Support payments may result from a written AGREEMENT or a JUDGMENT rendered by an appropriate court.
To be included as a resource, the benefits must be received as support payments. Amounts paid in respect of the partition of a community of property or partnership of acquisitions and amounts paid as compensatory allowances are considered liquid assets.
Support is deemed to have been PAID to the recipient if paid to a THIRD PARTY on behalf of the recipient. It includes everything covered by the employment-assistance benefit, including leisure activities.
PERIODIC PAYMENTS RECEIVED in respect of a period during which the household was not receiving assistance are not included in income; such amounts received in one month constitute liquid assets.
If received in respect of a PERIOD DURING WHICH ASSISTANCE WAS BEING RECEIVED, they are taken into account in calculating the assistance to be reimbursed.
For the inclusion of support payments granted by judgment in respect of a DEPENDENT CHILD OF FULL AGE studying at the secondary or post-secondary level, it is necessary to determine who the support creditor is.
If the judgement provides for the PAYMENT of support to the CUSTODIAL PARENT, it is included in the parent's income and is not taken into account for the purposes of any student financial assistance program in which the child of full age may be participating.
If the judgment provides for the PAYMENT OF SUPPORT DIRECTLY TO THE CHILD OF FULL AGE or if it was the child of full age who applied for support and obtained a court judgment to that effect, the amount of the support paid to the child must not be included in the custodial parent's income. It is included in the income of the child of full age for the purposes of the student financial assistance program. The child of full age continues to be a dependant and the amount of the support payments is excluded from the income calculated for last resort financial assistance purposes as earnings incidental to his or her studies.
When support is granted expressly for a child and the child is no longer a dependant of the recipient family, the support amount is no longer included in the recipient parent’s income if it is paid to the child. If support continues to be paid to the recipient parent and the parent does not give it to the child for whom it is intended, this recipient parent is considered to be in receipt of a benefit which is included in the calculation not as support, but as other income.
To establish the amounts paid in leisure activities, the regularity, constancy and repetition of the need in a given month are taken into account.
For example, an amount paid specifically for a child's cultural, social or sporting activities is added to support payments; these activities are recurrent and ongoing and are included in the needs already covered by the employment-assistance program adjustments. The same applies to any amount paid for clothing.
However, an amount paid that does not cover the needs included in the employment-assistance program adjustments (for example, tuition fees for private school, orthodontic costs, fees for summer camp or hockey school, baby-sitting expenses, etc.) is not considered income from support payments and is therefore excluded unless the payments are made in money to the creditor. In this case, the creditor must demonstrate that the sums received did in fact serve to meet the need, in order for the sums to not be considered for the purpose of calculating a benefit.