An arrearage for child support purposes means that there is an outstanding monthly child support obligation that has not been paid. Unfortunately if you have recently been ordered to pay child support through the Friend of the Court, then you may likely be in arrears. After a child support order has been established, it then takes time for the child support order to be processed. After the Friend of the Court processes the child support order, the Friend of the Court then sends the income withholding to the Michigan Disbursement Unit; the Michigan Disbursement Unit then processes the order and forwards that Order to the Payer’s employer. After the Order has been processed by all of these agencies, then child support is automatically deducted from a Payer’s check.

The time is takes for all of these agencies to process this single Order can take weeks. Therefore, by the time child support is directly taken out of your pay, you are already a month in arrears. Most courts understand that Payer’s are likely in arrears initially.