Spousal and Child Support
Spousal support
Upon a couple’s separation or divorce, spousal support is financial support paid by the partner who earns more to the partner who earns less. It is not an automatic order.
The person receiving the support is called the “recipient”; the person who pays the support is called the “payor”.
Spousal support is financial support intended for the purposes of:
Recognizing that each partner’s contributions during the relationship were of equal value;
Compensate the partner who lost out financially during the relationship;
For instance, if a partner chose to work fewer hours to look after the household, the court will recognize that they lost out financially for the sake of the relationship;
Relieving one partner from financial hardship and helping them reach financial independence.
To learn more, visit the Government of Ontario’s page on “Spousal Support”.
Child support
Child support is money paid by the parent who spends the lesser amount of time with the child to the parent who takes care of the child most of the time. Child support is intended to help cover the costs of caring for the child.
The parent who pays child support is called the “payor”; the parent who receives the support is called the “recipient”.
By law, parents are responsible for financially supporting their dependent children; a dependent child is a child under 18, or a child older than 18 who studies full-time. A birth-parent, a non-birth parent, an adoptive parent and sometimes a step-parent may be required to pay child support.
Determining the amount of child support to be paid to the recipient is simple: the Government of Canada uses the Child Support Guidelines to breakdown payments according to the payor’s income and number of dependent children. These tables only show the monthly payments that the payor ought to pay the recipient to cover basic expenses like clothing, groceries and school supplies. Other factors may change the amount of child support such as special or extraordinary expenses (like daycare), undue hardship or other financial difficulties that the recipient is undergoing.
To learn more visit the Government of Ontario’s page on “Arranging child support”.
Enforcing support
If you agreed to pay support in an agreement in writing or if you were ordered to pay support by a court, you must comply. The Government of Ontario’s program of the Family Responsibility Office help families get the support they are entitled to. To find out more, visit the page “Paying and receiving child and spousal support”.