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Our Separation Agreement is About To Expire, Does My Ex Still Have To Pay Child Support Until Our Child Turns 18?

Child support is the right of the child. Parents generally cannot deprive a child of his or her right to child support. Further, a child’s right to child support can go past the child’s eighteenth birthday. So, just because a separation agreement or child support agreement ends, the obligation to pay child support does not. Even if parents agree that child support will end on a certain date, that does not mean that child support will end.

Section 33(12) of Ontario’s Family Law Act says that if a parent brings the issue of child support before the Court for a child under the age of 18, the court will only make an Order that is different from the Child Support Guideline Tables if the child support arrangements benefit the child as much, or more than, the amount payable under those tables. Any agreement that suggested child support should end before a child turns 18 or becomes 17 years old would clearly violate that provision.

One of the biggest mistakes people make after separation or divorce is not paying child support because not paying support really upsets judges. So, for as long as a child is entitled to support, the paying parent should just pay it, whether there is an agreement or not. Of course, the payor parent should make the payments in such a way that there is a record of having made them (no cash!) so that the other parent cannot go back and ask for the same child support again.

For more information about how child support works, watch the child support video below, or listen to this episode of the award-winning Ontario Family Law Podcast.

You can get a lot more information about Ontario Family Law issues, including a comprehensive explanation of child support, spousal support, property division, and most other common family law issues by downloading this $9.99 Kindle eBook, Kobo eBook, or iBook for your iPad or iPhone or ordering it from Amazon as a paperback. But to understand how the law works precisely in your situation, it is always best to speak to a good Family Law Lawyer.

John Schuman Guide to the Basics of Ontario Family Law book cover

You can get a lot more information about Ontario Family Law issues, including a comprehensive explanation of parenting cases (parenting time and decision making), child support, spousal support, property division, and most other common family law issues by downloading this $9.99 Kindle eBook, Kobo eBook, or iBook for your iPad or iPhone or ordering it from Amazon as a paperback. But to understand how the law works precisely in your situation, it is always best to speak to a good Family Law Lawyer.

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