With Bill 32, the Province has introduced changes to the Family Maintenance Enforcement Act – creating program efficiencies that will benefit the lives of B.C. children and families.

The changes, if passed, will provide more time for government to collect default fees from parents who have missed two or more spousal or child support payments per year. The default fee can only be collected once all support payments have been paid in full to families, at which time government will have six years to collect the fee. Previously, this six-year period began at the time the first default fee was charged.

This could result in an additional $1 million in default fees collected each year that offsets the cost of the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program (FMEP), which strives to ensure more than 45,000 families each year are fairly supported.

Under these proposed changes, the FMEP will also have the ability to split payments between two or more families receiving support from one payor from indirect sources of payments like wage garnishments, for a more fair distribution of support.

The changes will also speed up court processes and lead to earlier resolutions and faster collection of payments for families, by giving judges the ability to deal with someone already before the court who has refused to provide proper financial information, rather than having to schedule separate court appearances.

As laid out in Attorney General Suzanne Anton’s mandate from Premier Christy Clark, B.C. is committed to working closely with jurisdictions across Canada to enforce interjurisdictional support orders. B.C. is leading in this regard, and today’s amendments include measures to more efficiently process documents from other provinces for the collection of funds from assets or payors located in B.C. – cutting red tape and helping speed up enforcement action for those not making their payments.

Together, the amendments will strengthen a program that, since its inception, has collected $3 billion on behalf of B.C. families and made a significant difference in many lives provincewide.

Quote:

Attorney General Suzanne Anton –

“Last year alone, the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program brought in $210 million that went directly to families and children who might not have otherwise received support payments. This matters a great deal to the daily lives and long-term outlook of B.C. families.”

“We want to ensure the best possible supports are in place for our children, and today’s amendments will streamline the process for support order enforcement, speeding up and simplifying the process for payments for families.”

Quick Facts:

• Each year, FMEP handles around 45,000 cases, representing 85,000 parents and 65,000 children.
• Since its inception 25 years ago, the FMEP has enrolled and enforced maintenance for more than 135,000 families, collecting over $3 billion for B.C. children and families.
• About 95% of the orders enrolled in FMEP have received some payments.
• Since 2002, the total annual amount of child and spousal support payments received through the FMEP increased by over $50 million. Twenty-three per cent of the payments collected last year ($44 million) went to families that were formerly on income assistance. Payments received by these families are a significant contributor to their transition to becoming self-sufficient.
• Last year, the program processed over 500,000 individual payments (almost 2,000 per working day), with a turnaround time standard of two days or less.
• B.C. residents with a support order or an agreement filed with the court can enrol in the FMEP. There is no cost to enrol.
• As most of B.C.’s interprovincial cases are with other western provinces, B.C. has led a project with Alberta and Saskatchewan to ensure that support enforcement services continue uninterrupted if a parent moves across the respective borders, helping families that rely on support for their children.
• Innovative services, such as comprehensive web services that include e-notices for parents, online assistance for employers, electronic fund transfer and secure information exchange with other jurisdictions, have resulted in over one million web hits per year, helped to reduce costs and produce better results for B.C. families.

Learn More:

The Family Maintenance Enforcement Program helps families and children by initiating and enforcing family maintenance payments: https://www.fmep.gov.bc.ca/

A backgrounder follows.