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Family Law Act Basics

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→‎The law about child support

Child support is usually paid to support children who are under the age of 19, or who are 19 or older but are unable to support themselves for some reason, usually because they are ill or disabled, or are going to college or university. Under section 147(1) of the ''[[Family Law Act]]'', children who are younger than age 19 can stop being entitled to child support if:

#*they become a spouse; or,#*they withdraw from the care of their parents or guardians, providing they didn't withdraw because of family violence or because of poor living conditions.

Child support is usually paid to the person whom the child mostly lives with. Child support can sometimes be paid directly to the child, usually if the child is 19 or older and living away from home and going to college or university.

In certain circumstances, stepparents can also be required to pay child support. A ''stepparent'' is the married or unmarried spouse of a parent, as long as:

#*the spouse has contributed to the child’s expenses and other needs for at least one year; and, #*the claim for child support is made within one year of the stepparent's last contribution to the child’s expenses and other needs.

Under the ''[[Divorce Act]]'', a stepparent is someone who is married to a parent and "stands in the place of a parent" to the child. This is a much different legal test. The test under the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' looks at the fact of a stepparent's contributions and the date of their last contribution. The ''Divorce Act'' looks at the nature of the relationship between the stepparent and the child.

Child support is determined by the [[Child Support Guidelines]], which you read about in the [[Child Support]] chapter of this resource. Most of the time, child support is easy to figure out: you just look up the amount payable in the tables attached to the Guidelines based on the income of the ''payor'', the person paying child support, and the number of children support is being paid for. Calculating child support can get more complicated when:

#*a child is 19 or older;,#*the payor has an income of more than $150,000 per year;,#*the payor is a stepparent;,#*the payor is self-employed or has other sources of income that can be complicated to figure out;,#*one or more children live mostly with each spouse;,#*the spouses share the children’s time equally or almost equally; or,#*the payment of the table amount would cause "undue hardship" to either the payor or the spouse receiving child support, the ''recipient''.

More information about how child support is calculated is available in the [[Child Support]] chapter, particularly in the sections on the [[Child Support Guidelines|Guidelines]] and the [[Exceptions to the Child Support Guidelines]].

Under section 152 of the ''[[Family Law Act]]'', the court can change an order for child support if:

#*there has been a change in circumstances that would result in a different amount of support being paid;,#*new evidence, usually about the payor's income, has been discovered since the last hearing about child support; or,#*proof of a lack of financial disclosure has been discovered since the last child support order.

====When both parties live in British Columbia====

If the application is heard by a court, the court may decide to:

#*ask the applicant for more information;,#*delay the hearing if more information is needed;,#*dismiss the application; or,#*make a variation order.

More information about how child support orders are changed when one of the spouses lives outside British Columbia is available in the [[Child Support]] chapter.

Alise Nelson

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Family Law Act Basics

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