Difference between revisions of "Child Support"

The ''Divorce Act'' only applies to people who are or were married to each other, including a parent and a stepparent who are married to each other. A court can only make an order for child support under the ''Divorce Act'' if it has or had the jurisdiction to make an order for the spouses' divorce: the spouses must be or have been legally married, and the spouse making the application must have lived in the province where the application is made for at least one year. Applications under the ''Divorce Act'' can only be heard by the Supreme Court, not the Provincial Court.  

Child support is considered so important that a court may not even grant the parties a divorce unless the judge is satisfied that adequate financial provisions are made for the children. You can find more information on [[Divorce#Child support|child support in the context of divorce orders]] in the chapter [[Separation & Divorce]], in the section on [[Divorce#Child support|Divorce: Child support]].

In the ''Divorce Act'', children are referred to as ''children of the marriage'', and a child must fall within the act's definition of a "child of the marriage" in order to be eligible for support. There are a couple of important definitions in s. 2(1) that apply in determining whether a child is a child of the marriage:

#child support is payable until a child reaches the age of majority in the province where the child lives, and

On this last point, the ''[[Divorce Act]]'' says that an adult child can continue to be eligible for child support as long as he or she cannot "withdraw from the charge" of his or her parents. The two main reasons why a child might not be able to withdraw are because the child is going to college or university, or because the child has a serious, chronic illness that prevents him or her from becoming self-supporting. The factors a court will consider in determining whether a child's academic career qualifies him or her as a "child of the marriage" include the following:

#the child's ability to contribute to his or her own support through part-time work, student loans, grants, bursaries and the like,

#the spouses' financial situation, and

#any plans the spouses may have made for the child's post-secondary schooling while they were still together.

In general, the courts will allow an adult child to benefit from child support for one program of post-secondary study — one degree or one diploma — so long as the child is enrolled full-time. Where one or both of the parents have a very high income and had always expected, during the marriage, that the child would take an advanced degree, child support can be payable for more than one degree program.

As far as "age of majority" is concerned, keep in mind that it is the provinces that have the authority to set the age of majority, not the federal government. In British Columbia, the age of majority is 19. In other provinces the age of majority is 18.