From $98 to $0 per Month

Canada’s 2025 Child Support Update Could Change Everything for Low-Income Families

Starting October 1, 2025, families across Canada will see important updates to the Federal Child Support Guidelines—changes that could significantly impact monthly child support obligations, especially for lower-income parents. Whether you're navigating a separation or reviewing an existing support order, here's what you need to know. 

Why Child Support Matters 

In Canada, child support is the legal right of a child after their parents go through a separation or a divorce. All parents have a legal obligation to financially support their children. The Federal Child Support Guidelines, commonly referred to as the Guidelines, were created as a tool to help make the legal process more objective and predictable for parents facing a separation or divorce.  

The Guidelines were set to be updated in 2022, but the government chose to postpone the update in an effort to provide more surety and stability to families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of that, this will be the first time that the Guidelines have been updated since 2017.   

The federal government aims to update the Guidelines every few years to ensure that child support amounts better reflect current tax rules and parents’ current capacity to pay. It also helps ensure a consistent and fair standard of support for children so that they continue to benefit from the financial means of both their parents after separation or divorce. The Government of Canada also states that updating the Guidelines supports other priorities such as poverty reduction efforts; increasing the efficiency and efficacy of the justice system; and improving access to justice.  

What is Changing in October 2025 

The most recent update to the Guidelines, which are set to come into effect on October 1, 2025, haw two major changes.  

The first, is that a new “self-support” amount has been set. The self-support amount if the minimum amount that a parent needs in order to be able to support themselves before they can support a child. This is therefore a minimum amount of income that a parent can generate before their child support obligation commences. It is based on the federal basic personal amount plus the necessary standard employment deductions of Employment Insurance (EI) contributions and Canada Pension Plan (CPP)/Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) premiums 

Up until now, the self-support amount was set to an income of $12,000 per year. With the latest update, the new self-support amount is set to an income of $16,000 per year. As a result, any parent with income below this amount will have a basic Federal Tables child support amount of $0. 

The second major change to the Guidelines is that the federal government has implemented significant differences in the basic child support amounts for lower income parents. This difference will most notably be seen in parents with yearly incomes that range between $16,000 and $45,000. The differences in the amounts between the 2017 and 2025 Tables are due to changes in federal and provincial or territorial tax regimes. For incomes over $45,000, parents with one or two children will only notice a slight difference, with increases or decreases of about 1-2%.  

Here is a snapshot of how monthly support payments for one child in Ontario will shift: 

Income	2017 Table	2025 Table
$16,000	$98	$0
$17,000	$118	$95
$36,000	$315	$291
$45,000	$418	$392
$80,000	$745	$743

What This Means For Your Case 

This implementation is not retroactive, meaning that the 2017 Tables will still apply from November 22, 2017, to September 30, 2025. When calculating retroactive support, we will need to look at the previous Tables. The 2025 Tables will only apply to October 1, 2025, onward.  

The new 2025 Tables will also not be automatically applied to child support orders made before October 1, 2025. However, if you have found that the updated amount is different from the amount in your current order, you could request to have the order changed as this would be considered a “material change in circumstances”.  

Understanding how these updates affect your specific situation can be tricky. If you’re unsure whether your current support order should be revised—or if you’re preparing for a new agreement—don’t hesitate to reach out. 

Visit lamothelaw.ca or check the official updates in the Canada Gazette for more details.