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Where can I find more information about child support?

Last updated on August 1, 2024

Family Law in British Columbia – Legal Aid BC

Child support on the Legal Aid BC's Family Law in BC website answers a range of questions, including:

  • What is "undue hardship"?
  • What are special and extraordinary expenses?
  • What is the 40 per cent principle?

Federal Child Support Guidelines – Department of Justice Canada

The federal government has a series of publications explaining the child support guidelines. These include a booklet called The Federal Child Support Guidelines: Step-by-Step, which provides information on how to use the child support rules and tables.

You can call the Department of Justice Canada's Family Law Information Line at 1-888-373-2222 for help with the child support guidelines. When you call, be ready to tell them:

  • Where the paying parent lives
  • Whether both parents live in the same province or territory, and
  • The number of children to be supported

Clicklaw – Courthouse Libraries BC

Clicklaw provides user-friendly, searchable access to key legal information, including information about child support. 

Clicklaw’s HelpMap can help you locate services that can assist with family law problems.

Clicklaw also links you to information and services in other languages.

Court Tips for Parents: Representing Yourself in Supreme Court - Justice Education Society

Court Tips for Parents: Representing Yourself in Supreme Court is a series of seven short videos about going to Supreme Court to change a child support order.

Dial-A-Law – People's Law School

The Dial-A-Law website is a service of the People’s Law School. It offers information on family law topics including child support.

Information and Services

Child Support Officers – Ministry of Attorney General

For more information about the child support guidelines, a Child Support Officer is available in Kelowna, Nanaimo, Surrey, Vancouver and Victoria. If you don’t live in a community with a Child Support Officer, a family justice counsellor can also provide information about child support. Contact the Family Justice Centre or Justice Access Centre nearest you for assistance. 

Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction

Are you receiving income, hardship or disability assistance and have the right to receive child support? If so, you may be eligible to request family maintenance services. This means the government takes over the responsibility to obtain, change and enforce the child support order on your behalf. To learn more, speak to your Employment Assistance Worker or contact the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction by calling 1 866-866-0800 (no charge).

For other in-person and virtual services, see Who Can Help?

 

Check out these resources from Legal Aid BC:

Visit a Justice Access Centre:

Talk with a family justice counsellor at a Family Justice Centre.

British Columbia has a central authority that assists left-behind parents whose children have been abducted across international borders. For more information, including contact information, please see International Child Abduction.