How to Enforce a Child Support Order in Texas When the Other Parent Won’t Pay
A child support order is a court order — not a suggestion, not an agreement that either party can choose to ignore when it becomes inconvenient, and not a debt that becomes uncollectable simply because the paying parent claims they cannot afford it. Texas has some of the most aggressive child support enforcement tools available under any state’s family law, and the parent who is owed support has access to every one of them — through both the Texas Attorney General’s Child Support Division and through the Bexar County family courts directly.
The most important thing a parent owed unpaid child support needs to know is that their options are not limited to asking the non-paying parent politely or waiting for voluntary compliance. Texas law provides specific enforcement mechanisms — wage withholding, license suspension, contempt of court, property liens, and in cases of willful non-payment, criminal prosecution — and each of these tools has teeth. Understanding which tool applies to your situation, how to access it, and what timeline to expect is the starting point for getting the support your child is owed.
The Two Enforcement Pathways — OAG and Private Attorney
Child support enforcement in Texas is available through two separate pathways that operate independently and can be pursued simultaneously.
The Texas Attorney General’s Child Support Division provides free child support enforcement services to custodial parents. The OAG has the authority to initiate income withholding orders, file enforcement actions in court, suspend licenses, intercept tax refunds and other government payments, and report overdue support to credit bureaus — all without the custodial parent needing to retain a private attorney. The OAG’s services are available regardless of income, there is no eligibility requirement, and you do not need to be receiving public benefits to access them.
The limitation of the OAG pathway is speed and individualized attention. The OAG handles an enormous volume of child support cases statewide, and enforcement actions through the OAG may take several months to initiate. The OAG also does not represent the custodial parent as an individual — it represents the state’s interest in child support enforcement, which usually aligns with the custodial parent’s interest but is not identical to it.
A private family law attorney retained by the custodial parent can file an enforcement motion directly in the Bexar County family district court that issued the original child support order, pursue enforcement on an accelerated timeline, and represent the custodial parent’s specific interests in the proceeding — including seeking attorney’s fees from the non-paying parent. Private enforcement through the courts is faster than most OAG actions and provides more individualized advocacy.
Many parents pursue both pathways simultaneously — reporting the non-payment to the OAG for their automated enforcement tools while also retaining a private attorney to file a court enforcement action for contempt and attorney’s fees.
Income Withholding — The Most Effective Enforcement Tool
The most effective and most frequently used child support enforcement tool in Texas is income withholding — sometimes called wage garnishment. Under Texas Family Code Section 158.001, all child support orders must include an income withholding order that directs the obligor’s employer to withhold child support directly from each paycheck and remit it to the state disbursement unit, which forwards it to the custodial parent.
When income withholding is in place and working correctly, the paying parent never handles the child support payment — it is deducted from their paycheck automatically before they receive it, in the same way taxes and insurance premiums are withheld. A paying parent who claims they forgot to pay, could not afford to pay, or chose to spend the money on something else cannot make those arguments when withholding is active because the payment is made without their participation.
When the paying parent changes employers, the income withholding order must be served on the new employer. If you know where the paying parent works and they have changed jobs, the OAG can serve the withholding order on the new employer, or your attorney can file a notice of the new employer with the court to reactivate withholding.
If the paying parent is self-employed — receiving income as a contractor, through a business, or in cash — income withholding is not available in the same automatic way, and other enforcement mechanisms become more important.
Contempt of Court — The Most Powerful Courtroom Remedy
When a parent who has been ordered to pay child support willfully fails to make payments — meaning they had the ability to pay and chose not to — they can be held in contempt of court under Texas Family Code Section 157.001. Contempt in a child support case can result in confinement in the county jail, fines, and a judgment for the arrears owed plus the custodial parent’s attorney’s fees.
Filing a motion for enforcement based on contempt requires the custodial parent — or their attorney — to file a motion in the Bexar County family district court that issued the original order, identifying the specific payments that were not made, the dates they were due, and the total amount owed in arrears. The paying parent is personally served with the motion and ordered to appear before the judge. At the enforcement hearing, the judge evaluates whether the non-payment was willful — meaning the paying parent had the financial ability to pay and chose not to.
The willfulness requirement is important. A paying parent who lost their job and genuinely had no income during the period of non-payment may have a defense to contempt — though not to the accumulation of arrears, which continue to accrue regardless of ability to pay. A paying parent who was employed, receiving income, and spending money on personal expenses while failing to pay child support has no legitimate defense to contempt.
The maximum confinement for civil contempt in a Texas family court case is 180 days — six months in the county jail. In practice, contempt confinement is used as a last resort when other enforcement tools have failed, but the threat of confinement is often what finally motivates payment. Many enforcement hearings in Bexar County result in the paying parent appearing with a partial or full payment, negotiating a payment plan for the arrears, and avoiding confinement — but only because the motion created the court appearance that made the consequences real.
A custodial parent who successfully proves contempt is also entitled to judgment for their reasonable attorney’s fees under Texas Family Code Section 157.167 — meaning the cost of hiring an attorney to enforce the order can be shifted to the non-paying parent.
License Suspension
Texas Transportation Code Section 232.001 and Texas Family Code Chapter 232 authorize the Texas Attorney General to suspend the driver’s license, professional license, hunting license, fishing license, and certain other state-issued licenses of a parent who is more than 90 days in arrears on child support or who is not in compliance with a court order regarding child support.
License suspension is administered by the OAG and does not require a separate court order — it is a tool the OAG can apply administratively. The practical effect of a driver’s license suspension on a parent who needs to drive to work is often significant enough to produce rapid payment or a payment arrangement. The suspended parent can request an OAG review and negotiate a payment plan to have the license reinstated.
For a parent with a professional license — a nurse, a contractor, a real estate agent, an attorney — the threat of professional license suspension for child support arrears adds a layer of urgency that driver’s license suspension alone may not create. Many parents with professional licenses who have been slow to pay become suddenly motivated when they learn that their license is at risk.
Tax Refund Interception and Other Federal Remedies
Through the federal tax refund offset program — administered jointly by the OAG and the IRS under the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program — the state can intercept a non-paying parent’s federal and state tax refund and apply it to child support arrears. This is an automatic process administered by the OAG for cases where the arrears meet the threshold amount.
Similarly, federal law provides for the interception of certain other federal payments — Social Security benefits, federal retirement payments, and unemployment compensation — to satisfy child support arrears. The OAG administers these intercepts automatically for qualifying cases.
Property Liens and Judgment for Arrears
Unpaid child support in Texas becomes a judgment by operation of law under Texas Family Code Section 157.263 — meaning it does not require a separate court proceeding to become enforceable as a judgment. A child support judgment can be abstracted and recorded in Bexar County’s real property records, creating a lien on any real property the non-paying parent owns in the county. When that property is sold or refinanced, the lien must be satisfied from the proceeds before the paying parent receives anything.
Criminal Non-Support Prosecution
When all civil enforcement tools have failed and the non-payment is egregious — a parent who has made no payments for an extended period and has taken deliberate steps to avoid support while having the financial ability to pay — the conduct may rise to the level of the criminal offense of criminal non-support under Texas Penal Code Section 25.05. Criminal non-support is a state jail felony. Prosecution is rare and reserved for the most persistent and willful non-payers, but it is a tool that exists and that is occasionally used in Bexar County cases involving years of complete non-payment.
What to Do First When the Other Parent Stops Paying
The first step when child support payments stop is to document the non-payment immediately and specifically — noting each missed payment date, the amount owed, and the total arrears accumulating. The enforcement motion filed in court must identify each specific missed payment, and a well-documented record of the arrears strengthens every aspect of the enforcement proceeding.
The second step is to contact the OAG’s Child Support Division to report the non-payment and activate or confirm that income withholding is in place. If the paying parent has changed employers, providing the new employer information to the OAG allows withholding to be reactivated quickly.
The third step — and the most important for parents who need results quickly — is to consult a private family law attorney about filing an enforcement motion in Bexar County family court. The court enforcement pathway moves faster than most OAG administrative actions and produces the contempt findings and attorney’s fee awards that the OAG pathway cannot.
Child support is a legal obligation that Texas takes seriously. The tools to enforce it exist, they are accessible, and they work. The parent who is owed support has more leverage than they often realize — and using it effectively requires knowing which tools to deploy in what order.
If the other parent is not paying child support in San Antonio or Bexar County, call Barton & Associates at 210-500-0000. We file child support enforcement actions in Bexar County family courts regularly and can advise you on the fastest path to getting the support your child is owed. Consultations are free, confidential, and available 24 hours a day with a family law attorney.
