Child Support

[Divorcee]

I am new and not responding to other threads. I want to know when child support ends. My eldest has one degree but has come back home to live. My youngest is away at university but my home is his principal residence and he's with me all summer and holidays. My ex arbitrarily reduced the amount he'd give me for child support, saying the kids are "adults" now and he doesn't think he should have to pay so much. So I don't know whether I'm entitled to something for the full time student who is living at home or the son who is there part time. Anybody have this experience?

[Kimberley]

Divorcee - use the 'New Topic' button when you first enter the forum in which you want to post rather than 'high-jacking' someone else's threads.

Please also try the search function as your question has been asked and answered in a variety of threads.

[FL_Needs_To_Change]

Generally once the adult child has attained the first degree/diploma the CS stops, unless the child is continuing their education past the degree level for a masters or a doctorate. I have read cases where CS was ordered to continue with the thinking that the masters etc was part of the first degree.
Below is taken from actual law. And this is the link it was taken from, http://www.cfla.on.ca/cfla/docs/lega...ildSupport.doc
It is a paper done on the topic with referance (shown below) to supporting laws.

The Divorce Act provides:
2. (1) “child of the marriage” means a child of two spouses or former spouses who, at the material time…
(b) is the age of majority or over and under their charge but unable, by reason of illness, disability or other cause, to withdraw from their charge or to obtain the necessities of life;
The Ontario Family Law Act provides:
31. (1) Obligation of Parent to Support Child – Every parent has an obligation to provide support for his or her unmarried child who is a minor or is enrolled in a full time program of education, to the extent that the parent is capable of doing so.

(2) Idem – the obligation under subsection (1) does not extent to a child who is sixteen years of age or older and has withdrawn from parental control.
The provisions of the Family Law Act govern cases where the parties are not obtaining a divorce, most often because the parents were not married to each other.
Determining the amount of support that the child will be entitled to under either legislative scheme is done under the Child Support Guidelines, which provide:
3. (2) Child the age of majority or over – Unless other provided under these Guidelines, where a child to whom an order for the support of child relates is the of majority or over, the amount of an order for the support of a child is
(a) the amount determined by applying these Guidelines as if the child were under the age of majority; or
(b) if the court considers that amount to be inappropriate, the amount that the court considers appropriate, having regard to the condition, means, needs, and other circumstances of the child and the financial ability of each spouse to contribute to the support of the child.
7. (1) Special or Extraordinary Expenses – In a child support order, the court may, on either spouse’s request, provide for an amount to cover all or any portion of the following expenses, which expense may be estimated, taking into account the necessity of the expense in relation to the child’s best interests and the reasonableness of the expense in relation to the means of the spouses and those of the child and to the family’s spending pattern prior to the separation...

(e) expenses for post-secondary education
The Divorce Act and the Family Law Act differ in the some of criteria for eligibility for support for an adult child. The Family Law Act has a narrower and somewhat clearer test, with eligibility only if a young adult child is “enrolled in a full time program of education” and has not voluntarily withdrawn from parental control. The Divorce Act has a broader and more discretionary test, allowing for support for young adults “but unable, by reason of illness, disability or other cause, to withdraw from [parental] charge.” In practice there is significant discretion under both pieces of legislation in for determining both whether to order support (or cease to require it) and how much support to order.
Most all of the reported case law for support of adult children under the Divorce Act deals with cases where the child is pursuing post-secondary studies, and there is only limited practical difference between the two legislative regimes. However, the Divorce Act is clearly broader, allowing for support for children who are disabled, pursuing competitive athletic careers or simply unemployed.

[Nathank]

I have a new question...in the CS guidelines rule 9b reads to me that as a shared parent i should be able to deduct the monies i spend on my daughter for the time i have her from the child support guide line chart does anyone know of this is correct?? also..i pay CS through a debit card my ex has to an account i add to...but know she wants to go through that director payment services ...does any (paying fathers) have any good comments to make about the director of payments services??? thanks

[FL_Needs_To_Change]

If you are referring to the Family Responsibility Office, there are pros and cons.
Personally as a receiving parent, they made so many mistakes with payments, or simply didn't enforce any part of their rules to get payment. My ex was more then $85,000 in arrears before anything was done.
My husband (second marriage) has had nightmare issues with FRO taking too much, too often, not enough etc.

When issued with new court orders, they would take forever to start enforcing them, thus again taking far too much money and just having it sit in the account waiting to be issued or they give the whole amount and expect us to make the adjustments.

Or the time lag would cause serious arrears, and dad would end up back in court for an order to direct FRO on how to deal with the errors and removing arrears.

Others on the other hand think it is a great system. It offers consistent payments, you can have an automatic payment system put in place so that you never have to really worry about making payments.
I think you'd have to do a little reading on what the service offers.
If it is in fact the FRO that she is referring to, heed the warnings above and think hard on whether you really need this level of enforcement.

My personal opinion is that FRO should be a last resort, like taking an issue to court. If you've made your payments on time and as per orders, then there really isn't a need for a third party to manage it for you or her.
If you have ever had issues with amounts paid. IE you paid an amount and she believes the amount she received is different from the amount you said you paid, then a third party collection would alleviate this since they must keep detailed documents on payments.

[#1StepMom]

I agree with FL. Had we known that we could "ban" FRO from getting into the picture in the first place, we would have done so. My husband never missed a payment, paying the recipient by cheque each month. However, when you take a case to court and a support order is drawn up, the court automatically sends it to FRO. We have not have any major issues with the Family Responsibility Office, except for the fact that my husband, who has been unemployed since October due to our lovely economy, continues to have his past amount of child support withdrawn from his account monthly by FRO, and amount that is $250 greater than what he should be paying based on his EI benefits. And this is despite putting forth a motion to vary in October! We just recently got a slight reduction in child support (though still an amount much higher than the guidelines claim he should be paying as the judge claimed that he is VOLUNTARILY unemployed because he COULD go get a job at McDonald's if he REALLY wanted to find a job or work 2-3 part-time jobs and make at least $10,000/yr MORE than his EI benefits are paying him) but that will take a couple more months for FRO to push the paperwork through, and until then FRO will continue to withdraw an amount that neither him or I can possibly afford at this time. And let's not even mention the "lost" money - as there is no way FRO is going to give us our money back if they already sent it to the recipient, despite the amount having been lowered as of January (why not October when he lost his job, is beyond me). Like FL said, there are pros and cons, and you have to decide what would be best for you.