What happens if child support or spousal support is not paid in British Columbia?
Unpaid support becomes arrears: a debt that stays owing and carries interest. The BC Family Maintenance Agency enforces support orders and filed agreements at no charge. It can take money from wages and bank accounts, register the order against land, have a driver's licence cancelled and ask the federal government to suspend a passport. A court can order payment and, as a last resort, jail.
Enrolling with the BC Family Maintenance Agency
The Agency is a free service that acts under the Family Maintenance Enforcement Act. Either the person receiving support or the person paying it can file a support order with it. A written agreement about support that has been filed in court can be enforced the same way as an order.
While an order is filed with the Agency, the Agency alone enforces it, unless it authorizes the recipient in writing to do so. It can collect arrears that built up before the order was filed.
What the Agency can do
It can serve a notice of attachment on anyone who owes the payor money, such as an employer or a bank, who must then send the money to the Agency. It can register the order against the payor's land.
Once arrears reach $3,000 it can, after 30 days' notice, have ICBC cancel the payor's driver's licence and refuse to issue or renew it. Where the payor has missed three payments or owes $3,000 or more, it can apply to the federal government to suspend or refuse a passport and certain federal licences, again after notice.
Interest runs on arrears, and a payor who keeps defaulting after a warning owes the government an annual default fee.
Default hearings
The payor can be summoned to a default hearing. Unless the court is satisfied that nothing is owing or that the payor is unable to pay for valid reasons, it can order payment in full by a set date or by instalments, require security, and order up to 30 days in jail for a failure to pay. Time in jail does not wipe out the arrears.
If you are the one who cannot pay
The order continues until it is changed, so arrears build while nothing is done. If your income has dropped, apply to change the order and tell the Agency. The federal Act says a licence denial application will not be made if the payor enters a payment plan acceptable to the enforcement service.
A court can reduce or cancel arrears only if it would be grossly unfair not to. It considers the efforts the payor made to comply and the reasons the arrears cannot be paid.
The law
Each link opens the source itself: the section on BC Laws or Justice Laws, the court’s own copy of a decision, or the page of the body that publishes it. Checked on November 11, 2026.
- Family Maintenance Enforcement Act, RSBC 1996, c 127, s 3 — filing a support order with the director
- Family Maintenance Enforcement Act, s 4 — the duty to enforce a filed order, including earlier arrears
- Family Maintenance Enforcement Act, s 5 — only the director enforces a filed order
- Family Maintenance Enforcement Act, s 11.1 — interest on arrears
- Family Maintenance Enforcement Act, s 14.4 — the annual default fee
- Family Maintenance Enforcement Act, s 15 — notices of attachment to employers, banks and others
- Family Maintenance Enforcement Act, s 21 — default hearings and the orders a court can make
- Family Maintenance Enforcement Act, s 26 — registering the order in the land title office
- Family Maintenance Enforcement Act, s 29.1 — driver's licences and vehicle licences at $3,000 of arrears
- Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act, RSC 1985, c 4 (2nd Supp), s 67 — federal licence and passport denial; section 62 defines persistent arrears
- Family Law Act, SBC 2011, c 25, s 174 — reducing or cancelling arrears only where grossly unfair not to
- Family Law Act, ss 148 and 163 — a filed written agreement about support is enforceable like an order
- BC Family Maintenance Agency — the Agency's own description of its service
People also ask
- Does it cost anything to use the Agency?
- No. The Agency describes itself as a free service for families who receive or pay support. A payor who defaults can be charged an annual default fee.
- We have a separation agreement, not a court order. Can it be enforced?
- Yes, once it is filed in court. The Family Law Act makes a filed written agreement about child or spousal support enforceable as if it were a court order, including through the Agency.
- Does going to jail clear the debt?
- No. The Family Maintenance Enforcement Act says imprisonment does not discharge arrears.
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General information about the law in British Columbia, not legal advice. Laws change and every situation differs; speak to a lawyer before acting on anything here.