Income Withholding

Income withholding is the process of having an employer hold back part of someone’s pay. When that money is for child support, the employer then sends it to ORS. 

The parent who is paying child support should monitor their ORS account to make sure we receive those payments. 

The law requires that ORS use income withholding as the default way of paying child support. In that way, income withholding for child support is like money taken out for taxes.   

Income withholding does not mean that a parent has failed to pay in the past. It does not mean a parent had to be forced to support their child.  It is just the normal way of doing things.

Once ORS has a child support order, we automatically send the noncustodial parent’s employer an income-withholding order. (The only exception is when a parent is enrolled in Automatic Payment Withdrawal.)

By law, an employer may not discriminate in any way against a parent because of an income-withholding order.

Usually, an employer will not withhold more than half of a noncustodial parent’s disposable income. This is true when both the payments meet both the child support and medical support requirements.  

Under some circumstances, an employer can withhold up to 65 percent of the noncustodial parent’s disposable income.

ORS can process child support payments from income withholding even in cases that receive no other child support services. This process is called “non-IV-D processing.” 

Learn more.