Parents who don’t pay child support BEWARE—Mississippi could revoke your license
Don’t pay your child support in Mississippi—lose your license?
States are attempting to crack down on parents who fail to pay child support. In a story yesterday out of Memphis, the Tennessee Department of Human Services is seeking to revoke the licenses (drivers, professional, hunting and fishing) of more than 14,000 parents who are behind on their child support payments. For those in Mississippi, similar laws are on the books. The majority of these laws came out of a push by Congress to crack down on parents who failed to pay child support. All states have laws which require the suspension of licenses (drivers, professional, occupational, and recreational) if the person does not pay child support as required by law.
Under Mississippi law, all licensing agencies are required to report the names of individuals who hold licenses to the Mississippi Department of Human Services, Division of Child Support Enforcement. If a person holding a license issued by the State of Mississippi becomes delinquent in paying child support, then the State can start suspension proceedings against the individual.
The Federal government has similar incentives intended to make sure parents pay their child support. As an example, if you are certified to Passport Services by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to be in arrears of child support payments in excess of $2,500, you are ineligible to receive a U.S. passport . The amount was lowered in 2006 from $5,000 to $2,500. This law will have a greater impact given the lower threshold amount in addition to the new laws which require a passport for travel to the United States back from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and South America. In fact, the Associated Press reported a case in which a delinquent dad had to pay $311,491 in order to get a passport so he could return to the United States.
If you are under a court order to pay child support, stay in compliance. If you don’t, then you might find yourself losing your license to drive or practice your profession as well as your ability to travel outside the U.S. If your financial condition has deteriorated where you can no longer make your child support payments, talk with an attorney to see if your child support can be modified.
