Child Support for Adult Children: When Does Economic Childhood End?

Abstract

Canadian law imposes an obligation on parents who are separated or divorced to provide support for adult children. This paper examines the legislation applicable in Ontario, both federal and provincial, which imposes an obligation to support adult children, and reviews leading cases interpreting this legislation. Unlike most areas of child support law where the introduction of the Child Support Guidelines in Canada in 1997 brought a significant degree of predictability and reduced the need to consider the circumstances of individual children and parents, support for adult children remains an area where there is significant judicial discretion and only limited predictability. While this remains a contentious and discretionary area, there are some clear trends in the case law. Reflecting the changes in intact families where young adults are living with their parents longer as well as looking to parents for more financial support, compared to a couple of decades ago, the courts in Ontario and other Canadian provinces are now more likely to recognize the obligation to provide support for adult children. Further, the duration of support is now likely to be a somewhat longer, though most support orders terminate when children are in their early twenties, and the obligation to provide support very rarely extends past the mid-twenties.