{"id":2544,"date":"2014-01-30T03:37:26","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T03:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/?p=2544"},"modified":"2019-11-23T22:26:37","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T05:26:37","slug":"garnishment-wages-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Garnishment of Wages for Support"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>1. \u00a0Wage Garnishment Required by Law in Child Support Cases. \u00a0<\/strong>In Arizona child support cases, judges are required\u00a0<em>by law<\/em> to issue wage garnishments to collect the child support. \u00a0A.R.S. Sections 25-323.A. and 25-504.A. \u00a0The official, statutory term used to describe a wage garnishment for child support is &#8220;order of assignment.&#8221; \u00a0<em>Id.<\/em> \u00a0The court\u00a0<em>assigns<\/em> to the person entitled to <em>receive<\/em> support the portion of the wages of the person ordered to\u00a0<em>pay<\/em> support that is necessary to satisfy the amount of child support ordered by the court. \u00a0These orders of assignment are also sometimes referred to as\u00a0<em>&#8220;income withholding orders.&#8221; <\/em><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>2. \u00a0Garnishment Optional in Spousal Maintenance (Alimony) Cases.<\/strong> \u00a0The statutes state that in child support cases, the court &#8220;shall&#8221; issue an order of assignment. \u00a0<em>Id.<\/em> \u00a0With respect to spousal maintenance (alimony) obligations, however, orders of assignment are optional. \u00a0The statutes state that the court &#8220;may&#8221; issue an order of assignment. \u00a0<em>Id.<\/em> \u00a0In my experience, if the person entitled to receive spousal maintenance wants it to be paid by order of assignment, the court will issue the order. \u00a0If the parties agree to payment of spousal maintenance\u00a0<em>without<\/em> an order of assignment, the court will not issue the order of assignment. \u00a0In child support cases, by contrast, the court\u00a0<em>must, <\/em>by law,\u00a0issue an order of assignment even if neither party wants the child support to be paid by wage assignment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. \u00a0Wages Garnished for Support are Sent to Clearinghouse. \u00a0<\/strong>In simple terms, an order of assignment or income withholding order requires an employer to withhold from an employee&#8217;s wages the amount of support that employee has been ordered to pay to the other parent of the employee&#8217;s child or to the employee&#8217;s ex-spouse. \u00a0 The employer is ordered to pay the withheld wages to the Support Payment Clearinghouse (&#8220;Clearinghouse&#8221;). \u00a0\u00a0The withheld wages are NOT paid directly to the person entitled to receive the support. \u00a0The Clearinghouse is essentially a court department charged with receiving and disbursing support payments. \u00a0The Clearinghouse receives the payment, deposits the check in its account, and after the check clears, the Clearinghouse issues a separate check to the person entitled to receive support. \u00a0The Clearinghouse also keeps records of all payments received and disbursed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. \u00a0Ineffective Wage Garnishments do NOT Relieve Support Obligations.<\/strong> \u00a0For various reasons, some orders of assignment are ineffective or only partially effective. \u00a0For example, an order of assignment to a self-employed person who controls his own payroll may not result in any support being paid to the Clearinghouse by wage assignment. \u00a0The self-employed person may simply ignore the wage assignment. \u00a0Another example is when an \u00a0employer is limited by federal law as to the amount of an employee&#8217;s wages the employer may garnish (generally not more than 50% of an employee&#8217;s disposable earnings may be garnished). \u00a0 In such cases, the person obligated to pay support is not relieved of any part of his obligation to pay support. \u00a0Rather, the person must make payments <em>directly<\/em>\u00a0to the Clearinghouse to insure that his full support obligation is paid each month. \u00a0 For example, if the person has been ordered to pay $1,000 per month but only $700 is taken\/paid by wage assignment, the person must pay an additional $300 directly to the Clearinghouse to fully satisfy his obligation.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 by Scoresby Family Law \u2013 J. Kyle Scoresby, P.C. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1. \u00a0Wage Garnishment Required by Law in Child Support Cases. \u00a0In Arizona child support cases, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[189,190,64,191,188,101],"class_list":["post-2544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-child-support","tag-child-support-payments","tag-income-withholding-orders","tag-order-of-assignment","tag-spousal-maintenance-alimony","tag-support-payment-clearinghouse","tag-wage-garnishment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Garnishment of Wages for Support - Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Garnishment of Wages for Support - Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"1. \u00a0Wage Garnishment Required by Law in Child Support Cases. \u00a0In Arizona child support cases, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-30T03:37:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-24T05:26:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"SFLadmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"SFLadmin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"SFLadmin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/24d0e6438c2b80e3aed92036129e7cf7\"},\"headline\":\"Garnishment of Wages for Support\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-30T03:37:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-24T05:26:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/\"},\"wordCount\":563,\"keywords\":[\"child support payments\",\"income withholding orders\",\"order of assignment\",\"spousal maintenance (alimony)\",\"Support Payment Clearinghouse\",\"wage garnishment\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Child Support\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/\",\"name\":\"Garnishment of Wages for Support - Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-30T03:37:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-24T05:26:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/24d0e6438c2b80e3aed92036129e7cf7\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Garnishment of Wages for Support\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/24d0e6438c2b80e3aed92036129e7cf7\",\"name\":\"SFLadmin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b84580a43b3dade92a73c9c6a806d6e95673567a6b391f047adcc6efbe0779c8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b84580a43b3dade92a73c9c6a806d6e95673567a6b391f047adcc6efbe0779c8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"SFLadmin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/author\/sfladmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Garnishment of Wages for Support - Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Garnishment of Wages for Support - Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog","og_description":"1. \u00a0Wage Garnishment Required by Law in Child Support Cases. \u00a0In Arizona child support cases, [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/","og_site_name":"Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog","article_published_time":"2014-01-30T03:37:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-11-24T05:26:37+00:00","author":"SFLadmin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"SFLadmin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/"},"author":{"name":"SFLadmin","@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/24d0e6438c2b80e3aed92036129e7cf7"},"headline":"Garnishment of Wages for Support","datePublished":"2014-01-30T03:37:26+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-24T05:26:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/"},"wordCount":563,"keywords":["child support payments","income withholding orders","order of assignment","spousal maintenance (alimony)","Support Payment Clearinghouse","wage garnishment"],"articleSection":["Child Support"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/","url":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/","name":"Garnishment of Wages for Support - Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-01-30T03:37:26+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-24T05:26:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/24d0e6438c2b80e3aed92036129e7cf7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/30\/garnishment-wages-support\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Garnishment of Wages for Support"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/","name":"Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/24d0e6438c2b80e3aed92036129e7cf7","name":"SFLadmin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b84580a43b3dade92a73c9c6a806d6e95673567a6b391f047adcc6efbe0779c8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b84580a43b3dade92a73c9c6a806d6e95673567a6b391f047adcc6efbe0779c8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"SFLadmin"},"url":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/author\/sfladmin\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2550,"href":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions\/2550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}