Government of Canada increases the Federal Child Support Guidelines dealing with the Universal Child Care Benefit.
Updated April 4, 2007
In 2006, the Government of Canada passed the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) in the amount of $100/month for all families with a child under the age of 6.
The purpose is to allow families to choose the child care (daycare) option that best suits them and to apply the UCCB to that cost.
Under s. 7(1)(a) of the Federal Child Support Guidelines (FCSG), child daycare costs are considered to be a special or extraordinary expense. As such, the costs are to be shared between the parents in proportion to their income - s.7(2).
Under s.7(3), the courts are required to take into consideration any subsidies, benefits or income tax deductions or credits available to the parents before apportioning each parent's share of the child care expense. It is logical that the new UCCB, being a subsidy for daycare and/or a benefit would also be applied to this section.
The Government of Canada sees otherwise.
The new s.7(4) of the FCSG which came into force on April 1, 2007 specifically excludes the UCCB from being considered under s.7(3):
"2. Subsection 7(3) of the Guidelines is replaced by the following:
(3) Subject to subsection (4), in determining the amount of an expense referred to in subsection (1), the court must take into account any subsidies, benefits or income tax deductions or credits relating to the expense, and any eligibility to claim a subsidy, benefit or income tax deduction or credit relating to the expense.
(4) In determining the amount of an expense referred to in subsection (1), the court shall not take into account any universal child care benefit or any eligibility to claim that benefit."
It is already bad enough that the courts routinely fail to consider the income tax decrease the support recipient receives by claiming the child care costs (which the support payor cannot, no matter how much he/she is paying to this expense), the increase to the GST rebate and the increase to the CCTB. Now a benefit that is set up to directly help with the expenses of child daycare is specifically excluded from determining the actual amount of that special or extraordinary expense.
The reason is very simple. The vast majority of support recipients are females who have their own government subsidized lobby groups. There isn't a government funded men's lobby group and men are the vast majority of support payors.
Section below from The Canada Gazzette link
Description
The Universal Child Care Benefit Act, implementing the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB), came into force on July 1, 2006, as part of An Act to Implement Certain Provisions of the Budget Tabled in Parliament on May 2, 2006.
The UCCB is a new form of direct financial assistance of $100 per month per child under the age of six. It is paid to a child's primary caregiver and is taxable in the hands of the spouse or common-law partner living in that household with the lower net income, regardless of which spouse or common-law partner received the payments. As a result, the UCCB could be included in a spouse's income when determining child support under the Federal Child Support Guidelines (Federal Guidelines).
The Federal Guidelines are regulations under the Divorce Act. They consist of a set of rules and tables to be used in the determination of child support. They are based on the principle that spouses have a joint financial obligation to maintain the children of the marriage in accordance with their ability to contribute.
Under the Federal Guidelines, a spouse's annual income is determined using the sources of income set out under the heading "Total income" in the T1 General form issued by the Canada Revenue Agency and is adjusted in accordance with Schedule III of the Guidelines "Adjustments to Income". The Federal Guidelines do not currently include a provision for the UCCB to be deducted from income. Therefore, the UCCB that spouses include in their total income for taxation purposes will also be included in their income when that income is relevant to the determination of child support. Including the UCCB in income has various effects on the determination of child support pursuant to the Federal Guidelines: for example, it could mean that in some instances the UCCB provided for one child will be considered in determining the child support amount to be paid for another child. These effects are considered to be inconsistent with the purpose of the UCCB.