Family Allowance Payment
You will receive Family Allowance 4 times a year, on the scheduled
payment dates, that is:
- in July for July, August and September;
- in October for October, November and December;
- in January for January, February and March;
- in April for April, May and June.
If you would like to receive your payments on a monthly basis, you must complete a
Change in Frequency of Family Allowance Payments form.
Sign up for
direct deposit to receive your payments in your bank account.
To whom are the Family Allowance payments made?
The Family Allowance payments are made to only one person in a family. Spouses can agree to ask for a
change of beneficiary in the family. Certain rules are used to determine which spouse will receive the payments:
- for the first application, if the information is provided automatically by the
Directeur de l'état civil, Family Allowance payments are made to the mother.
- for the first application, if made directly by a person, the Family Allowance is paid the person who applied.
- for subsequent applications, Family Allowance is paid to the beneficiary who is already designated in the existing file.
Shared custody
The Family Allowance payments are made to both parents at the same time, without interruption, according to the frequency of payments chosen by each parent (quarterly or monthly). We consider that a child is in shared custody when the child lives with each parent between 40% and 60% of the time each month.
A blended family
If both spouses are eligible, the Family Allowance is paid to:
- the spouse with the greatest number of children.
- If both spouses have the same number of children, the payment is made to the spouse with the youngest child. However, if the youngest child is the couple's child, the payments will be made to the mother.
If only one of the spouses is eligible, that spouse will receive the Family Allowance payments.
Repaying an amount
A
change in your family situation may have an effect on the amounts to which you are entitled. If you receive overpayments, you will have to repay us. The criteria used for repaying debts are the following:
-
50% of the payment if the family's annual income is less than or equal to $35 000. We could deduct more than 50% of the payment is the amounts owing are insufficient to repay the debt. In certain cases, we could deduct more than 50% of the payment even though the family's annual income is less than or equal to $35 000.
-
100% of the payment if the family's annual income is greater than $35 000.
Other useful information