To whom are 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, 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

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 alternately with each parent between 40% and 60% of the time each month.

A blended family

• If both spouses are eligible, Family Allowance is paid to the spouse with the grea test number of children.
• If both spouses are eligible and they both have the same number of children, the Family Allowance is paid to the spouse with the youngest child. However, if the new couple has a child, the payments will be made to the mother of that child.
• If only one of the spouses is eligible, that spouse will receive the Family Allowance payments.