholding

  • Child support information on withholding from an obligor's income for the purposes of paying a support obligation. "Income" means: any form of monetary payment, including personal earnings; workers' compensation payments; unemployment compensation benefits; pensions; annuities; allowances; private or governmental retirement benefits; disability or sick pay; insurance proceeds; lottery prize awards; federal, state or local government benefits to the extent that the benefits can be withheld or deducted under the law governing the benefits; any form of trust fund or endowment; lump-sum payments; and any other payment in money.

Modified Arrears

  • Adjustment of the support arrearage obligation.

Non-Custodial Parent

  • The parent who does not have legal custody of the child and who is responsible for payment of child support. Also referred to as non-residential parent or obligor.

Obligee

  • Any person, including a state or political subdivision, to whom a duty of support is owed or a person, including a state or political subdivision, that has commenced proceedings for enforcement of actual or alleged duty of support or registration of foreign support order. Also may be referred to as custodial or residential parent.

Obligor

  • Any person owing a duty of support or against whom proceedings for enforcement of a duty of support or a registration of support orders is commenced. Also may be referred to as non-custodial or non-residential parent.

Paternity

  • The process by which the father of a child is definitively and legally identified.

Payor

  • Any individual or entity making payments or distributing income to a person.

Putative Father

  • A person who has been named as the father of a child born out of wedlock but for whom paternity has not been established.

Review and Adjustment

  • The act of re-examining a support order for possible changes to that order.

Support Arrears

  • The arrearage accrues when a portion of or all of the current support ordered to be paid under a court or administrative support order is past-due.

Support Order

  • An administrative or court order for the payment of child, issued by a court or an administrative agency.

Tax Offset

  • May be done by either by the Internal Revenue Service or the Ohio Department of Taxation or both, to intercept and offset the tax refunds of non-custodial parents to collect support arrearages.

Voluntary Payments

  • Payments made to a custodial parent by the non-custodial parent without a child support order established. These payments are considered as gifts to the custodial parent.


Special Note: This particular Child Support Information is for the obligor which is the person paying child support. Pay close attention to the last term above which is voluntary payments. It’s very easy to get caught up in this situation. Whether a payer has an open case or not, all money given to the custodial parent outside of child support is only considered a Gift.

Many people do this, but it can really hurt you in the long run. When the relationship is going well everything is fine, but eventually things can end up going BAD. If it does go bad your case will go into court. You will then plead your case by telling the Judge that you gave cash money to the other parent to support your child. Unfortunately you are going to be very disappointed when you hear that all the cash you forked over was only a gift. This means that it did not count.

Always make payments through the child support system no matter how good the relationship is. This very thing happened to one of our male team members here at CSA. He mailed cash payments over a long period of time to the other party. It didn’t count and it put him in the arrears. It was a tough price to pay, so take it from him and make all payments through the system. Trust us… this section of our Child Support Information page is priceless.



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Read What Other Questions Visitors Have Asked

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How Do I Obtain An FSR Card Application  Not rated yet
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