Employers may submit payments by mail or electronically. Employers can select the payment option best suited for their organization. Regardless of the option selected, all payments must be paid through the Wisconsin Support Collections Trust Fund. Click here for more information:
Click here to pay by mail / electronically
While income withholding is the way most support is collected, there are other ways individuals can make a support payment. These options do not replace income withholding, but they are useful if you are self-employed, between jobs, or if you want to pay extra towards your past-due support. Whichever way you choose, all support must be paid through the Trust Fund. This is not only a state law, but this is the only way you can be sure that you get credit for your payments.
Notices to withhold support are sent to employers. Your employer then deducts the support amount from your paycheck and sends the money to the Trust Fund for processing. Employers may charge a fee to cover their costs to withhold support.
Child support may also be withheld from unemployment payments, workers; compensation checks, pension payments, and Social Security Disability Income benefits.
Income Withholding Timelines
New income withholdings may take up to 30 days for support payments to start coming out of your paycheck. Here's how it works:
- The child support agency sends a notice to the employer to withhold for support. This notice is usually mailed within 2 business days of a new court order, or after a reported change in employment.
- The notice tells employers they must start withholding support in the first pay period after getting the withholding notice.
- After the payment is withheld from the paycheck, the employer must send the payment to the Trust Fund within 5 business days from the withholding date. Mailing time may take 1-3 days.
- The payment is processed on the same date it is received at the Trust Fund. The payment will be posted to the child support system overnight, and it can be seen on the Child Support Online Services website by the next morning.
- After a payment is posted in the child support system, it may take another 2 business days to get to the family.
Once income withholding starts, payments should start coming in according to when the paying parent gets paid. Almost all employers issue paychecks weekly, every two weeks, or monthly. Keep in mind the employer has up to 5 business days to send the payment, so support payments will not always post the same day of the week.
Income withholding is also used to collect Receipt and Disbursement (R&D) fees. Withholding for R&D fees is only used when a parent does not pay the yearly fee in full or still owes R&D fees from previous years.