Melissa Meeks, Jeremy Meeks’ estranged wife, is demanding child and
spousal support, as well as sole custody and primary access of their seven year old son.
Melissa claims that Jeremy sees their son “maybe 2 days a month”.
Melissa has not disclosed how much support she is seeking as she claims
that she is “not yet sure of his income”.
How does a child’s access schedule impact a parent’s child support
obligations?
In Ontario, a parent has an absolute obligation to support their dependent
children to the extent that they can, even if the parent has limited access
to the child.
The approach for determining Child Support in Ontario is determined, in
part, by the child’s access schedule.
The
Child Support Guidelines codify the amount of financial support a non-custodial parent must pay
the custodial parent for the maintenance and support of their mutual child,
or children, on a monthly basis.
Section 3 of the
Child Support Guidelines, outlines the quantity of support a non-custodial parent must pay. Generally
speaking, the amount of support is fixed, and is determined by the gross
income of the payor parent, the number of children being supported, and
the province or territory in which the parents live.
Generally, the parent with whom the child primarily resides will receive
fixed monthly child support from the other parent. The parent with primary
access does not have mandated support contributions, as it is believed
that the parent with whom the child primarily resides, will naturally
contribute to supporting the child.
However, if the child spends at least 40% of his or her time with an access
parent, that is, if there is a shared parenting schedule, then the access
parent’s child support obligations may be lowered. The theory behind
this is that when a child is spending nearly equal time with both parents,
it is presumed that each parent will incur similar child care expenses.
As such, if one parent had to pay the other the full Table amount child
support, in accordance with the
Child Support Guidelines, this would result in a windfall gain to one parent and undue hardship
to the other.
If the Meeks family lived in Ontario, the fact that Jeremy only sees his
son approximately two days a month, would not impact his child support
obligations.