"When do my child support payments end" (4) - BlogBite

BlogBite (17)

Here is a hypothetical about which we receive a lot of questions:

Question: My son turned 18 nine months ago. I stopped making child support payments to my ex-wife based on our court order a month later. I just got a letter from the Family Responsibility Office that I have to pay up what I owe for the last 8 months and continue to pay on a monthly basis. But he is 18!!! His mother is also sending me emails that I "do not get it" and have to continue paying. Do I have to?

Answer: Contrary to public belief, child support does not end automatically when a child turns 18. Not in Canada.

In order to give a definitive answer to the hypothetical, we would need more facts.

The questions we would ask include the following:

1. Is your son still attending school?

2. If so, what kind of program is he attending?

3. If not, does he have short-term plans to return to school, and if so, to what program?

4. Does your son have any physical or mental disabilities, academic challenges?

5. If he is not attending school and has no plans to return to school soon, is he working? Full-time? Part-time?

6. Is your son living with your ex-wife?

Answers to all those questions impact on whether or not you have to continue to pay child support.

And remember, FRO do not make the decision on whether you have to continue to pay - if necessary, the Court does - they only enforce the last court order.

"When do my child support payments end"(3) - BlogBite

BlogBite (16)

Child support and when it ends is a topic on which we received the MOST questions.

For this reason, we have decided to include some simple question and answer hypotheticals in our BlogBites.

Question: My daughter really wants to go to college. She just finished high school but the program to which she wants to apply tells her she needs to get more specific high school credits before she can submit her application. She is going to take the credits, while living with her mother, but she can only take them on a part-time basis. It will take her 3 semesters, part-time, to get them. She said she will work part-time as well, while she is attending school part-time. Do I still have to pay child support?

Answer: In our view, YES. Your daughter has a plan. She plans to attend college and she has looked into how to apply. The further courses she is taking will permit her to apply to a program of her choice. In our view, the court will not be concerned about the fact that she is taking them on a part-time basis only, particularly since she is also planning on working. In other works, she is not idle - she is applying herself. She should save a portion of her earnings during this time and contribute them to the cost of her college education, particularly if you and her mother's income brackets are not high.

Remember, no two cases are alike. Apply any hypotheticals to your case with care!

UPDATE - January, 2018

We are pleased to let you know that our Etsy shop is now OPEN!

Visit it here: SELFREP SUPPORT

In the shop, we make available to you Manuals (E-books) on various topics, to assist you in representing yourself before Ontario's family law Courts.

So far, we have Manuals on preparing an effective:

• Financial Statement (both long-form and short-form); and
• Affidavit.

MORE MANUALS TO COME!