Department of Revenue

Any parent with a child support case can ask the DOR’s Child Support Program to review their support order to consider whether the order may be changed. To do so, the requesting parent should first provide their financial and other relevant information to the Child Support Program for review. After receiving this information, the program will contact the other parent to obtain their information. The program will then revie both parents’ information to determine if there is a substantial, permanent, and involuntary change in circumstance, or if there are other legal grounds for changing an order. The final decision will be mailed to both parents.

If the program review determines that the order should not change, they will notify the parents and take no further action. However, if the review determines that the order should be changed, the Child Support Program may initiate a proceeding to modify the order. Note that the process to change an order will depend on whether it is a court order, an administrative support order issued by the Child Support Program, or if another state issued the order. To change a court order, the Child Support Program will bring in a program attorney to handle the court action. To change an administrative support order, the program will notify the parents to change the order. The parents will be entitled to a formal hearing before either a court or administrative order is changed. In the case that the support order was issued by another state, the Child Support Program will forward the request to the other state.

Note that the parent seeking to change a support order has the burden to prove a substantial, permanent, and involuntary change in circumstances. If less than 3 years have elapsed since the support order was issued, reviewed, or changed, a substantial change must be one that caused the order amount to change by at least 15% but not less than $50. If more than 3 years have passed since the support order was issued, a substantial change in circumstances must be one that caused a change in the order amount by least 10% but not less than $25.

To prove a permanent change, the petitioning parent must show that the change has lasted for 6 months or more. An involuntary change is one that comes of no fault from either parent, such as an extended illness or employment layoff. That is, an involuntary change warranting support is one that is out of the parent’s control. As such, a voluntary change (e.g., quitting a job, pursuing criminal activity) is a result of a parent’s own choices and does not meet the standard for a support order to be changed.