Child Support Recalculation Service

To be considered for this service, you need to apply. If your order is eligible, the Child Support Recalculation Service will recalculate your child support at no cost to you and there is no need to go to court. As long as you are enrolled, your child support amounts will be automatically recalculated each year.

If you apply for this service and are not eligible for recalculation at this time, you may apply again in the future. You may become eligible if you receive a new order or agreement.

Read this entire section carefully before you apply.

Applying for the Recalculation Service is available to families with a court order or agreement for child support that is filed with the court where both parents live in New Brunswick. A recipient of child support or a paying party may apply.

Is your court order or agreement eligible?

If your court order or agreement is more than one year old, you can apply or reapply at any time. If this is the first time you’re applying, and your order or agreement is less than one year old, the earliest you can apply is 120 days before your first anniversary date

• If you and/or the other party live outside New Brunswick
• If the paying party’s gross annual income is over $150,000
• If the recipient’s income is required, their gross annual income is over $150,000
• If you are only seeking to adjust unpaid child support (arrears)
• If you need to adjust your child support before the anniversary date of your order or agreement due to a change in income (we are not able to retroactively adjust child support)
• If your court order or agreement filed with the court explicitly states that:
  • The Child Support Recalculation Service should not recalculate your child support
  • The paying party’s income was imputed (this means that the judge relied on what they were told that the paying party’s income was, but the income was not known)
  • Child support was granted in an interim order with a scheduled court date, or where unpaid support (arrears) will be reviewed in the future

You MAY BE ELIGIBLE if all of the following apply

• You have an existing Canadian court order or agreement filed with the court for child support that:
  • Specifically states the income used to calculate child support
  • Sets the child support amount based on the tables in the applicable Child Support Guidelines and/or directs sharing of special expenses in proportion to the parties’ incomes
  • Provides the following details where parenting time (custody) is shared:
    • the income of both parties
    • that the child support is based upon each party’s income
    • either a) the percentage of time the child(ren) is with each party, or b) how much time is spent with each party so the percentage can be determined

If you or the other party are self-employed

If you or the other party’s income is primarily based on self-employment, we are not able to do a recalculation. However, if self-employment income is minimal and is in addition to full-time income, we may be able to recalculate.

If you have a court order pending

We use your existing court order or agreement filed with the court to recalculate support for the coming year. If you have a new court order for child support pending, you must wait until your new order is finalized and filed with the court. Then, the earliest you can apply is 120 days before your anniversary date of your order or agreement.

If you would like to proceed with enrollment, you have the following options for sending in the required forms: by email, mail or fax.

Only one of the parties needs to complete the application. We will contact the other party directly to get additional information from them.

Downloads

 Application to Enroll in the Child Support Recalculation Service (PDF)

 Income Questionnaire (PDF)

Additional information we require

• Your existing court order or agreement filed with the court
• List of information on additional children, if there’s not enough room on the application, attach a separate sheet
• Previous child support recalculation decisions, if applicable
• If your income was used to calculate support in your order or agreement, a completed income questionnaire and your Notice of Assessment or Reassessment from the previous year

When we receive your application, we will review it and determine if you meet the eligibility criteria. If you do, we will mail you a Notice of Enrollment. If we determine that we need more information to determine your eligibility, we will contact you to request the information.

Once you are enrolled, we will then use the income information provided to us to recalculate your support amounts. When we have made your recalculations, we will mail you and the other party a Recalculation Decision that will let you know your new amounts and when they start. If you or the other party do not agree with the amount in the decision, you have 30 days to object by filing an application to court to change the support amount.

If at any time during this process, we determine you are not eligible, we will send you a notice by mail with the reasons why. If your circumstances change and you become eligible in the future, you can apply again.

To check the status of your application, please contact us at 1-833-224-2225, email us or fax us at 506-453-2234. For privacy reasons, we can only answer general questions by email.

For as long as you are enrolled, you must keep us updated on the following:

• Changes in contact information for you or the other party
• If you are served notice of a court hearing to change your child support amount
• If a court application is made regarding your child support, or
• If the circumstances of a child for whom support is being recalculated changes. For example, the child is no longer a dependant
• You might also want to read Questions about keeping us updated.