}}When a person who is obliged to pay child support fails to meet some or pay all of that obligationthe child support they are required to pay, a debt begins to accumulate and the , The amount owing is called the payor's ''arrears'' of child support.

People generally have two different goals when arrears begin to mount up: the person responsible for paying support , the ''payor'', likely wants the court to reduce or cancel the arrears, while the person receiving the support , the ''recipient'', will want the court to force the payor to pay what's owing.