Family Responsibility Office

A reliably contentious issue with most separations and divorces is child and spousal support payments.

Whether support payments are required or not, the precise amount of said monthly payments, and if they should be temporary or permanent by design are all matters that an experienced family lawyer at Alves Law can help with.

With a post-separation or post-divorce support arrangement, the Family Responsibility Office plays a key role in ensuring the recipient receives their funds and that the payor makes their legally required payments.

What Is The Family Responsibility Office?

Ontario’s Family Responsibility Office (FRO) is a government agency, operating under the provincial Ministry of Community and Social Services.

The FRO oversees the enforcement of child and spousal support orders (which can include support agreements), and has the power to ensure payments are being made.

One of the main benefits of the FRO is to divert the discussion of payments of support to a third party, rather than the parties arguing between themselves about how, when, and if payments are being made properly. They act as the intermediary between the payor and recipient, ensuring that the recipient does not need to repeatedly contact the payor for payment.

Should there be any problems with collecting payment, the Office has the authority to take significant action including suspending drivers’ licenses, garnishing wages and bank account funds, and ultimately seeking a jail sentence.

How The Family Responsibility Office Operates

The Family Responsibility Office handles the collection and disbursement of family support payments, as defined in a court order or separation agreement filed with the court. The order or agreement must be registered with the FRO for enforcement. The FRO does not enforce verbal agreements.

The types of support that the FRO manages relate to child support and spousal support.

Child Support

With child support, the FRO ensures children receive the agreed upon or court ordered amount of child support.

In general, child support payments continue until the child is 18 years old, or completes their first full-time post-secondary educational program. In some circumstances, child support payments may continue after this if the child remains dependent on their parents. 

Child support may also continue if the child is unable to become self-sufficient because of an illness, or disability.

Spousal Support

Like child support, when spousal support payments are made through the FRO it’s to ensure that the agreed upon or court ordered payments are made accurately and in a timely fashion. This allows the parties to focus on other issues between themselves, rather than fighting over the payment of support.

How much spousal support is owed depends on the duration of the marriage, the difference in earnings between spouses, and the financial needs of each spouse. In Canada, the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines assist in determining how much spousal support is estimated.

Benefit Of Using The Family Responsibility Office

There are a number of advantages to using the Family Responsibility Office for both payor and recipient:

• Have someone to automatically manage support payments relating to child support and spousal support.
• As a payor, receive confirmation when payment is received and given to the recipient.
• Be able to track payments if the payor or recipient has a history of mismanaging finances or if there is reason to suspect they may not be honest about the support money provided.
• Receive a history of all payments tracked by a third-party through the FRO.
• Receive the support of a third-party to enforce all financial terms of a support agreement.

There are limits to the services the FRO offers, despite having several tools and resources to help enforce the financial obligations of spouses to each other post-divorce or post-separation.

The FRO does not make payments to a recipient when a payor misses a payment. The FRO cannot change the terms of a support order. They also do not directly get involved in child support arrangements or support issues.

Please note that the FRO only acts on current, active support agreements related to binding court decisions.

The FRO also has the right to refuse to enforce a support order in specific circumstances. This can occur when the support order is ambiguous and/or unclear, if the support amount is nominal, and if the amount is expressed as a percentage and cannot be confirmed in a fixed dollar amount of the payer’s income.

The Family Law Responsibility Office Recalculation Program

The FRO has a recalculation program which, while limited, can be very useful in certain circumstances. Where a support order uses the payor parent’s employment income to determine table child support for a child, the FRO recalculation program can be used to recalculate the amount annually.

For more information on this program, you can start your research here: https://www.ontario.ca/page/set-up-or-update-child-support-online.

If you have more questions, or are not sure if you qualify, please schedule a consultation with one of the lawyers at Alves Law so that we can assist you further. 

 

Alves Law Legal Services: How We Can Help

Our family law legal team can assist with a wide range of matters relating to the Family Responsibility Office.

Resolve Support Payment Arrears

When a payor falls behind on support payments, action taken by the FRO and subsequent consequences can be immediate and severe. As your lawyer, we can assist with negotiating payment plans and will work on your behalf to reduce penalties or pause enforcement actions.

Challenge Enforcement Actions

If FRO enforcement has unfairly revoked your driver’s license, passport, or wages, we can help you challenge or mitigate these measures. Do not simply allow the FRO to penalize you and potentially infringe upon your right to earn an income.

Modify Support Orders

When your financial circumstances change, a support order may require modification. Let us guide you in seeking adjustments to an existing child support or spousal support order to better reflect your current financial situation.

File And Respond To Court Applications

Should you need to file an application to enforce a support order, submit documents in response to a FRO-related legal matter, or seek assistance in responding to a dispute with the FRO, our legal team can represent you.

Support Recipient Assistance

If you are a recipient of a court-ordered support arrangement and are not receiving the assistance you are entitled to, a family lawyer at Alves Law will ensure the order is effectively enforced by the Office and that all paths are pursued to ensure you receive your court-ordered support payments.

Registering With FRO: What You Need To Know

When you have a court order, the court automatically sends a Support Deduction Order, or SDO, to the Family Responsibility Office. When an SDO is completed, one or both parties also complete the SDO information form (the “SDO-I”). The SDO-I contains the contact information of both the support recipient and payor, the payor’s Social Insurance Number, and their employer’s name and address.

If there is a Notice of Calculation or a Notice of Recalculation, the government also sends this to the FRO.

From there, the FRO writes to the payor’s employer or any other source of income. They advise the employer to deduct child support from the payor’s cheque and send it to the Office. Once received, the FRO then sends the money to the support recipient.

After this process is put into motion, you will receive a case number and welcome package from the FRO. At Alves Law we recommend that clients reach out to FRO as soon as they have an enforceable order or agreement in order to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in the registration and enforcement by FRO.

If you have made a separation agreement that has not been registered with the court, you may require additional support with enforcing it. To receive support from the Family Responsibility Office, attach your separation agreement to Form 26B: Affidavit for Filing Domestic Contract or Paternity Agreement. You must then take this to your local courthouse. These documents must be filed with the Ontario Court of Justice or the Family Court branch of the Superior Court of Justice.

FRO Payments: How To Make Payments As A Payor

If you are employed or are getting paid regularly from an income source, a support deduction notice is automatically sent by the Ontario courts to the Family Responsibility Office to deduct support amounts from your net pay.

While this is the easy part, as a payor, it is still your responsibility to make payments to the Office. It may take some time for an employer to set up automatic deductions, for example, meaning it’s a payor’s responsibility to send the FRO support payments until this process is completed.

Alternatively, if you are self-employed, unemployed, or are not registered on a regular payroll, you must pay the Office on your own. You can do this through several ways:

• Pre-authorized debit
• Paying through online banking treating the Family Responsibility Office as a registered bill payee
• Sending a cheque or money order payable to the Director, Family Responsibility Office

After a payment is received, it is then sent to the recipient within 1-2 business days.

When you have a case open with the FRO, support payments must be made to the FRO only and not directly to the support recipient.

FRO Payments: What You Can Expect As A Support Recipient

As a support recipient, there is very little you have to do when it comes to the Family Responsibility Office.

If there are no complications, expect to receive your first payment within 30-60 days of your support order being registered. To receive payments, you must register for direct deposit.

If payments are delayed or you do not receive payment, do not contact the payor’s employer, income source, or the payor directly. Instead, reach out to the Family Responsibility Office directly. Late payments could stem from a postal delay, payments with missing or incorrect information, or a change in the payor’s employment status.

If the payor has not made a payment in some time, the FRO will contact them directly on your behalf to work out a payment plan for what is owed while continuing to make ongoing support payments. This may occur innocently or might occur if there is retroactive child support and/or spousal support to be paid from past months that have not been followed through on.

If the payor is refusing to make support payments, if they are in arrears, or if there is an ongoing dispute between parties impacting the payor’s compliance with the order, the Family Responsibility Office is responsible for enforcement.

How The FRO Enforces Support

Garnish Income

If a payor is refusing to pay their support payments, the FRO has the legal right to garnish the payor’s income.

Withhold Federal Payments

The FRO can withhold amounts from federal payments to pay off arrears, including tax refunds and government payments. This includes EI and OAS benefits, CPP, and other forms of government refunds.

Place Liens On Property

The Office can place liens on real estate and certain types of personal property to procure the balance owing.

Driver’s License Suspension

The FRO can file a request with the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. If there are missed spousal support payments on record, this can lead to an immediate suspension of a payor’s driver’s license.

Report To Credit Bureaus

The Family Responsibility Office in Ontario can report a payor to the credit bureau for failing to make payments. This can impact a payor in several ways, including making it harder to qualify for loans, increasingly difficult to qualify for a rental or a place to live, and, in some cases, making it harder to get employment.

Arrest And Imprisonment

In rare cases, the Office is within its power to set in motion an arrest and imprisonment if the payor refuses to provide support payments.

What To Do When You Can’t Afford Your Support Payments

Circumstances change and some individuals may no longer be able to meet their monthly support obligations.

If this sounds like you, do not wait to contact a family lawyer with experience handling the Family Responsibility Office. What we can do is ask the court to revisit your case and change the existing support order with a ‘motion to change’. This can be a lengthy process and it’s important for payors who need to change their support amounts to be proactive in seeking that change, rather than waiting to react to FRO enforcement steps.

Most people do not take this route. They make the mistake of not trying to qualify to have their support obligations reduced. What happens is they fall into arrears because they are unable to pay. The FRO can then pursue the aforementioned enforcement action, putting your employment, living situation, and peace of mind at risk.

Let us negotiate a payment plan on your behalf, and keep your monthly support obligations affordable and manageable.

Legal Rights Of Payors And Recipients With The Family Responsibility Office

You have the right to dispute FRO actions if you believe it is within your legal right to make adjustments to an existing support order, seek out additional enforcement, or outright stop paying spousal support or child support.

There are many reasons to contact a lawyer as it relates to payments registered through FRO and support payment arrangements.

• If you’re facing challenges related to child or spousal support enforcement.
• If you’re in arrears and require further assistance than what is being offered.
• If you are in a dispute with the Family Responsibility Office.

Why Choose Alves Law For Help With The Family Responsibility Office

Support payments can be surprisingly complex in some circumstances. It’s important to have the right legal guidance on your hands to ensure your rights are being respected. Alves Law understands how to help our clients with understanding support orders, in dealing with Family Responsibility Office processes, and provides personalized legal advice on how to best proceed for your family’s well-being.

• Experience: Our lawyers have successfully handled extensive numbers of cases dealing with support arrangements and the Family Responsibility Office.
• Negotiations: All of our legal team are highly skilled at negotiations and excel at resolving disputes efficiently. Work to avoid costly and lengthy court battles.
• Compassionate: We will prioritize your rights and well-being, providing support during what’s often extremely challenging times.

For a free consultation on how to handle the circumstances surrounding your case with the Family Responsibility Office, contact Alves Law today.