Child support is a concept that is hard to grasp for a lot of couples going through separation and divorce. Child support is a legal duty arising from the marriage.
With time, divorced parents often remarry which gives rise to step-parenting relationships. Such a stepparent relationship further weaves into a fabric of a blended family. But the question here is that what if the parents in a blended family break up? Many people wrongly assume that only a biological parent is obligated to pay child support. This isn’t always the case, though.
Given that this is a broad concept; this blog post is only going to focus on under what circumstances the step parent is obligated to pay child support.
Relationship Between The Stepparent And Child Is The Passkey
In a recent decision of June 2022 by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice where Justice Dale Fitzpatrick was approached to rule on the question of whether a stepfather was required to provide for his two stepchildren. The trial’s main emphasis was regarding whether the stepfather should provide child support.
This decision also brought to light that calculating a stepparent’s or subsequent parent’s responsibility for paying child support is substantially more complicated than calculating the very first parent’s obligation.
The parties to the case had been married for 17 months. The husband had no children from the previous relationship. At the stage of the divorce, the wife had two children. The biological father of the children was also paying child support at that time.
The wife claimed child support from the husband following the divorce. The husband was not convinced and under that circumstances, the relationship with the stepfather became a key to determining whether the stepfather should provide child support.
Given that a spouse who assumes parental responsibilities may indeed be required to pay child support under the Federal Child Support Guidelines, which are applicable to divorced couples throughout Canada, the judge had to assess whether the husband had served in that capacity.
Justice Dale Fitzpatrick also reinstated the idea stemming from Chartier v. Chartier, a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada’s decision “couples are right to divorce each other, but not the children who were part of the wedlock.”
Factors To Determine The Amount Of Child Support
It is to be noted that, an application has to be provided by the parent of the children to claim child support from the step parent. The onus to prove the relationship of the child for the purpose of receiving child support is on the actual parent.
The court usually considers the following factors to determine whether the stepfather should be on the hook to provide child support for their divorced partner’s child.
- involvement in family occasions,
- financial support for the children,
- involvement in child-related chores,
- commitment to shaping the child’s behavior,
- use of the step-last parent’s name,
- the use of the term “dad,”
- duration of the relationship between the step-parent and the children,
- and the children’s relationship with their biological father are all factors to consider.
Note: Please be advised that this is a non-exhaustive list of considerable factors. Every case is individual. For instance; in the case of immigration of a child where the stepfather has fully supported the child by giving a sponsorship undertaking, then this could potentially result as a determining factor for examining the relationship between a child and a step-parent.
How Much Child Support Is To Be Paid?
The Federal Child Support Guidelines are routinely consulted by courts in calculating child support payment. The Federal Child Support Guidelines have put forward a formulaic and emulative approach for the purpose of calculation of child support primarily depending on the parent’s income.
The concept that there is no general standard to determine child support when a step-parent is providing child support instead of a parent stems from section 5 of the Guidelines that a “court is free to exercise its discretion to determine a child support amount.”
Practically speaking, section 5 implies that a stepfather may be ordered to pay less child support as compared to the biological father or the court may order him to pay full child support especially when the biological parent is not present. On the other extreme, the Court can rule that a stepparent is not obligated to make any child support.
Our Expert Lawyers Can Guide You
For more information on child support complexities, please get in touch with our Family Lawyers at Ayaz Mehdi Professional Corporation
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