Adult Child - who is entitled to receive the support on her behalf

[sundaysmom]

My husband and I have an odd issue and before we go see our lawyer and spending lots of $$$ I was wondering if anyone had an opinion or experience with what we are dealing with.
My 20 yr old step daughter lives in a townhouse in Guelph while she attends University. She rents this house 12 months a year but last year she spent the summer with her mother (custodial parent) and the house was empty, we still had to pay the rent. We pay full support during the summer months and 50% during the 8 months she attends school,, as well as 65% of post secondary costs. This year she wanted to stay in Guelph year round and work there as well..meaning she won't be returning to her custodial parents home at all ,other than the occasional weekend. She spends occasional weekends with us as well. She asked last night if she doesn't get a summer job in Guelph can she come live with us for the summer and work in Burlington. We have no issue with that but the issue is who , if anyone is responsible for support for her. Her mother feels that if she stays 12 months a year in Guelph she should still be receiving 50% of the child support amount even though her daughter no longer resides with here technically.. my opinion. If my step daughter lives here with us, the mother still feels that we should pay her the 50% support as she has a room to maintain for her daughter when she visits and she is the custodial parent ,not her father. Wouldn't we be entitled to make a child support claim on my step daughters behalf since she is living with us full time for 4 1/2 months?( we understand that child support is the right of the child , not the parent.. her mother doesn't seem to get that) If my step daughter staying in Guelph 12 months a year do we have grounds to terminate support to the mother? Also we pay all of our portion of section 7 expenses in cash.. EXAMPLE : tuition , rent,groceries, books are paid up to date. Her mother pays the rent with cheques from her personal account then withdraws the same amount from my step daughter's OSAP loan account ( joint with her mom). The mother plans to pay her section 7 expenses after my step daughter graduates and uses the OSAP amount to fund her portion right now. The mother also didn't declare the child support my husband pays on the application. We didn't agree to the OSAP loan and felt she (the mother) and we could afford to pay post secondary without loan amounts. So here we are the end of year 2 and my husband has made all his support payments and all of his section 7 payments yet all the OSAP money is spent as well. Sorry I am so long winded- here's the questions- should the mother still be entitled to support if the daughter resides in Guelph 12 months a year, are we entitled to collect support for our step daughter from the mother if she lives with us, and is the mother allowed to just use the OSAP loans to pay her portion for 4 years and make monthly payments for approx 10 years afterwards?

[JB514]

Was the OSAP loan amount deducted from expenses to be paid by the parents? If not then it should have been, and then the remaining amount split according to income between the 2 parents. That would, in a way, prevent the mother using osap to cover her portion of expenses. As for cs in your situation, I would think that you could terminate the support, but if it is court ordered, then you might have to do the whole process of termination. I might be wrong on this, so someone might correct me where I am wrong. As for requesting the support to be paid to your husband for 4.5 months....again, it might be a long road to get that changed if you are court ordered to pay the mother. Good luck

[JB514]

Also, is the rent split between the two parents, or just the father pays? If so, then during summer he pays full support + full second residence rent of the child in guelph?

[Coop]

For us, the arrangement is that the child pay 30% of post secondary expenses (including rent, transportation, etc) and the parents pay the remaining proportionate to their incomes.

JB514 - the rent is split and not just the responsibility of the father

[sundaysmom]

Thanks for the replies- the OSAP loan amounts aren't being deducted from the cost. She has received grant money that is being deducted from the total cost and then she is responsible for 33% of the cost - then the mom and my husband split the balance proportionate to their incomes. We have paid all of our expenses but the mom uses OSAP loans for this. We are giving our step daughter cheques for her rent for the next 12 months because she is out of OSAP loan and has no personal money to pay for anything.
We really aren't looking to receive support if she lives with us ,if anything we would just bank it for her and use it for education.
We just want to avoid court or huge lawyer bills to terminate support to the mom. We don't think if my step daughter lives 12 months a year on her own the mom really isn't entitled to support anymore. We would rather give it to the child so she can use it for her bills. But the mom feels she is entitled to reduced support until graduation regardless of where the daughter lives.
On another note my husband pays support for his 15 year old daughter as well who is developmentally disabled to this mom ( which he should we aren't disputing it). He also pays 65% of daycare for (without receipts). The mom receives a supplement from the Ont gov't for child with severe disablities as well as CCTB and DTB (disability tax benefit) for this child. She insists that none of the gov't benefits should be used towards the cost of daycare for the child. This child has no other section 7 expenses,isn't involved in any activities and doesn't have any extra expenses related to her disability. The mom also has a family member living with her now in this disabled childs room and the child sleeps with her mom full time and doesn't have a room anymore. The 20 year old still has her room at the house which is rarely used since she is always in Guelph but the mom won't let anyone stay in it - as she is maintaining it for the 20 yr old.

[blinkandimgone]

CCTB wouldn't be attributed to daycare expenses however one could reasonable expect that the DTB and any other disability related credits would go towards special care for the child and daycare would certainly be considered special care.