Applying to a court for a departure from the assessment

Child Support Agreements that Vary the CSA Assessment. The variations to the Child Support Agency Assessment are separated into two categories:

• Variations due to circumstances that affect the resources of the parents; and
• Variations due to circumstances that affect the cost of the child.

The major difference with the new formula (effective July 1, 2008) as compared to the previous one is that the income of each parent is treated in the same way, meaning both parents have the same amount that would support themselves, and their income that is above this amount is used to calculate the cost per child.

Once the cost per child is determined, the next step is to determine the appropriate share of each parent for this cost. It is expected that there will be more requests for departure orders because of this formula in order to adjust the resources of the parent who receives child support.

If a parent has resources that are greater than what is reflected in their Adjusted Taxable Income (ATI) or if the parent has resources that are lower than what is reflected due to a high self-support or high maintenance of another person, the remedy is to adjust one of the elements of the formula with respect to the resources and expenditures.

If there are instances of multiple child support cases for a parent, the multiple allowances may be adjusted to recognize the cost of maintaining all the children for whom the parent is liable to pay child support.