Ontario Ensuring that Vulnerable Families Keep Child Support Payments

Combatting child poverty is part of the government’s economic plan to build Ontario up and deliver on its number-one priority to grow the economy and create jobs. The four-part plan includes helping more people get and create the jobs of the future by expanding access to high-quality college and university education. The plan is making the largest infrastructure investment in hospitals, schools, roads, bridges and transit in Ontario’s history and is investing in a low-carbon economy driven by innovative, high-growth, export-oriented businesses. The plan is also helping working Ontarians achieve a more secure retirement.

QUOTES

“Our government is committed to fighting child poverty, and these new rules will help to benefit some of the most vulnerable children in our province. We know that this is the right thing to do for the close to 19,000 families who receive child support and social assistance.”
— Dr. Helena Jaczek, Minister of Community and Social Services

“We are very pleased that Minister Jaczek is ending the clawback of child support from parents receiving social assistance. This is an important change that will reduce child poverty and allow single parents to make their own decisions about how to reach financial settlements for child support. It signals a new approach to social assistance that will make a big difference in the lives of the most vulnerable families in Ontario.”
—Mary Marrone, Director of Advocacy and Legal Services, Income Security Advocacy Centre

QUICK FACTS

The exemption will put more than $75 million a year more in the hands of families receiving social assistance.
Ontario is also ensuring that families receiving social assistance fully benefit from the proposed new federal Canada Child Benefit (CCB), without any provincial ‘clawback’.
Evidence from other jurisdictions shows that parents who owe child support are more likely to pay it if they know that their children will directly benefit from all of the money.