Federal Child Support table amounts Unfair for support payors!!!

Did you know.....

1.  Child support Table amounts are based on a cost of raising children that has no scientific basis.  They use percentages that Stats Canada once used to show cost of children in extreme poverty and later withdrew.  There was no study to determine the actual costs.

2.  The Child support tables are not inline with how support should be calculated according to The Divorce Act. Canada’s Guidelines stray from The Divorce Act because they ignore the child-support recipient’s income, or because they ignore the child-support payor’s directly-paid child-related expenses.  (SOLE CUSTODY IS ASSUMED).  The Divorce Act does not permit Canada’s Guidelines to ignore either parent’s income or to ignore either parent’s child-related expenses.  Quebec is the only province that has incorporated such a mechanism and their table amounts are almost always lower than the Federal amounts (sometimes substantially).

3.  There is no obligation for the support receiptent to prove they spend the money on their child(ren).

4.  There is no financial obligation for the custodial parent to provide for their child(ren).  Support receipents can decide not to work, move on with another partner, have more children and still have no financial obligation to support their children.  As a support payor, your financial obligations never change even if you have another partner and have more children your support payments never reduce.  Basically support receipents are allowed to move on with their lives but support payors have great difficulty doing so.

5.  It is almost impossible to reduce child support amounts.  You have to get the right judge on the right day to have payments reduced.  There are many support payors paying much more that 50% of thier take home income in support.  There are actually cases of support payors living well below the poverty level due to support obligations.  This is clear violation of our Charter Rights!

Also, the child support guidelines are discriminatory to separated parents in teh following ways:

- as a separated parent and a support payor you are obligated to pay more support based on your income.  As cohabitating parents there is no obligation on the amount you spend on your children based on income.  The reality is most parents would spend more but this is discretionary spending and the support payor should have the right to that discretion.

-as a separated parent and a support payor you are obligated to pay for your child(rens) post-secondary education.  Again there is no such obligation for cohabitating parents. 

Due to these issues above, and others not listed here, the Federal Government must mandate a comprehensive study to fix the current guideline amounts.  By signing this petition you are saying that as a Canadian citizen you are demanding this injustice be recognized and rectified immediately.  In addition the Federal Government should reinmburse all support payors for overpayments of child support based on the 1997 table amounts since they have been implemented.