Florida child support arrears forgiveness

ESTIMATE — based on the rules Florida published, checked October 2026. Only the agency can approve a reduction, and approvals are discretionary.

What can be reduced

No state program — OCSS lists "Does not have a program" for state-owed compromise. Per sizing §1.3, the family-owed slice can still be compromised if the other parent voluntarily agrees, documented and approved as the state requires; payment plans, error correction, and prospective modification remain available in every state.

Who may be eligible to apply

• No eligibility list is published for a program in this state.

Where to apply

No compromise application path. Florida DOR offers a written Payment Agreement — structured installments, can pause/reverse a license suspension — while offering no debt compromise (FL DOR is the cite, sizing §1.3)

The split still decides it

State-owed (assigned) arrears are the state's to compromise. Family-owed arrears can only be reduced by the other parent's voluntary, documented agreement — no agency can force it. Tennessee is the verified inversion: family-owed arrears are the compromisable slice there with court approval, and state-owed cannot be forgiven. If you do not know your split, the first move is a written request to the agency for the split as separate lines.

Interest and limits

Interest: Variable Florida judgment interest rate set quarterly by the Chief Financial Officer under §55.03 (rate floats with the federal discount rate + 400bp; it has ranged roughly 4–9.5% across recent years — pull the current quarter's rate at build, never hardcode it). Florida has no automatic statutory % on arrears as they accrue; interest attaches when arrears are reduced to a judgment (Fla. Stat. §§55.03, 61.14)

Passport / license: A DOR payment agreement can stop or reverse a driver's license suspension (FL DOR) — verified example, sizing §5.1

What no one can do: a judge cannot erase arrears that already accrued for hardship, job loss, or incarceration when no modification was filed at the time (Bradley Amendment, 42 U.S.C. §666(a)(9)(C)). Arrears are not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Federal lines: arrears over $2,500 can be certified for passport denial or revocation; only the state agency can request a release, and release practice is set by the state.

Run the arrears decoder for Florida

Source: HHS/ACF OCSS, "State Child Support Agencies with Debt Compromise Policies" (acf.hhs.gov/css/outreach-material/debt-compromise-policies; page crawled 2026-01-26, retrieved 2026-10-27), via sizing §1.1 — verbatim "Does not have a program" per sizing §1.3 ; FL DOR Payment Agreement, sizing §1.3/§5.1 · Rules checked October 2026.