Support Enforcement

When you or your child’s parent have an obligation to pay child or spousal support, the New Brunswick Office of Support Enforcement (OSE) is responsible for making sure those payments happen.

When your order or agreement is filed with the OSE, their office can:

  • Receive the support payments from the support payer
  • Send the payments to the support recipient
  • Keep records of all the payments
  • Take steps to make sure the payer makes the support payments on time and in full

All court orders for support made by a New Brunswick court are automatically filed with the OSE.

When the OSE receives the support order, they will contact both the recipient and the payer to provide and information package about the OSE.

If you are the recipient of the support payments and would rather receive them directly from the payer, you can ask to opt out of the OSE program. You have eight days to opt out after receiving your information package. The OSE can then close your file unless the support payer wants to pay through their office.

You can opt back in at any time after that by filing a Notice to File Support Order form.

To have an agreement for support enforced by the OSE, you must first file the agreement with the court. There is more information on this process in the next section below.

You must file your support agreement with the court before the OSE can enforce it.

To file a support agreement with the court, there are rules in the Family Law Act’s General Regulation and the New Brunswick Rules of Court. Your agreement must:

  • Be in writing
  • Be signed by both parties
  • Be signed by witnesses to each signature
  • Say who will make the payments
  • Say how much the payments will be
  • Say when and how the payments will be made

If your agreement meets all these requirements, you can file it with the court for enforcement. You do not need the other party’s consent to file your agreement with the court or with the OSE. The support recipient and the support payer can both ask to register with the OSE and have the support payments managed through their program.

Once filed and approved, the Office of Support Enforcement can enforce your agreement the same as it does for a court order.

When the OSE manages your support order or agreement, the payer pays their support directly to their office. The OSE then sends you the payments.

The OSE can send payments by mailed cheque or direct deposit. You can register for direct deposit with this form.

The OSE will only send you payments they receive from the payer. If the payer does not make their support payments in full, the OSE can take steps to get them for you. You will only receive support payments once the OSE receives them from the payer

When your support order or agreement is filed with the OSE, you make your support payments directly to their office.

You have several options to make your payments:

In person at Service New Brunswick:

You can go to any Service New Brunswick (SNB) location to make your payments to the OSE. SNB will accept payments by:

  • Cash
  • Money order
  • Debit
  • Visa or MasterCard
  • Certified personal cheque
  • Business cheque

You can also arrange to pay them online by calling 1-888-762-8600.

By mail

You can send a money order, business cheque, or certified personal check payable to the Minister of Finance to:

Office of Support Enforcement
Central Payment Unit
PO Box 6000
Fredericton, NB
E3B 5H1

Through your employer

You can arrange with your employer to have the support payments deducted from your income and forwarded to the OSE. If you want to do this, you file a Notice of Arrangement with Income Source form which you can access by calling 1-844-673-4499.

A note about paying the recipient directly

The OSE keeps records of payments you make through their program. If you pay the recipient directly while you are already registered with the program, the OSE may not have a record of those payments. This can create mistakes. The OSE may require you to pay again through their office if they have no proof that you already made the payments. The OSE can take enforcement action if they have no evidence that you’ve made your payments in full. You can read more about enforcement action below in the section titled “enforcing support.”

In some cases, the OSE can forward support payments directly to the child. They can only do so if:

  • The recipient agrees that the payments should go directly to the child
  • The child is enrolled in post-secondary school

and

  • The child does not live with the recipient

You can apply to withdraw from the OSE program at any time by filing an Application to Withdraw from OSE form.

Either the payer or the recipient can apply to withdraw, but the OSE will only close your file if both parties agree to withdraw from the program. When the OSE receives an application to withdraw, they will notify the other party. If you are the recipient, you have 14 days to provide a response saying you want to stay enrolled with the OSE. If they receive no response from you, they can close your file.

The OSE can only forward the payments they receive from the payer.

Late or incomplete payments are called arrears. The OSE has options to collect your arrears.

Garnishment

The OSE can apply to the court for a payment order. A payment order allows them to collect arrears from a third party on your behalf. This can include collecting your:

  • wages directly from your employer
  • pension benefits
  • tax refunds or GST credits from the CRA
  • worker’s compensation benefits
  • funds in a bank account you own either yourself or jointly

Suspend or revoke a payer’s driver’s license

The OSE can apply to suspend or revoke your driver’s license if you owe more than four months in arrears.

The OSE will send you notice if they are going to apply to revoke or suspend your driver’s license. You can pay all the arrears within 30 days to stop that process from moving forward.  Once your license has been suspended or revoked, you can appeal the decision by filing an application with the Court of King’s Bench, family division.

Suspend or revoke a payer’s federal license or passport

If you owe more than three months or more than $3,000 in arrears, the OSE can apply to the federal government to suspend or refuse to renew your:

  • passport
  • federal aviation or marine license

Access information about the payer’s finances

The OSE can demand information about your:

  • location and contact information
  • salary and employment
  • assets
  • any other information necessary to enforce the payments

Report the payer to a Credit Bureau

The OSE can report you to a credit bureau if you owe more than three months in arrears.

Enforcement hearing

The OSE can apply to the court to ask a judge or administrator to decide what needs to happen to make sure you pay your arrears. This is called an enforcement hearing.

Orders from courts outside New Brunswick and orders involving two parties who live in two separate countries or provinces are called interjurisdictional support orders.

You can opt into the OSE if you live in New Brunswick and your interjurisdictional support order was made in any Canadian court. You can do this by filing a Notice to File a Support Order form.

You can also opt into the OSE if your order was made in an American state or in certain other countries. You can check with the OSE to see if you can file your support order with them.

Sometimes circumstances change and you can no longer afford the support payments in your court order or agreement. For example, some circumstances may affect how much support a court would expect you to pay:

  • When you lose your job or have a significant change in income, this may affect the amount you should pay according to the Federal Child Support Guidelines
  • When the child moves in with a different parent most of the time, the amount of support may need to change
  • When children reach the age of majority and are no longer dependent on either parent, a payer’s support obligation may end

When this happens, you may need to contact the other party to negotiate a new support agreement or apply to the court to get a new court order. The OSE has no authority to change the amount of support you pay under an order or agreement. Until they receive information that changes the amount you should pay, the OSE will continue to enforce the current support payments.

If you fall behind on your payments, you can contact the OSE directly. They may be able to help create a plan to pay your arrears while keeping up with your payments.

There is, however, a support recalculation service available to people in some circumstances, to recalculate support payments once per year.

If you need to apply to the court for an order varying your support payments, you may want to get legal advice from a lawyer. You may want to see if you qualify for assistance through the New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission. PLEIS NB also has a guide to changing a child support order.

You can find out more information about the OSE on their website.

Justice Triage Centre: 1-844-673-4499

Mail:

Office of Support Enforcement
Central Payment Unit
PO Box 6000
Fredericton NB
E3B 5H1

Email: OSECPU@gnb.ca