Job Loss & Child Support

What You Need to Know

• By law, you must tell your child support agency within 10 days if you lose your job, if your income changes, if you get a new job, or if you change jobs. These changes will not change your court ordered payment amounts.
• Your child support order continues after a job loss because only a court can change the amount of your child support order.
• If your job loss will result in a substantial change to your income you may seek a change in the amount of the child support that you are ordered to pay. Contact your county child support agency or your attorney to find out how to ask the court to change your order. This is not automatic.
• Parents can also file a motion on their own directly with the court . For information on filing a pro se motion, please contact the clerk of courts office in the county where your order is entered. You can find the forms you need by visiting http://www.wicourts.gov/services/public/prose.htm
• If child support payments were taken out of your paycheck, child support payments will now be withheld from your Unemployment Insurance checks.