New Brunswick Child Support: Amounts, Filing, and Enforcement

Child support in New Brunswick is calculated using the federal child support guideline tables, which set a monthly amount based on the paying parent’s gross income and the number of children. The obligation applies whether the parents were married, common-law, or never lived together, and it is enforced through the provincial Office of Support Enforcement once a court order or written agreement is in place. The governing law is the Family Law Act, which took effect in 2020 and replaced the older Family Services Act for support matters.

Who Has to Pay and for How Long

Every parent must support their child to the extent they are financially able. A child, for support purposes, is someone under 19 (the age of majority in New Brunswick) who has not left parental care.¹

Support often continues past 19. New Brunswick courts routinely order it for children in their late teens and early twenties who are enrolled full-time in a reasonable post-secondary program, are making satisfactory academic progress, and are contributing something themselves through part-time work or student loans. There is no fixed age cutoff or degree limit. Support can also continue indefinitely where illness or disability prevents a child from becoming self-sufficient.¹

A paying parent cannot simply stop payments on a child’s 19th birthday. Ending the obligation requires a court order or a written agreement between the parents.

The Act defines “parent” broadly. It includes biological and adoptive parents, and also anyone who has shown a settled intention to treat a child as a member of their family. Foster parents and kinship caregivers under the Child and Youth Well-Being Act are excluded.¹ Once a court confirms that someone stood in the role of a parent, the financial obligation applies even without a biological tie.

How the Amount Is Calculated

New Brunswick’s regulation adopts the Federal Child Support Guidelines and their tables directly.² You cross-reference the paying parent’s annual gross income with the number of children owed support, and the table gives a base monthly figure meant to cover everyday needs like food, shelter, and clothing. For a child who has reached the age of majority, the court can use the table amount or set a different figure if it considers the table inappropriate, taking account of the child’s needs and each parent’s finances.¹

Special and Extraordinary Expenses

Section 7 of the guidelines lets either parent ask the court to add a share of certain extra costs on top of the base amount:

Childcare tied to the custodial parent’s employment, education, illness, or disability
Health-related costs, including the child’s share of medical and dental insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses over $100 a year (orthodontics, counselling, physiotherapy, prescriptions, glasses, and similar needs)
Extraordinary expenses for primary or secondary schooling, and expenses for post-secondary education
Extraordinary extracurricular costs, such as competitive sports or arts training

Parents split these expenses in proportion to their incomes, after subtracting anything the child contributes.³ The court also weighs whether the expense is necessary for the child and reasonable given both parents’ means.

Shared Parenting Time

If the child spends at least 40 percent of the time with each parent over the year, the straight table amount may not apply. The court looks at the table amount for each parent’s income, the increased costs of running two homes for the child, and the child’s overall needs. The net payment from the higher earner is often lower than the table figure would suggest, but there is no automatic formula. Judges have discretion to set an amount that reflects the actual financial picture.

Undue Hardship

Either parent can argue that paying or receiving the table amount would cause undue hardship. The guidelines flag situations like unusually high debts incurred before separation or to earn a living, unusually high travel costs to see the child, and a legal obligation to support another dependant such as a child from another relationship. Other circumstances can also qualify.

Even where the court finds hardship, it will refuse the adjustment if the household claiming hardship would still have a higher standard of living than the other household afterward.⁴ Hardship claims succeed less often than people expect.

When Income Can Be Imputed

A parent who is intentionally underemployed, diverting income, running personal spending through a business, holding unproductive assets, or refusing to disclose financial information can have an income assigned to them by the court for calculation purposes.⁵ Caring for a young child or meeting reasonable health or educational needs are recognized reasons for reduced work. Quitting a well-paying job without good reason is not. This is one of the most heavily litigated areas in child support, and judges take a dim view of financial gamesmanship.

Filing a Child Support Application

Child support applications are filed in the Family Division of the Court of King’s Bench.⁶ The forms depend on your judicial district: in districts using the case management model, applicants use Form 81A under Rule 81;⁷ in Rule 73 districts, you file a Notice of Application with a supporting affidavit.⁸ Current forms are on the Court of King’s Bench website.

Both parents have to file a Financial Statement and the income information the guidelines require: recent tax returns, Canada Revenue Agency notices of assessment, and current pay stubs or income statements. Self-employed parents must add business financial statements and relevant corporate tax filings. A parent who fails to disclose can have their claim dismissed, be found in contempt, or have income imputed against them.⁸

Filing a divorce petition costs $100, with another $20 to file an answer.⁹ Standalone support applications outside a divorce may carry different fees by district.

Once filed, the application has to be formally served on the other parent, typically by a process server or other third party rather than the applicant personally. A respondent served in Canada has 20 days to file an answer; if served outside Canada, the deadline is 40 days.¹⁰ After the response window closes, the court sets a hearing or case management conference where a judge reviews the materials and looks at whether a settlement is possible before trial.

What Happens If Payments Aren’t Made

The provincial Office of Support Enforcement (OSE) tracks support orders, receives and forwards payments, and acts when a payer falls behind.¹¹ The recipient parent does not have to start a new case for each enforcement step. The OSE’s tools escalate with the size of the default:

Payment orders (garnishment) directing an employer, pension administrator, bank, or other income source to deduct support before the payer receives the money. These orders take priority over any wage assignment the payer has made.¹²
Interception of federal income tax refunds, GST credits, and similar federal payments.¹¹
Credit bureau reporting once arrears exceed three months of payments.¹²
Driver’s licence revocation once arrears exceed four months of payments, with the OSE able to impose restrictions instead of a full revocation where the payer needs to drive for work or medical reasons.¹²
Federal passport, aviation, or marine licence suspension (or refusal to issue or renew) once arrears exceed three months of payments or $3,000.¹¹
As a last resort, imprisonment for up to 90 days or a fine of up to $500. Jail time does not wipe out the arrears owed.¹²

If a payer looks ready to leave the province to dodge enforcement, the court can issue an arrest order to bring them in for examination on their ability to pay.¹²

Changing the Amount Later

Support figures are not permanent. When a parent’s income changes meaningfully, either side can seek an update. There are two routes.

The Child Support Recalculation Service

The provincial Child Support Recalculation Service (CSRS) adjusts enrolled families’ support amounts each year using current income information, without a court hearing.¹³ Either parent can apply. To qualify:

Both parents live in New Brunswick
The existing order or agreement has been in place for at least a year
The order states the income used and sets support based on the guideline tables
Neither parent’s gross annual income is over $150,000

The service is not available where the paying parent’s income was imputed by a judge, where the order is interim with a pending court date, or where the application is only about unpaid arrears.¹³ After recalculation, both parents receive the new amounts by mail. A parent who disagrees has 30 days to file a court application challenging the figure.

Court Variation

When the CSRS doesn’t fit — one parent out of province, income above $150,000, a dispute over special expenses — a parent applies to court for a variation order. The court asks whether there has been a material change in circumstances since the last order, such as job loss, a significant raise, or a shift in the child’s needs or living arrangements.

Retroactive Support

A parent who should have been paying more, or anything at all, can be ordered to pay retroactive support for past periods. Canadian courts generally presume a three-year limit measured from the date the recipient parent gave effective notice that support needed to be revisited. That limit can be pushed back where the paying parent engaged in blameworthy conduct such as hiding income or discouraging the other parent from pursuing support.

In deciding retroactive claims, courts weigh the reason for the delay, whether the payer acted unreasonably, whether the child went without because support was inadequate, and whether a lump-sum retroactive amount would place undue strain on the payer. Retroactive orders can be made even after the child has reached the age of majority.

Taxes on Child Support

For any court order or written agreement made after May 1, 1997, child support is neither taxable to the recipient nor deductible for the payer.¹⁴ This rule applies whether the parents were married or common-law. Without a court order or written agreement, informal payments do not count as “support payments” for tax purposes at all, so neither parent reports them.¹⁵

Spousal support generally works the opposite way: taxable to the recipient, deductible by the payer. When one payment covers both child and spousal support, the child support portion is always treated as paid first for tax purposes. Separation agreements that combine the two can produce unexpected tax results if the allocation is sloppy.

When One Parent Lives Elsewhere

If one parent is outside New Brunswick, the province’s Interjurisdictional Support Orders Act lets a local court establish or enforce a support order across provincial or international lines. New Brunswick has reciprocal arrangements with every other Canadian province and territory and with several foreign countries.¹⁶ A parent here can start a claim through the local court without travelling to the other jurisdiction or hiring counsel there. The federal Divorce Act has its own parallel interjurisdictional process for formerly married spouses, with many overlapping forms.

1
Government of New Brunswick. New Brunswick Family Law Act 2020 c 23
2
Government of New Brunswick. New Brunswick Regulation 98-27 Child Support Guidelines
3
Department of Justice Canada. Federal Child Support Guidelines SOR 97-175 Section 7
4
Department of Justice Canada. Section 10 Undue Hardship
5
Department of Justice Canada. Federal Child Support Guidelines SOR 97-175 Section 19
6
Court of King’s Bench of New Brunswick. Family Division
7
Government of New Brunswick. Rule 81 Family Law Rule in Judicial Districts with a Case Management Model
8
Government of New Brunswick. Rule 73 Family Division
9
Court of King’s Bench of New Brunswick. Fees
10
Court of King’s Bench of New Brunswick. Rule 81
11
Government of New Brunswick. Child and Spousal Support
12
Government of New Brunswick. New Brunswick Code S-15.5 Support Enforcement Act
13
Government of New Brunswick. Child Support Recalculation Service CSRS
14
Department of Justice Canada. Children Come First A Report to Parliament Reviewing the Provisions and Operation of the Federal Child Support Guidelines
15
Canada Revenue Agency. Support Payments
16
Government of New Brunswick. Interjurisdictional Support Orders