The province has introduced a new service that will allow child support payments to be adjusted without the involvement of the courts.
The Child Support Recalculation Service, announced Tuesday by the Department of Justice and Public Safety, aims to simplify annual child support adjustments for parents whose income has changed.
“Going through a separation or divorce is already difficult enough for families,” Justice Minister Ted Flemming said in a news release Tuesday.
“Providing this service relieves some of the pressure on parents, alleviating the need to return to court every year and allowing them to focus more on the well-being of their children and themselves.”
Parents who’d like to use the service must live in New Brunswick, must have an existing court order made in Canada, and must apply online at the government’s website, gnb.ca/csrs.
The application may be made by either the recipient of support or the paying party.
Support automatically recalculated, at no cost
It their order is eligible, the Child Support Recalculation Service will recalculate their child support, free of charge.
Once enrolled, the child support amounts will be automatically recalculated each year, based on a parent’s income and using the child support guidelines and their latest Canada Revenue Agency assessment.
When the annual recalculations have been made, both parents will be sent a “recalculation decision” detailing the new amounts and when they start.
“If you or the other party do not agree with the amount in the decision, you have 30 days to object by filing an application to court to change the support amount,” the website states.
While the new service was designed to benefit New Brunswick parents by reducing the “expense and stress” that can result from the court process, Flemming said it will have an added bonus unrelated to families.
“It will also ease the burden on our province’s court resources.”
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