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Can I Stop a Child Support Income Deduction Order by Quitting my Job?

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  • Child Support

Publish Date: 10/12/2015

The short answer to the question is: Yes, quitting your job may temporarily stop an income deduction order. But, the key word here is temporarily.

In Georgia, an Income Deduction Order (IDO) is a court order requiring an obligated parent's employer to take money from that party's income to satisfy a child support obligation. Once an IDO is entered and takes effect, the non-custodial parent's employer will send the child support or alimony payments to Georgia's Family Support Registry, and the Support Registry will send the payments to the recipient spouse. Although Georgia law generally requires IDOs to be entered automatically in all child support cases, many times IDOs are only put into place if a non-custodial parent has indicated an unwillingness to comply with the court's order to pay child support or a non-custodial parent has failed to pay child support in the past.

In the event an obligated parent in unable to meet their child support obligation due to a substantial change in financial circumstances, such as a job loss, he or she may petition the court for a downward modification of child support. However, if an obligated parent voluntarily quits their job, this will not automatically terminate or reduce the child support obligation. Although as stated above, quitting a job may temporarily stop an income deduction order for child support, this does not stop the child support obligation, and will not stop the accrual of child support arrears. Thus, if you are a non-custodial parent who is currently satisfying your child support obligation via income deduction order, please know that if you quit your current job, the income deduction order will indeed stop. But, once you resume work or obtain another job, another income deduction order will be put into place to collect currently owed child support along with any accrued arrearages.

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