Maintenance Enforcement Survey: Child and spousal support

View the most recent version.

The report Child and Spousal Support: Maintenance Enforcement Survey Statistics, 2005/2006, available today, provides data on the collection and enforcement of child and spousal support payments for cases enrolled with maintenance enforcement programs.

These programs were created in each province and territory during the 1980s and 1990s to assist recipients in obtaining their support payments without having to go before the courts. They handle an estimated 50% of all support orders and agreements in Canada. The results of the Maintenance Enforcement Survey include cases enrolled in maintenance enforcement programs only, and should not be generalized to all support orders in Canada.

Programs vary in a number of important aspects, such as client profile, enforcement powers and practices, and whether or not cases are automatically enrolled with the program at the time of the order. These differences between programs have important implications for interpreting the survey data, and may be a major reason for varied results between programs.

The report includes data for Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Yukon. Combined, they represent about 95% of Canada's population.

As of March 31, 2006, there were nearly 407,800 cases enrolled in a maintenance enforcement program in these 10 reporting jurisdictions. About 2,600 cases were enrolled in Prince Edward Island, 18,200 in Nova Scotia, 12,800 in New Brunswick, 106,200 in Quebec, 175,000 in Ontario, 7,600 in Saskatchewan, 46,000 in Alberta, 38,400 in British Columbia, 600 in the Northwest Territories and 400 in Yukon.

The vast majority of cases involved a support amount for children. On March 31, 2006, the proportion of cases with a support amount for children ranged from 90% of cases in Saskatchewan to 98% of cases in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.

In 2005/2006, a large proportion of cases in all reporting programs had a regular monthly payment of $400 or less. In March 2006, this percentage varied from 43% of cases in the Northwest Territories to 69% in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In all programs, cases that required a monthly payment greater than $1,000 represented 5% or less of the caseload.

In the majority of cases enrolled with a maintenance enforcement program, the payors made their regular monthly payment in full. In March 2006, the proportion making their full regular payment ranged from 56% to 78% of cases in the 10 maintenance enforcement programs. In most jurisdictions, the percentage of cases in compliance has steadily increased since March 2002.

Payors who do not make their full monthly payment will sometimes make a partial payment. This will be reflected in the proportion of total regular payments that is collected. During 2005/2006, maintenance enforcement programs collected the majority of the regular monthly payments that were due. Of the seven jurisdictions that provided these data, the percentage of the regular amount collected ranged from 61% in the Northwest Territories to 90% in Quebec.

Many cases already had arrears (that is, money owing from previous missed payments) when they first registered with a program. Between 46% and 72% of cases enrolled in the six reporting programs had arrears owing when they enrolled in the program. In most jurisdictions, the payors in half of these cases had either paid off or reduced arrears owing by the end of 2005/2006.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3324.

The report Child and Spousal Support: Maintenance Enforcement Survey Statistics, 2005/2006 (85-228-XIE, free) is now available from our website. From the Publications module of our website, choose Free internet publications then Justice.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Information and Client Services (toll-free 1-800-387-2231; 613-951-9023), Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.