"When do my child support payments end?" - Ontario

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 because he is now 18. 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 more 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, special needs, academic challenges? Is he under the care of a health care professional?

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. The overall point is the following, as set out above: the law DOES NOT provide for the automatic termination of child support when a young person turns 18. Child support may very well have to continue, and it may take different forms, depending on what the young person is doing, whether he/she resides and so on.

And remember, FRO do not make the decision on whether you have to continue to pay - the FRO’s job is to continue to enforce existing court orders, that is all - if necessary, the Court has to determine whether child support must continue to be paid, based on the specific facts of the case.

©AJJakubowska