A common question of clients of mine is how can I assure that my former spouse pays the child support or alimony he owes me.  In cases where the paying spouse works for another and receives a paycheck, the court will enter what is called an income withholding order. The income withholding order will direct that the court ordered amounts for alimony and/or child support be garnished from their wages. The income withholding order will require that the support payments be made in accordance with the person’s payroll cycle. Therefore, if the paying spouses gets paid bi-weekly the monthly support payments are broken up and paid on a bi-weekly basis. There is a small charge for this service, but the charge is paid by the person paying the support. The funds garnished are sent to the State of Florida disbursement unit which is located in Tallahassee.  The disbursement unit will track all of the funds received and paid out so there is always a record of what is owed. The disbursement unit will then send the money directly to the receipt. Unfortunately, for the recipient there is a delay of a few days between when the funds are taken from the paycheck and are actually paid to the receipt. However, the benefit of using an income withholding are certainly worth using one. You will be assured that the money will be garnished and paid to you and that there is always a record of payments made and received. For persons who are self-employed, an income withholding order is not going to work. However, the court can still decide that the payments are to be paid through the disbursement unit. The benefit to this is that there is a still a central tracking system, so again in the event the person falls behind the court will know exactly what is owed and what payments were made.