Review of International Child Support Models
As part of ongoing legal policy work, the Department of Justice Canada contracted with Kelly Sears Consulting Group to conduct an extensive review of international models used to determine child support amounts. The overall purpose of the research was to review and analyze child support models with a focus on how selected issues are addressed. The jurisdictions included in this study were: the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, and the American states of Wisconsin, Delaware, Illinois, and Vermont.
The objectives of this study were to:
Summarize the research completed by the Department of Justice Canada in the 1990s. Briefly describe the child support models used in the ten jurisdictions selected for examination by this study. Summarize any major changes that have been made to the models over the years and the rationale for the changes. Provide an overview and analysis of selected aspects of the child support models across jurisdictions. Of particular interest were how the jurisdictions incorporate policy options common to all models, such as income determination, parenting/custody arrangements, etc. Summarize any evaluations or assessments of the models. Identify any commonalities and trends across the jurisdictions. This review was conducted between November 2018 and August 2019 and involved an extensive international literature review and environmental scan as well as structured interviews with child support experts in all ten jurisdictions.
Given the amount of detail and complexity of the information collected in this study, the results are presented in two volumes. Volume I contains the overall findings supported by detailed tables on the various issues examined, by jurisdiction, while Volume II consists of summaries for all ten jurisdictions.
- Publisher - Current Organization Name: Department of Justice Canada
- Licence: Open Government Licence - Canada
Data and Resources
-
Review of International Child Support Models Volume I – Main ReportHTMLFrench report HTML
-
Review of International Child Support Models Volume I – Main ReportPDFEnglish report PDF
-
Review of International Child Support Models Volume I – Main ReportPDFFrench report PDF