Enforcing Delayed Income Deduction Orders

The law requires an Income Deduction Order when payment of child support is ordered. An IDO requires the paying parent's employer to deduct child support from earnings and forward it to the state, which in turn forwards to the receiving parent.

Sometimes the IDO has a delayed effective date. Most commonly, the IDO says it will be effective if the paying parent falls behind in support payments for a certain number of days.

Unless the Florida Department of Revenue is assisting in child support enforcement, it is up to the receiving parent to enforce the delayed IDO. Although from reading a delayed IDO, it seems that all you must do send the IDO to the paying parent's employer, you must FIRST file a Notice of Delinquency before the delayed IDO can be enforced.

So, if the paying parent falls behind, the receiving parent files a notice indicating when the money was due and the amount of delinquency. Send a copy of the notice to the paying parent. The paying parent can then dispute the delinquency within 15 days by filing an objection.

A hearing will be set if the delinquency is disputed. If there is no dispute filed by the paying parent, the receiving parent sends the IDO by certified mail to the paying parent's employer who must then deduct the support payments according to the IDO.

Remember, you need to file a notice of delinquency before you can file a motion for enforcement.