Written by: Kevin Heinrichs (View All Posts
• View Bio
) Published: February 6, 2015
Categorized: Child Support, Commentary, Family Law.
In June, 2014, I wrote in this blog about the shameful and illogical clawback of child maintenance monies by the BC government from single parents on social assistance. Since then and until yesterday, there has been precious little in the media about the issue. Some background, at the risk of repeating what I set out last year. When a single parent on social assistance receives child support, his or her social assistance is reduced dollar for dollar by that child support amount. As I indicated before, because each parent has an obligation to support their child, the maintenance paid by the paying parent should have absolutely nothing to do with the social assistance received by the other.
Yesterday, the BC governments finance minister, Mike de Jong, hinted that the BC Liberal government might, possibly, maybe, scrap his government’s tax on underprivileged children. Reports say that British Columbia picks approximately 17 Million dollars from the pockets of the least financially fortunate children in the province. Minister de Jong indicated that the province, apparently with the assistance of these children’s contributions, will post a small surplus when the budget comes down later in February and will therefore only now consider scrapping the policy. We will have to wait to see whether the government follows through with a full retraction of the claw back or merely gives lip service to the problem by capping the amount of money it will take from the kids.
