Child and spousal support: Introduction to the Maintenance Enforcement Survey

The report Child and spousal support: Introduction to the Maintenance Enforcement Survey provides the first data from a survey on the collection and enforcement of child and spousal support payments. The Maintenance Enforcement Survey is designed to provide nationally comparable data on the nature of support orders and agreements resulting from separation and divorce.

Maintenance enforcement programs (MEPs) 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. Data for the Maintenance Enforcement Survey are collected from the MEPs.

The MEPs vary in a number of important aspects, including client profile, enforcement powers and practices, the enrolment process, how payments are handled and registered, and the responsibilities of recipients. These programs are estimated to handle less than half of all support orders and agreements in Canada.

This has important implications for the interpretation of the survey data. For example, in some provinces all support orders and agreements are registered with the maintenance enforcement program, while in others enrolment is voluntary. In the latter situation, the more difficult cases - those in arrears or default - tend to be registered.

The survey is not yet fully implemented. Readers are therefore cautioned against using these data to evaluate specific enforcement programs. For this report, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia provided data for the fiscal year 1999/2000. These same three provinces plus Quebec and Ontario provided snapshot data for September 2000.

The data indicate that the majority of cases involve a support amount for children. On March 31, 2000, 97% of cases registered with the maintenance enforcement program in British Columbia included a support amount for children, as did 86% of cases in Saskatchewan.

The recipient of support is generally the person who has custody of the children. Often, but not always, this is the mother. On March 31, 2000, in over 95% of MEP cases in Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, a man was paying support to a female recipient.

For all five reporting provinces, more than half of cases registered with the MEP had a monthly payment of $400 or less, including figures of 58% for Quebec and 66% for Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

There are many ways of looking at compliance with support orders. One measure considers the amount paid as a proportion of the regularly scheduled amount due. During 1999/2000, both Prince Edward Island and British Columbia collected 70% of the money that was due in the form of regular monthly payments. For Saskatchewan, the figure was 80%.

The report Child and Spousal Support: Introduction to the Maintenance Enforcement Survey, 1999/2000 (85-228-XIE, $27) is now available. Also released today is Maintenance Enforcement Programs in Canada: Description of Operations, 1999/2000 (85-552-XIE, $27).

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