November 12, 2024

What Happens With Child Support When My Child Turns 18?

What happens with child support when my child turns 18?

Start by checking your separation agreement or court order to see what it says about child support once your child is 18. If you do not have an agreement or order that says what happens, then child support will depend on your child’s specific circumstances once they are 18.

Child support will continue if your child is still a dependent after age 18. However, it is likely to change.

How do I know if my child is still a dependent?

A child who is over 18 is still a dependent if they cannot support themselves because they are in full-time school or they have an illness or disability. The legal term is: a child is a dependent if they are unable to withdraw from parental care and control.

Withdrawing from parental control means the child either moved out of your home voluntarily or is able to support themselves.

A child living at home and attending full-time school is a dependent. A child who moves out and is attending full-time school might be a dependent. The reason your child moved out determines whether your child is dependent. If school was too far from home and your child lives at home during school breaks, then your child would still be a dependent. If your child was forced to leave to your home, your child would still be a dependent.

If a child is in part-time school, the child might be a dependent. If the child is in part-time school because of learning difficulties or medical reasons, then your child could be a dependent. If your child is in part-time school because of their work schedule, then your child again might be dependent.

As you can tell, this is not a very clear point. There are areas that are not clear, and you need to get some advice.

Do I have to pay the child’s post-secondary expenses?

If your child is still dependent, as described above, yes you will need to contribute to the post-secondary expenses, but you may owe less child support while you are paying for post-secondary expenses. Check your agreement or court order to see if it sets out what the parents owe for post-secondary expenses.

Post-secondary expenses are considered a section 7 expense under Ontario family law. It is all detailed in section 7 of the Child Support Guidelines. It is the same in the Federal guidelines as it is in the Ontario guidelines. A section 7 expense is an expense that is to be shared by the parents based on their incomes. For example, if one parent earns $60,000 and the other parent earns $90,000, then the parent earning $60,000 will owe 40% of the section 7 expense and the other parent will owe 60%.

Your child may also owe a portion of their post-secondary expenses. Check your separation agreement or court order to see if your child’s contribution is set out.

A child’s contribution can come from a variety of sources, such as scholarships or OSAP loans; it does not have to be from savings or income. A child is not required to spend all their income and savings on school. The child should have some money left over for the fun stuff.

If your child is a dependent child, living away from home during the school year and living at home on breaks, then you do not owe monthly table child support during the school year. Instead, you will only owe monthly table child support during the summer months when the child is living at home. The rest of the year, you will be contributing to the child’s daily living expenses at school because they are a section 7 expense.

If a child is living at home while attending school, the monthly amount of table child support might go down, especially if the section 7 expenses are high, but the cost to argue over decreasing the amount of monthly child support could exceed any savings from the reduced amount of child support. You need to do a cost/benefit analysis before you go ahead.

What happens once my child graduates from post-secondary?

Typically, once a child graduates from post-secondary, the child is no longer dependent and child support stops. However, that is not always the case. If your child is completing another degree or diploma, the question is why. Is the child just accumulating degrees or is the child getting the qualifications that will enhance their future job prospects? If the child must do a second degree to qualify, for example Teacher’s College, then the child could still be dependent. If the parents are both doctors, then a child going to medical school could qualify as a dependent after they have completed their first degree.

What happens once my child is independent?

The law no longer requires child support to be paid, but that does not stop you from continuing to support your child on your own. Any support you provide to your child is now voluntary. With increasing food and housing prices, it is very common for adult children to get help from their parents well into adulthood.

A child who gets married is not a dependent. A child who leaves home voluntarily and does not return to live at home during the summer is not a dependent.