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Past-Due Child Support (Arrears)

Please note that the legal information presented on this page is written for those living in the state of Illinois.

What Does it Mean?

Past-due child support is money a person owes if they fail to make a child support payment on time.

How Does it Work?

Unless the past-due child support is paid off, the amount owed will be included on your next child support bill. The bill will include the amount past-due plus your regular child support payment.

In Illinois, past-due child support grows at an interest rate of 9% each year. The same is true for past-due maintenance (alimony) and past-due cash medical support. Failure to pay past-due child support can result in enforcement penalties.

Things You Should Know

It is often very difficult to modify past-due child support. Depending on your situation, there may be certain options you can pursue, including:

  • Project Clean Slate
  • a payment plan with HFS, requiring the parent to pay a certain amount of child support over a certain period to remove the debt owed 
  • both you and the other parent can sign an agreed zero order for past-due child support, which would remove all child support debt owed

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