State Disbursement Units (SDUs): How Payments Flow

The SDU is the scorekeeper. Courts, lenders, and licensing boards all read from its ledger — which is exactly why you want every payment to run through it.

Why it matters

The State Disbursement Unit maintains the official record of what was owed and paid — Texas operates its SDU under Family Code chapter 234. Employer payments often lag before they post, so save your pay stubs and reconcile them against the SDU statement to catch discrepancies early.

Pay in traceable ways

ACH transfers and portal payments beat cash because they create a traceable record — the same record that later serves as proof for taxes, FAFSA, credit disputes, and court compliance. One clean SDU history does a lot of jobs at once.

Since 1997, the child support attorney team at Sinkin Law Firm has recovered unpaid support for parents statewide.