More Recent Changes to Child Support Laws

Child support guidelines have changed in Minnesota effective for all orders issued after January 1, 2023 (see post from January 14, 2023). In addition to the changed guidelines, the 2021 legislation also made the following changes:

As of August 2022, Minnesota will no longer charge interest to parents with past due child support payments. Prior to August, 2022, parents were charged interest on past due child support. If a parent stopped making payments, due to a job loss, or any other reason, interest on those missed payments would accrue. Even if a parent started making payments again, the months a parent missed would continue to incur interest. It was possible for a parent to owe thousands of dollars even after the child was emancipated. The interest on past due child support became a barrier for parents to get caught up on missed support obligations. The new law is intended to allow parents to limit or reduce their debt and increase the likelihood timely payments for children..

Another attempt to promote payments of child support is a change which give parents the opportunity to create a payment plan with the county before their debt is reported to a credit agency. The goal is to give parents an opportunity to catch up on child support before credit reporting begins. This new opportunity became available as of January 1, 2023.