Parents have a legal responsibility to support their children, even if one parent doesn't see or take care of the children. The money one parent pays to the other parent to help provide for the children's daily needs is called child support .
The child support amount is based on the Federal Child Support Guidelines. Make sure the child support in your agreement follows these guidelines if:
Otherwise, the judge might not enforce the agreement or make the divorce order.
If you do something different from what's required under the guidelines, make sure your agreement makes it clear how each parent meets their responsibility to support the children financially.
For more information, including how to calculate support under the guidelines, see Child support.
If you're a status Indian in Canada, check the Aboriginal Legal Aid in BC website to see how the rules might be different for child and spousal support for Aboriginal people.
An agreement about child support is binding (legally effective) only if it's made after separation or when the parties are about to separate.
This section includes some common child support clauses for you to choose from. Not all possibilities are covered. The CLEBC manual covers more options.
Type in the same short names for you, the other person, and your children that you used in the introductory clauses. They will then appear below in place of Party 1, Party 2, or Name.
Once you've typed in your names, they will appear throughout the clauses below in place of Party 1, Party 2, or Name.
Short name:Child/children's names: