Financial Help for Families and Child Support

Paid Leave for Many Workers Due to Coronavirus

If you work for a business with less than 500 employees, under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act you may be eligible for paid sick or family leave due to impacts from the coronavirus pandemic.

Starting April 1 and through December 31, 2020, you may get:

Up to two weeks of paid sick leave if you or a family member is quarantined or has symptoms of COVID-19
Up to an extra 10 weeks of paid family and medical leave if your child's school or daycare provider is closed or unavailable

Businesses will receive funds from the government to cover costs of providing leave. If you own a small business with less than 50 workers, you may not have to provide leave for childcare purposes.

Find information for employees and employers about paid leave due to the coronavirus emergency.

Get Help Collecting Child Support

Child support is the monthly amount a court orders a child’s noncustodial parent to pay the parent with primary custody. It helps pay for a child’s needs on a daily basis, from food and housing to clothing and medical needs.

Learn About Child Support

You can apply through your state for child support services if you have primary custody of your child and need help to:

Establish a child support order from court
Collect support payments

You will automatically get a referral for child support services if you get help from any of these programs:

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Medicaid
Federally assisted foster care programs

How to Get Child Support

To get help with child support, follow these steps:

Contact your state or local child support office.
Gather documents you’ll need to present with your application.
Complete an application from your state.
If you can't resolve the problem through your local office, check these next steps from the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE).

In most cases, the state or local government manages problems like nonpayment. If you know the location of a noncustodial parent who may be behind in their payments, reach out to the state where the child support case is active.

Child Support Enforcement Abroad

For questions about child support payments from or to someone in another country, search OCSE's international resources. There may be a state or national agreement to provide child support services with the country in question. If you need further help, submit your international child support questions through the OCSE online form.